our story
In June of 2020, Kadijah Saccoh, a 5-year-old girl from Sierra Leone, was raped and strangled to death by a family member. This tragic case sparked international attention toward the crisis of rape and violence against women that has become rampant in Sierra Leone.
In 2019, the President of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, declared rape and sexual assault a national emergency. He reported that the country had more than 8,500 reported cases of sexual and gender-based violence per year and that seventy percent of survivors of this traumatic experience are under the age of 15.
Rape of young girls and women continues on a daily basis throughout the world. These are some of the injustices that Walk For A Child, in partnership with the Sierra Leone Foundation for New Democracy (SLFND), is collaborating with women's organizations in Sierra Leone, throughout West Africa, and across the world to address.
our inspiration
Walk For A Child is a project of Sierra Leone Foundation for New Democracy (SLFND). SLFND works in partnership with communities to build the foundation for citizens of all ages to deliberate and enact new, non-adversarial alternatives that nurture democratic relationships and decision-making among and across individuals, families, institutions, and the environment.
Walk For A Child aims to achieve this through our expeditions in which we provide youth the opportunity to explore topics of injustice through local community engagement, group reflection, and traveling on foot village to village giving the opportunity to our deepen our sense of understanding and connection to one another.
In country participants are given the opportunity to join in our expeditions free of cost. We provide transportation, food, and housing in the form of camping tents. We do this to eliminate any financial barriers that would otherwise deter youth from having the opportunity to join our expedition.
our purpose
As we walk from village to village we engage with local communities, hear stories from survivors, and give a voice to the women & children to be heard and understood by the leaders of that community.
In each community we stay, we hold a community gathering and wash the feet of the women from that community. We do this as an act of public apology for all the wrongs men have committed to women in West Africa and across the world.
Each night we sit together and share a meal as a team and hold group reflections, allowing space to process each day of the expedition.
The primary goal of Walk For A Child is to create an experience that gives the opportunity for youth to be inspired through expeditions that challenge them physically, mentally, and spiritually.