Championing gender equality and inclusive education program 2024 to 2028

This project aims to improve access to gender-responsive and inclusive education particularly for girls and young women with disabilities in 2 districts of northern Sierra Leone: Tonkolili and Bombali. It targets 300 children and youth with disabilities (195 females and 105 males) between the ages of 7 and 20 who are not currently attending primary or secondary school regularly or at all. Additionally it aims to benefit around 400 parents and caregivers of these children and community members. Project activities include: (1) providing technical assistance and vocational training to local partners and government actors to help them learn about gender-responsive and inclusive learning; (2) organizing sensitization and awareness sessions for parents caregivers civil society organizations and community leaders. These sessions seek to cover topics such as harmful gender norms/roles disability stigma education and health reporting and the inclusive education resources available locally; (3) engaging with the communities through events involving trained community and youth champions students teachers families government officials local media and community leaders and members; (4) developing capacity building plans to support local stakeholders working for gender equality and inclusive education; and (5) hosting knowledge sharing workshops on gender equality and inclusive education. These workshops aim to involve students teachers researchers and community actors in Canada.

The expected outcomes of this project include: (1); improved agency voice and capacity of girls boys and youth with disabilities especially girls and young women to challenge barriers to education; (2) strengthened support and enabling environments in families and communities for girls boys and youth with disabilities especially girls and young women; and (3) enhanced engagement of Canadian stakeholders as advocates and partners for gender equality and inclusive education in Sierra Leone and elsewhere.