Concord Times (Freetown)
Abdul Karim Koroma
13 October 2008
ActionAid international Sierra Leone has conducted a two-day HungerFREE women charter orientation meeting at the young women Christian association hall in Freetown.
Participants were drawn from all the districts the organization operates. ActionAid operates in the following districts in the country- Tonkolili, Kono, Moyamba, Kambia, Bombali, Bo and Freetown.
The main thrust of the consultation was to empower poor rural women farmers to come up with a list of demands that would be developed into a format and presented to policy makers. The issue of women ownership and control of land in the country is a problem in itself, as rural women were been deprived of land.
This would enable policy makers to be abreast with issues affecting poor rural women farmers after years of war and political instability.
The charter would take the form of demands in order for government and its partners to change their support towards poor rural women farmers thereby formulating laws to enable women own and control land.
The 25 women who took part in the clinic represented poor women farmer groups where ActionAid operates.
The two-day training was designed to develop the charter and when these women go back to their respective communities they would be in a better position to engage poor rural farmers through discussions on issues around women access and control of productive resources, government support to small scale farmers and other issues affecting such women in the country with specific reference to the poor women farmers.
After developing the charter these women would present it to Members of Parliament by October 15 dialogue forum marking the international women's day.
ActionAid's information and communications manager Peter Beckley urged women to be the change they want to see as small steps paved the way to make the right difference.
Beckley implored women to work in synergy as through collaboration they would be stronger.
"ActionAid international Sierra Leone always wants to achieve its goals. The HungerFREE campaign will end in 2012 while the HungerFREE women project will come to an end in March 2009," he said.
He said the project was aimed at increasing the access of poor rural women to own land.
ActionAid's women's representative coordinator Sylvia Goba called on women to involve in addressing the problem of hunger.
Goba said the involvement of women in the campaign was very pivotal for the scheme.
"Some women have approached the ministry of agriculture for support. Women have tried in their own way to address the crisis response," he said.
She lauded some traditional leaders for providing land to women as the campaign was now impacting the wider community.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Concord Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
