Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone’s population is very young. Due to the war, many of the population have moved to the city. In a country with 4.9 million people, 34 percent of them (1.7 million) live in urban areas, and 42 percent of them (2 million) are below the age of 15 years old. 1.6 million (34%) of the population are between the ages of 15 and 35 years (how Sierra Leoneans define youth/young adults). This may not seem like a significant point except when you realize that many of the youth lack higher education/skills and most are unemployed. Those that are employed are paid low salaries because there are many who seek jobs and are desperate for work, and employers can take advantage of this. The limited job opportunities can be attributed to limited access to capital, poor markets for goods and services, poor roads and weak and inconsistent supply of electricity. The result is that many of the young adults in urban areas are either self employed or work in the informal sector. Some examples of main employment opportunities for male youths are carpentry, trading of second hand goods, foreign currency exchange, driving (motorcycles) and stone breaking. The main employments for female youths are tie-dying, catering, hairdressing, soap making and petty trading. However with so many youth doing the same kinds of jobs (supply) and limited people using their services (demand), they earn very little and most do not even make enough to support themselves and their families. Some are so discouraged by the small pay that they prefer to be idle. According to the Government of Sierra Leone, the high number of idle youth could undermine the country’s development and potentially disrupt the recent stability of Sierra Leone.

When youths were asked what they needed, they suggested provision of tools for skilled labor, better regulation of industries to ensure that employers meet their obligations, need to build additional markets, provision of transport facilities for goods, and re-opening pre-conflict industries, including hotels and tourist centers.

These last two weeks, the staff of WMF Sierra Leone have been reorganizing the field and dreaming about possibilities for our future and where God is calling us. As we continue to be in relationship with the Lighthouse young men and women, and Kroo Bay kids, we want them to have education that will allow them to find jobs that will provide for them and their families; we want them to be confident individual who understand the identity that God has given them. As we look at the young adults that we are in relationship with, we pray that they will not become another static of unemployed in Freetown, but instead be transformed individuals who reach out to neglected men and women around them. Please pray for us as we try to discern where God is calling us and please pray for our young men and women as they grow up in a challenging environment.

*Statistic from “Voices and Views- Youth and Employment in Sierra Leone,” A publication of ENCISS and The World Bank