Project Description:

To build the capacity of African women to lead their families and communities to increased well-being, including better health and higher incomes, through literacy, leadership and asset management training. Participant savings will be matched one to one (to a maximum of $100) for an investment selected by each participant.

This five year project will improve the quality of life and standard of living of families in marginalized communities in Sierra Leone through the promotion of women’s education, leadership, health and economic development.

This project provides weekly literacy classes to women in marginalized communities; it utilizes weekly classes to train women in financial management (including budgeting and savings) and family health matters; and, it also promotes asset accumulation among needy women through one to one savings matches (incentives).

Students will be given the opportunity to accumulate savings in a formal financial institution during their participation in classes as part of financial training; these savings will be matched, one to one, up to a maximum of $100 per student, upon their successful graduation from the Program, and applied toward a project or item benefiting their family or community.

This five year project will improve the quality of life and standard of living of families in marginalized communities in Sierra Leone through the promotion of women’s education, leadership, health and economic development.

Update from the field: December 2011

High attendance rates and good participation in the literacy classes are yielding very positive learning results. Participants have learned to read and write the alphabet, common words, and simple English sentences. Each woman also learned how to sign her full name, basic math, and how to count money. Promoters employed literacy games and activities throughout the period to engage the women in classes and help them to apply their skills. The results from the second exam demonstrate the improvement in the participants’ literacy and numeracy skills; the average score jumped from 58% on the first assessment to 74% on the second assessment and the percentage of women who passed increased from 60% on the first assessment to 92% on the second assessment.

Update from the field: April 2011

Excellent attendance and participation in the literacy classes yielded very positive learning results. Participants learned to read and write the alphabet, common words and simple English sentences. Each woman also learned how to sign her full name. Literacy games and activities were employed throughout the period to engage the women in classes and help them to apply their skills. The results from the first two exams demonstrate the improvement in their literacy and numeracy skills:

• On the first assessment, the 2010 women achieved an overall average of 58% and a pass rate of 59% as compared to 45% in 2009.
   
• On the second assessment, their overall average increased to 73% and the pass rate jumped to 92%. 

Community Literacy Supporters continued to hold group study sessions for participants throughout this reporting period. This extra help has no doubt contributed to participants’ success.
 

Update from the field: September 2010

CAUSE Koindadugu Operations Map

Salone Women’s Empowerment Trust Brochure

Women’s Integral Empowerment Program Brochure

Update for the field: May 2010

Literacy classes have 485 women as grade one participants for this year in sixteen communities in Koinadugu Province, Sierra Leone.  There are 233 graduands of the 2009 literacy classes who have consented and registered to continueAf the learning process with the help of 29 community literacy supporters in 13 communities.  

There are many special, highly motivated women learning in this program.  One of them is Fatu.  After completing her first literacy course with CAUSE Canada, Fatu signed up for the level 2 class that was to be offered in Kasumpe in 2010.  Unfortunately, before the class was scheduled to start, the literacy supporter withdrew and the course was cancelled.   Fatu responded with resourcefulness and initiative rather than disappointment.  Determined to continue with her literacy education, she offered to facilitate the class herself.  Despite being a visible minority and the least qualified member of the teaching group, she carried herself with confidence in teacher training classes and contributed to the discussions about phonics and math.  She was quick to participate, answer questions and solve math problems in front of the group.  She was clearly an excellent student and will make a fine literacy supporter.  

When asked what motivated her to take on the extra responsibility in the program, Fatu explained that she was not willing to see her community fall behind.  She told me that the literacy program had brought many good things to Kasumpe.   For one thing, women’s literacy was increasing.  In addition, the women in the program were benefitting from the savings match program and the workshops about managing money.  Fatu herself had been able to invest her savings match in purchasing salt and other food products in bulk, which she now sells from her home.  Fatu explained that the literacy participants were also benefitting from the sense of solidarity that they experienced in the classroom.  As the women learned together, they not only grew in their respect for each other but they also earned the respect of others in the community.  She is committed to seeing the literacy program continue in Kasumpe because she wants the women in her community to continue to read, write and experience the benefits of education.  As far as she is concerned, they will not fall behind.

Update for the field: November 2009

We are thrilled to report that the Women’s Integral Empowerment Program (WIEP) in Sierra Leone is progressing very well. Several weeks ago I visited the field to ascertain the level of impact of the Program. I was overwhelmed with the reports of participants, giving testimony to the changes in their lives emerging from Program participation in the literacy and leadership classes. After arriving in Kabala, I travelled 45 minutes on the back of a motorcycle through three feet of mud in the isolated northern region of the country. As Program Director, I sat down with many individual women in the literacy classes to measure their ability to read and write in English. Their first language is a tribal dialect, and they also speak Krio. They have traditionally spoken very little English, even though it is the official language in the country and taught in the schools. The women want to learn more English. The literacy rate among women in the villages where we work is usually below five percent when we arrive. 

In my interviews with the participants graduating from ten months of studies, 94% could now spell their names. This is a big deal for them. Their faces shine with their new felt sense of human dignity and ability. The women say that now they feel equal to men, and speak up at community meetings. Eighty-three percent of the women I interviewed knew the letters of the alphabet and all or most of their sounds. This is a very significant thing in Sierra Leone, where literacy teaching in schools has been based on sight words and whole language for many years. I asked a grade five boy to read a sentence for me, and he got stuck on the word “go”. He had not memorized this sight word. When he read the word “see”, he could not tell me the sound of the “s”. Many school children are now pressuring their teachers to teach phonics, saying that their mothers can read better than they after only ten months of studies. Fifty-seven percent of the women I interviewed could read simple words and sentences in English. One woman got up after the interview and announced in the local language that she couldn’t believe she had just spoken with a white man in English. She was clearly amazed. 

The women say they now can identify their packages with their name on it, they don’t get lost when going to town, they can help their children with their studies, and they can manage their businesses better. They now refrain from beating their children when their children struggle with their studies, and provide breakfast before their children go to school. This is based on their first-hand experience with learning. Together with numeracy training, women can now use cell phones, count change and budget. They are also more able to protect themselves from fraud and other abuse. Overall, very substantial transformation is coming to many women and their families, impacting the quality of life in the remote rural areas of Sierra Leone. The vicious cycle of poverty is being overcome, thanks be to God and to so many generous supporters!