By Hassan Osman Kargbo
With support from the Government of Sierra Leone through the Bo City Council (BCC), the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs has on Monday 25 September 2023, supported teenage mothers with food and non-food items in Bo.
This all important event took place in the presence of the Deputy Mayor of Bo, Mrs. Hawa Campbell, other stakeholders and members of the media in Bo.
According to the Director of the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs, Martha Idriss Feika, informed the beneficiaries that the government has made it part of its mandate to ensure that teenage mothers do not become school dropouts as a result of them being teenage mothers. She added that they don’t even want them to take to the streets to fend for themselves and their children.
Madam Feika said for one to be a teenage mother is one thing; but seeing a teenager who is supposed to be in school like a normal child, rather the child is carrying a baby on her back, selling on the streets for her survival which she described heart-rendering, and disclosed government’s plans through the BCC seeks to salvage the situation in Bo.
The Deputy Mayor of Bo City Council, Hawa Campbell in her statement said women’s empowerment forms the central government’s focus. She disclosed that government is keen on empowering teenage girls like every other woman, it is not because they got pregnant by accident, and that means they have no future in the society.
‘This is a government that is keen on empowering teenage girls like every other women and that is why we are stressing the need for them to be educated no matter what,’ she said.
Speaking to Forum News SL the Head of Media, Outreach and Communications, BCC, Ivan Vandy, reiterated that the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs is a devolved Ministry to the Local Councils across the country, not only the Bo City Council, so as a result, whenever the Central Government wants to send fund for the Ministry in Bo, they sent it through the Bo City Council.
He said the donation was done by the Ministry through BCC because the BCC is playing a supervisory role to the said Ministry and other ministries that are devolved to the Bo City Council.
He noted that the teenage mothers were randomly selected across the city of Bo, adding that they don’t look at every teenage mother because some have the chance to taking care of themselves, but for some, they find it difficult to survive with their children, that is why they conducted the random selection.
Speaking on behalf of other beneficiaries, Mariama Sheriff applauded government through the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs and the BCC for their considerable act to support teenage mothers in Bo. She expressed strong confident that government is willing to do more for them.
