Action Aid Marginalizes Youths

Youth in Crisis is an organization comprised of 62 marginalized youths trained and certified by Action Aid-Sierra Leone. As nature would have it, Youth in Crisis started working with Action Aid on 18^th August, 1999 immediately after the January 6^th invasion of Freetown. At their very first contract signed with Action Aid, they had a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be trained in order for them to become skilled-oriented and self-reliant people in the various communities they found themselves. Fortunately for them (Youth in Crisis), Action Aid approach them with a training and a work-oriented project which lasted in October, 2001.  

Youths in Crisis have intimated to Sierra Express that the project was to construct 15 houses along the Freetown Peninsular highway. Immediately after the construction of these houses, Action Aid abandoned them, and implying that their contract has come an end. However, these youth who saw the construction of these buildings as a product of their own effort; and having learnt that the aforementioned buildings were been abandoned by Action Aid decided to organize themselves and occupied the said buildings. Action Aid later evicted them from the buildings and has taken court action against these members of Youth in Crisis.  

Presently, members of Youth in Crisis are making appearance at the High Court No. 1, and since they started appearing in court, Action Aid has not been making any effort to face them in court. While in the midst of this marginalized state by Action Aid and the battle to restore justice to them, their minds have not stopped to palpitate when the chairman of Action Aid Sierra Leone by name of Mr. Julius Spencer has turned around and branded them as “raga murphies”, which they have utterly refuted. The Youths in Crisis in an angry mood and a state of neglect while making their grievance known to the general public and Government have  categorically told SEM that they are trained skilled-oriented youths with skills ranging from masonry, carpentry, plumbing, electrical installation and every other skills that building houses demand, they boasted. In connection to what is happening to them, the Youths in Crisis membership is humbly calling on Government and other concerned stakeholders to look in to their plight; and they have also posed to let Government know that this is not a threat, but the continued abandoned state of the youths of this country was one of the major causes that provoked the past rebel war in this country.

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