A 14-Year-old girl has successfully given birth under the shelter of Commit and Act Foundation Sierra Leone through a funding support from Kindermissionwerk /KZE.

The underage girl was sexually abused by a commercial motorbike rider in 2022 and abandoned by her own relatives after she became pregnant. The girl (NAME WITHHELD)  is a beneficiary of the Kindermissionwerk /KZE Girl’s Shelter Project of Commit and Act Foundation in Bo City.

On the 23rd of August, 2023 she gave birth to a baby girl at the Bo Government Hospital in Bo District, Southern Sierra Leone.

Through funding support from Kindermissionwerk/KZE in Germany, the Commit and Act Foundation Girl’s Shelter continues to provide a temporary safe home, legal, educational, psychological, prosocial, psychosocial, and livelihood support for survivors of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) and their parents.

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The newborn baby was reported to be enrolled in another project titled; ONE DAY HOPE BABY SHELTER which is being funded by ONE DAY e.V in Germany. The project seek to provide care and support to babies that are born as a result of sexual penetration, rape and other forms of Sexual and  Gender-Based Violence so that their mothers can  continue with their education.

Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in Africa but authorities have instituted reforms to ameliorate the issue. The country in the past five years made remarkable strides in legal sector by review its Sexual Offences Act and the setting up of model court for speedy trials.

The aim of this reform is to discourage pedophilia through through the swift punishment of perpetrators of sexual offences especially against underage children.