By Hassan Osman Kargbo
Human Rights Respects Awareness Raising Campaigners (HURRARC) NGO Sierra Leone has officially called the HURRARC Co-Gender Commission, Madam Josephine Marina Lansana a Human Rights Respects Advocate and a Medical Worker to report immediately to the Institution.
According to a notice addressed to Madam Lansana dated 14th March, 2024, on behalf of the entire members of the Co-Gender Commission (Or the Commission for Gender Rights Advocacy, Protections, Development and Research) and its Mother- Body; the Human Rights Respects Awareness Raising Campaigners (HURRARC) NGO S/L, the Communication Staff sent a message to one of their Senior-Most members, the Commissioner for HURRARC that wherever Madam Lansana might be let her connect with the organization through their contact so that the organization could get a clue about her, adding that since she departed to do a Nationwide counselling Tour they had gotten no information from her or leading to her.
‘On behalf of the entire members of the Co-Gender Commission (Or the Commission for Gender Rights Advocacy, Protections, Development and Research) and its Mother- Body; the Human Rights Respects Awareness Raising Campaigners (HURRARC) NGO S/L, I the Communication Staff do hereby send this message to one of our Senior-Most members, the Commissioner for HURRARC’s ‘’CO-Gender Commission’’ , the leading Advocate and Counsellor against Harmful Traditional Practices (H. T. P.), specifically, the Female Genital Mutilation (F. G. M.) and currently, a Nutritionist attached to the Koidu Town Government Hospital in Kono District, Madam Josephine Marina Lansana that; ‘’ wherever she might be at the moment, let her please connect with the organization through the below mentioned Contacts or anyone, so that we may have a clue about her because, since her departure to do a Nationwide Counselling Tour, we have got no information from her or leading to her. +232 76 955 870, +232 79 079 574 or Email: sagampfa@yahoo.fr/Sagampfa@gmail.com or the Contact of the Forum Newspaper this is disseminating this message, as they could get us updated as well,’ part of the notice stated.
Moreover, the notice furthered that, they are requesting the service of anyone who get this information and happens to identify her through to the photo hereby attached, to help them take those message to her that the above Organization was calling on her attention to report to the Office because, since her departure to do a Nationwide Tour across the Country to do Counselling on Harmful Traditional Practices (H. T. P. ), after the death in Port Loko of three under-aged children during the Bondo / F. G. M. initiation Ceremony in early January, 2024, which she said ignited her motivation again to rush out to do counselling to help save more lives and also; gather a Nationwide statistic about it, despite the amount of Persecutions that she had gone through in this direction, she is still at large.
However, it noted that the institution is concerned because, she moved officially through the due Supports of the HURRARC and its Co-Gender Commission), which funded and dispatched. They had become further concerned about the silence since she departed on the 13th January, 2024, from their office at Yams Farm (No: 1 Warritay Drive, off Yams Farm Junction. They had neither got a message from her, nor a report or any alert about anything wrong or good about her.
According to them She planned to go around; targeting mostly the Initiators and the Community elders about the dangers of the practice and the opportunities of transforming the culture to another aspect that may rule out any practice that could be Tantamount or be considered to be a Harmful Practice according to Human Rights and the Global Cultural standards or ethics and till date, they had not gotten any information from her.
They admitted that after two weeks without a call and any information leading to her, the institution moved around three staff (one male and Two Females, who were also initiates or members of the Society, (though against their will) to help in checking the initiation centres as they were members who could enter and search out without raising brows. They started from Port Loko, to Kono, Kenema and Bo District which, she claimed to be her top priorities in her assignment, but, they returned without any information about her.
In additions, the HURRARC’s Co-Gender Commission is not sending this message as anything to raise up an alarm or any sorts of a heart- pounding message about her incommunicado to be seen as any odd or conspiracy theory about alleged disappearance, but to get her reminded that her time of report has faded out for over two months and since then, we have no clue of why we should not get onto her through her official and personal Telephone lines that we knew, or the rests of the family numbers that we have so far tested to no avail.
It noted that Madam Josephine Marina Lansana, was not only a member, but a founding and foundational member of HURRARC that contributed to bring the HURRARC NGO S/L to reality since 1992, when it started as the Patriotic African Youths Advocating for Truth (P. A. Y. A. T. in July, 1991 and later became HURRARC in 1992, due to the increasing demand by the group to document the series of Human Rights Abuses and Violations perpetrated by the various warring factions involved. She went through the courses of Maternal and Child Health Care training and the HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Care to determine the problems of the H. P. T. to be fit enough to give out the correct advice/ Counselling’s as due.
According to the Institution, below is an Excerpt from her annual Message during our 24th Year Annual Meeting in our Office at Yams Farm on the 29th December, 2024.
‘ …. However, my belonging to, and motivation is to work to help save Humanity through diverse ways and my profession as a Medical Worker, specifically, a one that has gone through the Courses of a Maternal and Child Health Aid (M. C. H. -AID), the HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health, as well as a Nutritionist Course and service delivery at presence, I have come to know and realize that most of the annual reported dangers, fatality or loss of lives that occurs in the lives of women and young girls are the results of many harmful Traditional Practices (H. T. Ps) , specifically, the Female Genital Mutilation (F. G. M; or a master-Killer, whose death and infection toll or data in Maternal and Children mortality records, (nationwide), if properly collected, alongside its attendant vices like: the spread of Tetanus, (due to unsterilized blades that they use for the process,) Contagious Diseases like: HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, Gonorrhea, etc., the toll could be higher than those of malaria and others well-known Killers diseases like: typhoid fever. Some are still suffering from Cysts; due to the unhealed sows around the vulva or at the place where the clitoris was once severed from, just as the Infibulation caused by healed hardened skin at the upper part of the vulva that refuses to stretch during labour and most of the times, it is the primary cause for still-birth, Cesarean Operation AND V. V. F., which prevent the holding of urine in the bladder and causes its victims to wet on themselves or in bed,’ it stated.
They thanked all and sundry for understanding their perspective as we expect all hands on boards among all Sierra Leoneans el-all to join them in passing this message to her, wherever she might be recognized or known to be living at present.
