Key facts about Sierra Leone
The vast majority of Sierra Leone’s 5.7 million people are living in poverty.

Sierra Leoneans are recovering from eleven years of devastating conflict, which left more than half of the population displaced, economic activities severely disrupted and infrastructure destroyed. The war ended in 2002.

The country is rated 177 of 177 countries in the 2007 UN Human Development Index.

GOAL in Sierra Leone
GOAL began working in Sierra Leone in 1999 and has since implemented programmes that include the construction and maintenance of displaced people’s camps, primary healthcare, child protection, water and sanitation and health and nutrition programmes.

In the capital, Freetown, our community-based street children’s programme assists almost 1,800 children, providing drop-in facilities, healthcare, protection and education. GOAL provides books bags, uniforms and payment of tuition fees to ensure the completion of education for street children. For young people that have spent their childhood on the streets, GOAL provides skills training and the means to start up a business.

GOAL is in the midst of completing 4 new shelters for street children and is piloting peer housing/ street based business as an alternative for older youth. Life skills was introduced into the GOAL non-formal curriculum in 2007/8. Since then, seven of our nine Child Welfare Committee partners decided to replicate non-formal education and life skills classes themselves for those children in the community who cannot attend school.

In Kenema district, GOAL’s integrated health programme benefits over 32,000 people by providing primary healthcare and a community-based sanitation programme. GOAL recently initiated a three year programme in Gorama-Mende, one of the remotest areas of the district. Improving rural feeder roads alongside health and watsan activities, will permit GOAL to work with very isolated communities who have been neglected by past development efforts. Infrastructure such as wells and latrines are almost totally absent and one of the six health clinics is only accessible by foot.

In both Kenema and Freetown, GOAL carries out Family Planning and Protection against HIV/Sexually Transmitted Infections programmes which includes condom distribution and dissemination of information to increase awareness.

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