The Women’s Health Initiative – Sierra Leone (WHI-SL), a community-based organization defending to empowering vulnerable young people, has officially launched its new mental health intervention project on June 12, 2025, at the Methodist Youth Resource Centre in Bo.

The project, titled “Entertained for Health Project (EHP): Use of sports and entertainment competitions as tools to tackle harmful substance use among adolescents and youths in rural areas and the city of the Bo District Sierra Leone,” is funded by Being, an international mental health initiative hosted by Grand Challenges Canada.

The launch event doubled as a stakeholders’ meeting and drew more participants than the expected 40, including representatives from reputable institutions involved in tackling drug and substance abuse, which has become a growing concern in the country.

Invitees included the Ministry of Social Welfare, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Mental Health Secretariat, Sierra Leone Police, District Health Management Team, Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Schools (MBSSE), student organisations from Njala University, principals from six secondary schools in Bo, Bo Drivers Union, Bo, Bike Riders Union, and four media outlets including Kiss 104 FM, African Youth Voices, Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), and online platform SierraBlog. The program began with the arrival and registration of participants, followed by prayers led by clergymen of both the Christian and Islamic faiths. The WHI-SL team was then introduced, and each participant from the invited institutions gave a brief self-introduction.

The chairman of the event expressed appreciation for the impressive turnout and extended thanks to Being for their support. He expressed the urgency of the intervention, especially in light of the high levels of drug and substance abuse in the country, which recently led the President of Sierra Leone to declare a state of emergency on the use of KUSH.

The Project Manager/Executive Director, Mr. Musa Bangura made a detailed presentation of the project in which concepts of statistics on the youth population in the country and their joblessness being the highest in the region, the highest rate of drug and substance use, the reasons for addiction and many others and how the project intends to intervene in reducing the menace in Bo District.

The Southern Regional Director in the Ministry of Social Welfare, Mr. Michael James thanked WHI-SL for the invitation to the meeting. He furthered that one of their mandates is to rehabilitate the youths, especially university students and those who have written for the West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). He said an eight week free of cost services of detoxification and psychosocial counseling for those youths are what they offer. In his remark, he also said that 50 youths of both males and females were those with whom they started; unfortunately, 7 absconded and remained with 43 who will be discharged in early July.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Jacob Ganda, who represented the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), South, also appreciated the work of WHI-SL, for which he promised that the organization is assured of their support at any time WHI-SL needs it. He furthered that the Police have the mandate to enforce the law. In his response to the request that peddlers of drugs were those that the Police were to target more often than the youth users, ASP Ganda requested for information from the community in which the peddlers live. He ended by saying that any peace or law abiding citizen has the five powers of arrest as they (Police) have but civilians can’t detain any offender which only they can do.

Mr. Eric Sowa, a senior teacher of Christ the King College, a boys’ secondary school in the capacity of one of the Principals, lamented that the country needs a divine intervention through its citizens’ prayers. He said that the entire population is responsible for the down trend of the youths in Sierra Leone. He accused the parents and the MBSSE that they have misunderstood discipline (corporal punishment) for cruelty. He expressed disappointment that there is a high rate of female youths’ involvement in addiction.

The President of the Students’ Union Government of Njala University, Joseph Jawa Jokai said that they are being prepared to be holders of all the current offices in the future. According to him, Drug and substance abuse that lead to addiction in Sierra Leone by youths will be grossly counterproductive. He also said that he would want to advise every youth, especially university students to engage themselves in doing something beneficial if challenged rather than engage themselves into the intake of drugs and substances (which is reactive) as a remedy to socio-economic challenges.

The Deputy Director of Education-MBSSE representative, in his remark, blamed the entire citizens that there is a complete societal neglect of the upbringing of the children. He maintained the stance of the ministry that corporal punishment is cruelty. He said that discipline is to be maintained in schools. He added that people have the culture of being tightlipped in things that they fail to report. He furthered that integrity if employed by all in all our dealings can make us better. In his words “Environment causes behavior while behavior causes environment”.

The launch concluded with a call for collaboration, as WHI-SL and its partners committed to tackling substance abuse from multiple fronts: education, enforcement, rehabilitation, and prevention.

About WHI-SL:
Women’s Health Initiative – Sierra Leone is a community-based organization committed to empowering vulnerable youth to make informed life choices for sustainable development, while advocating for equity, mental health, and social justice.

For more inquiries or partnership contact: Women’s Health Initiative – SL  Email: mbbangs84@gmail.com