Project period: January 2020 – December 2021
Implementing MA: Planned Parenthood Association of Sierra Leone (PPASL)
Project goal
This project aimed to improve women and young people’s access to SRH services and to reduce rates of HIV and AIDS and SGBV in five Chiefdoms of Moyamba District.
Project objectives
Objective 1: To empower 30,000 women and young people (particularly marginalized women and girls) to improve their SRH through knowledge and information in five Chiefdoms of Moyamba District.
Objective 2: To increase access of 30,000 women and girls (particularly marginalized women and girls) to integrated SRH services including HIV and SGBV services in Moyamba District.
Project background
In the rural communities of Moyamba, women and girls are particularly vulnerable due to poverty, high prevalence of SGBV and unintended pregnancies, and lack of access to SRH and family planning (FP) services.

Project achievement
Demand was generated through various channels. Women and youth group members conducted sensitization work in the communities and some formed drama groups to deliver messages through theatre performances. They also advocated with chiefs, religious leaders, and other community stakeholders to promote family planning services. Community leaders also took part in local radio discussions about the societal barriers which prevent young women and girls from accessing family planning services; these were backed by regular radio jingles on this and on issues such as HIV and SGBV prevention.
Twenty trained service providers from the public health unit and 15 from PPASL conducted weekly outreach programmes at the project sites. The outreach team included the members of the women and youth groups, clinic staff of PPASL and the public health units, District Health Management Team, councillors from each community in the Moyamba District Council, and the PPASL/JTF drama groups.
Youth-friendly centres in ten project communities were equipped with information and educational materials on integrated SRH, HIV and SGBV which reached 15,000 adolescents and young people. Signs, billboards, and T-shirts were also used to raise visibility of the project. Towards the end of the project, the JTF coordination office in Moyamba Town was upgraded to a Youth Friendly Centre and refurbished with solar power, enabling community groups to use the centre day and night.
The Chiefdom Youth Health Watch Groups, whose role is to monitor and respond to incidents of SGBV against young women and girls, worked in collaboration with community women’s and youth groups to increase referrals for survivors of SGBV. They also gave helpful feedback by sharing concerns, successes, and challenges with JTF project groups.
PPASL signed a memorandum of understanding with two support groups of marginalized communities: Voice of Women (VOW), a support group for People Living with HIV/AIDS; and Disability Rights Movement (DRIM), a support group for PWD. VOW and DRIM supported the JTF project by encouraging their members to take up SRH services.
Soon after the project began, COVID-19 restrictions came into force. PPASL was part of the government’s COVID-19 response task force, which entitled them to an inter-district travel pass. Thanks to this, PPASL was able to continue to implement project activities, while their experience of the Ebola response meant that they were well prepared to integrate safety measures such as social distancing, face coverings and gloves into their community outreach.

We were able to reach out to our clients, members, beneficiaries to let them understand that reproductive health rights are not only for non-disabled people and that we are also concerned. (…) There is a lot of suffering and many SGBV cases among PWD. There are not sufficient prevention and family planning services especially before this time. We express profound thanks to the JTF for such a beautiful project, we appreciate it so much. Thank you.
Sylvanus Fannah
Director, Disability Rights Movement

Key achievement in Sierra Leone
Indicators | Project targets | Project total | Apr’21 – Dec’21 |
# of SRH services provided | 51,462 | 15,896 | |
Of which to PWD | 3,983 | ||
Of which contraceptive services | 30,281 | 8,126 | |
Of which HIV services | 3,259 | 1,544 | |
# of non-SRH services provided | 0 | 0 | |
# of condoms distributed | 146,940 | 58,400 | |
# of people reached with services | 30,000 | 39,828 | 13,247 |
Of which PWD | 1,195 | ||
# of people reached with information | 30,000 | 61,939 | 23,824 |
Of which PWD | 3,040 | ||
Others | |||
Trained 50 members of community groups (5 women’s groups and 5 youth groups) to generate demand and make referrals. | |||
Trained 40 health service providers to provide integrated SRH services. | |||
Equipped 10 youth-friendly centres with SRH information and education materials. |
Project videos
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