Twenty three year old Abass Koroma was just eight years old when the civil war in Sierra Leone began in 1992. During the next ten years he missed out on going to school and spent months living in the bush trying to avoid recruitment as a child soldier. But five years after the war ended, and with support from VSO partner CCYA, he is part of a flourishing village enterprise and is putting the finishing touches to a house he has built for himself.
Child soldiers
The UN estimates that during Sierra Leone’s ten-year civil war some 10,000 children were recruited as soldiers: thousands more were exiled to neighbouring countries or fled their homes to other parts of Sierra Leone. Abass Koroma from Thonkoba is one of those who avoided recruitment but whose life and education was severely affected by the war.
“I was born in Thonkoba and have lived here all my life, except during the civil war when I was forced to leave my home. Although I was young, I am tall and strong and energetic so the rebels were trying to recruit me. At the time they were trying to train up a lot of children as soldiers, so I left my village and lived in the bush.
“For many years I was moving around and living on wild fruit and bush meat. At certain points I thought my life would end like that, but then I started to hear from others that peace was coming. When that happened I came back to my village.”
Post war
Although Abass managed to avoid capture, when he returned to his village there were few opportunities for him: “Although I completed my primary education many schools were forced to close during the war so I was unable to finish my schooling. When I returned to my village in 2002 I had no qualifications or source of income.”
For four years Abass relied on subsistence farming, growing food to meet his immediate needs, but lacking the skills to make the most of opportunities to profit from farming. All of that changed in 2006 when VSO partner CCYA (The Centre for Coordination Youth Activities) established a programme in Thonkoba, near Makeni in northern Sierra Leone.
New opportunities
CCYA began its existence in the early 1990s when a group of students began campaigning for changes in the government. During the war years they also acted as agents of peace, bringing together different groups in reconciliation activities. CCYA still actively campaigns, now focusing on the issues that affect young people in Sierra Leone today, but has also extended its reach to include skills training for young people who missed out on their education.
Abass is now benefiting from one of these skills training programmes. In March 2006 CCYA community development workers visited Thonkoba to tell residents about a beekeeping cooperative they planned to establish. Membership of the cooperative includes training in beekeeping and honey extraction techniques; help to set up a bank account; a kit including protective outfit; a beehive; and extraction equipment. Further support is offered through the packaging, marketing and selling of the honey. All profits from the sale of the honey go back to the cooperative.
Changed lived
In the first eighteen months the cooperative has produced 10 gallons of honey, with profits helping 25 members. A sister cooperative was established in neighbouring village, Mambamba, and other CCYA run initiatives include an agricultural farming and goat-breeding programme. So far almost 250 individuals and their families have benefited from this programme.
Abass is putting the finishing touches to a brick house he has built with his share of the profits. The project has given him the opportunity to move out of his childhood home and start an independent life. He says: “With the coming of CCYA we learnt new skills, but we also opened our minds about how if we work together as a community we can achieve more, which means better lives for all of us.”
VSO support
Although CCYA can draw on the skills of local community development workers to train and support the cooperatives, it lacked the organisational expertise to expand its work to reach more people like Abass. VSO Youth for Development volunteer Jayne Butler is now working with CCYA helping them with a research project to further identify the needs of young people in Sierra Leone and to support them to more effectively access donor funding so it can continue to fund initiatives like the beekeeping cooperative.
