Imagining, and building, new opportunities for women in Sierra Leone

Everyone who knows me knows that I am incredibly passionate about changing outcomes for women and achieving true global equality. As such I'm incredibly excited to be traveling to Sierra Leone for a month this February to work with Purposeful Productions, in association with TIE and with support from Brand Union and WPP. While there I will be dedicated to bringing to life the brand and marketing campaign for their new project, Kara Kura (New Moon); an initiative that focuses on supporting girls and their allies to radically remake the world for themselves by changing the narrative about what's possible for them.

In Sierra Leone, teenage pregnancy and child marriage are common. According to the country’s 2013 Demographic and Health Survey, 13 per cent of girls are married by their 15th birthday and 39 per cent of girls before their 18th birthday. Globally, more than 700 million women alive today were married as children. Teenage pregnancy reduces a girl’s chances in life, often interfering with schooling, limiting opportunities, and placing girls at increased risk of child marriage, HIV infections and domestic violence. According to the World Health Organization, teenage pregnancy is also a leading cause of death for mothers in Sierra Leone. Data from 2015 show the country’s maternal mortality rate is at 1,360 deaths per 100,000 live births.

KaraKura is setting out to change these outcomes by empowering women and providing them with a positive, shared platform through which they can connect and engage with new, empowering stories that outline different paths and choices, and also by carving out new opportunities for women by building a community of local organizations that can help them to attend, and finish school, access healthcare and other resources. It will do this through its three strategic areas of focus - insights and influencing; convening and micro-grants and media and communications. The media platform, whicn will feature radio dramas, is especially important in helping to achieve their goals due to the very low levels of literacy that exist in Sierra Leone - currently just 30%.

As an NGO, there is limited access to marketing support, and while I'm there, I will be working closely with the team to develop their foundational brand strategy and create a marketing campaign that will establish them locally as a strong voice, engaging both the women and local charities they want to bring together to achieve their goals. Your contributions will enable us to carry out any design and creative development and buy the necessary marketing materials we need to launch the campaign, to build maximum impact. While marketing may sometimes feel like an 'add on' that isn't fundamental for NGOs or charity organizations, in truth it goes a long way in helping them to establish themselves in this market and engage with their target audiences. Any further resources we raise will also help support program development.

Needless to say, your donations mean a lot to me, and to Purposeful Productions. Thanks for enabling us to do this work and launch this initiative.