| This project needs | qualified teachers furniture text books chalk boards etc. |
| Contact | Augustine J. Junisa, Project Officer, RACAP-SL racapsl@yahoo.com |
RURAL AGENCY FOR COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAMME - SIERRA LEONE
1. BACKGROUND: RACAP-SL emerged out of the need to address the high level of ignorance and low level of self-development capacity that affects over eighty percent of men, women and young people in southern Sierra Leone.
The region is currently grappling with the devastating effects of a ten year long civil conflict that was characterised by indiscriminate destruction of lives and property. This socio-economic situation puts the communities on an urgent course of sustainable recovery. However, the high illiteracy rate and low level of self development awareness among a huge proportion of the women and young people remains the most significant draw back to the recovery and development aspirations of the region. The need for basic education and functional literacy as the vehicle for initiating and/or promoting recovery and sustainable development in the communities is quite urgent.
RACAP-SL is addressing this recovery and development challenge by working with communities on social transformation projects using participatory development intervention approaches.
One of the main programmes currently implemented by RACAP-SL is Stepping Stones and Reflect (STAR). STAR is a participatory methodology that emerged from the fusion of Stepping Stones and Reflect.
Stepping Stones focuses on social and/or couple relations and behaviour change communication skills with the aim of reducing HIV transmission, improving sexual and reproductive health and fostering women and girls empowerment. Reflect on the other hand supports adult learning for poor and excluded people enabling them to explore on their own the causes of their socio-economic situations and plan actions to effectively address them.
2. RACAP-SL VISION - Women, men, girls and boys in the Communities of the Southern region of Sierra Leone with adequate capacity and resources for addressing their livelihood needs.
3. RACAP-SL MISSION - To support sustainable improvement in the livelihood situations of women, men, girls and boys in the communities of the Southern region through participatory empowerment interventions.
4. RACAP-SL (2010-2013) OBJECTIVES -
- To facilitate the establishment and effectiveness of participatory basic educational systems and structures in the targeted communities.
- To facilitate activities and processes that would promote the economic empowerment of men, women and families in the targeted communities.
- To build on the capacity of the targeted communities for accessing good water and sanitation facilities and other relevant livelihood support infrastructure.
- To support local initiatives for improving health and environmental conditions in the targeted communities.
5. ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
RACAP-SL is generally made up of two key segments- Board of Directors and Programmes Coordinating Committee.
The Board has five members and is reconstituted every five years. There are three men and two women on the current board.
The board meets quarterly, except for emergencies to perform the following broad functions:
Formulate policies that would guide the management and operations of the Agency.
- Approve appointments to the coordinating committee.
- Approve staff dismissals.
- Review Annual Reports
- Approve Partnership proposals.
- Review and Approve budgets
- Conduct internal audit.
- Serve as custodian of Agency’s assets
Below the Board is the Coordinating Committee comprising of seven key staff members. The committee is headed by the National Programme Coordinator. In addition to the Coordinator are the Administrative and Finance Officer, Gender and Human Rights Manager, Food Security and Infrastructural Development Manager, Capacity building and Social Transformation Manager, Documentation and Communication Manager and the Logistics Officer.
Structurally, all managers are at the same level of authority, with the Logistics Officer falling below the level of all Managers.
6. RACAP-SL’s Previous Activities:
- Facilitating rights promotion/ protection and gender and leadership transformation events & processes in rural communities and institutions.
- Facilitating behavior change education interventions targeting Malaria, HIV and AIDS prevention and impact mitigation and sanitation in rural communities.
- Supporting social and economic capacity building for rural women and youth groups.
- Training and mentoring rural women and young people in functional literacy, Livelihood advancement Skills, sanitation and SGBV
- prevention and response.
- Collaborating with likeminded institutions in the fight against rural poverty and women and child rights abuses.
- Facilitating water and sanitation support to residents of rural communities.
7. CURRENT CHIEFDOMS OF OPERATION:
- Kpaka
- Gallinas Perri
- Kpanga Kabonde
- Sorogbema
8. PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR 2010-2014
- Take forward the STAR project based on key learnings
- Under take studies for the initiation of a community driven sexual and gender based violence prevention and response capacity building projects in two selected chiefdoms in Pujehun district.
- Facilitate water and sanitation support to sixty communities.
- Initiate and support mass education on the gender and child rights acts in forty rural communities.
9. COMMUNITY SUPPORT AND ORGANISATIONAL CHALLENGES
RACAP-SL is currently grappling with the following challenges:
- Limited community and organisational support resources.
- Poor road links to targeted communities.
- High level of poverty in the targeted communities.