The initial inspiration that led to the creation of WAVES-SL.

Hannah Yambasu, WAVES-SL Founder and Director, explains her story.

When I was growing up, I never felt loved by my mother. We are two sisters and all my mom’s love, attention and affection went to my elder sister who was born to a different father. My mother ensured that my sister was educated and cared for while I was totally neglected. My sister was sent to a private boarding school while I went to a public school. I was given the responsibility to do most of the house chores in the house.  I experienced what I call ‘’child Preferential treatment’’

At the age of 8 years, I was sexually abused by an adult man who was hosted by my father in our home. I was afraid to tell either my father or mother thinking they will never believe me.  When I was 12 years old, my mother forced me into early marriage but I resisted her plan. She constantly received gifts from the man whom she wanted to me to marriage. My father thought that the man was just nice to the family unaware of my mother’s plan. I wanted to let him know the truth but I lacked the boldness to do so.  I kept the pain and my mother’s ill-attitude towards me to myself.

This situation got worse when I was sexually abused again by another man. Once again, I was unable to tell my father fearing that he wouldn’t believe me. As for my mom, she never cared for my wellbeing. She was only interested in the gifts the abuser was giving her.

Over time, my story, gave me the passion to advocate for the rights and dignity of women and girls especially to ensure that other girls do not go through the same experience. I decided to advocate for the protection of girls from such abuse and campaign for justice for victims of sexual abuse. This passion led me to work later for international non-governmental organizations where I learnt advocacy skills.

What prompted me to found my own organization is the impunity I observed after the 11 years of war. During the rebel war in Sierra Leone from 23 March 1991 to 18 January 2002, I saw so many atrocities. Properties were destroyed and many people lost their life. Children and young boys were recruited as soldiers and used as human shields.  Many women and young girls were raped by both the government soldiers and the rebels and many became pregnant.  Instead of receiving the necessary psychosocial support, many girls were forced into marriages to keep the honor of the family.

The victims were abandoned and the perpetrators never gave account of their devilish actions nor did they take any responsibility for their actions. There were no statutory laws to address sexual and gender based violence (SGBV) after the war. I witnessed high rate of sexual based-violence with perpetrators roaming around with impunity.

It was at this point that I decided to start an organization that will effectively address women and children issues. In 2005 I ended my contract with Oxfam to start Women against Violence and Exploitation in Society (WAVES-SL) as a community based organization (CBO).

What accomplishments is WAVES-SL most proud of in recent history?

WAVES has accomplished lots of achievements both at the community and at the national level since it was founded. Our awareness campaigns on the negative impact of FGC and early marriage is helping people to change their mindsets about girls. The capacity building of girls is developing their agency and boldness to speak up on issues affecting them and defend their rights. Many soweis, the traditional women who conduct the FGC operation are now abandoning the practice.

At the national level, we are particularly proud of our high level advocacy work that led to the immediate overturn of the government ban that prohibited pregnant schoolgirls from attending school and sitting exams by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court on December 2019.  The ban was formally issued in April 2015 during the Ebola crisis. Due to Ebola, there was a sharp increase in teenage pregnancies and instead of the government putting measures in place to ensure these girls continue their education, it decided to stop them from taking national exams and attending mainstream schools. The justification was that pregnant girls would have a negative influence on their classmates. This policy outraged us as an organization that exists to protect the rights of girls and women. After exhausting all the different strategies at the national level, we partnered with Equality Now, the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and Amnesty International to file a case on May 17, 2018, in the Court of Justice of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) against Sierra Leone’s ban on pregnant girls attending school. This is the first time in the history of Sierra Leone and in the West African regional that a community based organization took the government to a regional court and won. For us, as a community based organization, it takes courage to dare to challenge the government at such a high level. 

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/03/sierra-leone-discriminatory-ban-on-pregnant-girls/

Key areas where WAVES-SL hopes to have influence in the coming years.

In the coming years, in addition to continuing our awareness campaigns in schools and communities, WAVES would like to strengthen its advocacy with other organizations for an enactment of a law to end the practice of FGC in Sierra Leone.  It is our fervent hope that in the coming years the practice of FGC would be outlawed. We wish to influence state actors to ensure that FGC is criminalized. We will collaborate with colleagues in the diaspora (Equality Now, UN Women etc.) so that they would work assiduously to influence our government to make decisions that would lead to the accomplishment of this goal. We will also strengthen our Resourceful Communities to lead advocacy campaigns for a social change in their communities

Moreover, we want to advocate for the introduction and effective teaching of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in the primary and junior school curricula to enable girls and boys to make informed decisions about their body and sexuality. Studies have demonstrated that comprehensive sexuality education programs reduce the rates of sexual activity, sexual risk behaviors (eg, number of partners and unprotected intercourse), sexually transmitted infections, and adolescent pregnancy. We believe the teaching of the CSE will reduce the high rate of teen’s pregnancies.

Last but not the least, we will continue to follow up on ECOWAS ruling and ensure all mechanisms are put in place to keep pregnant girls in school.