Having gone through the experiences of poverty, civil war and other challenges, David Sinnah and his wife, Fatmata Jibateh Sinnah, both Sierra Leonean Canadians, founded Intercommunity Development Organization of Sierra Leone in 2020 due to their strong passion and desire to help improve the lives of individuals and communities experiencing poverty, hunger, marginalization, and other greater challenges as a way of given back to communities in their home country, Sierra Leone. The founders were inspired to create a specific program that serve girls due to their personal experiences and the significant issues that are still facing girls in Sierra Leone, which prevent them from pursuing their educational and career goals.

Intercommunity started by supporting young women who were prostitute to exit the sex trade through the Rebuilding Lives Program and Supportive Counselling Services. The founders created the Girls Space Empowerment Program after realizing that one of the participants who was accepted in the Rebuilding Lives Program was a 14-year-old girl, who had dropped out of school at the age of 12 years and engaged in prostitution. Her mother died after given birth to her and her father died in a car accident when she was about 10 years old. She had no siblings and used to live with her uncle in their village for 2 years. Her uncle was unable to support her due to poverty, which led her to dropped out of school, lived on the street, and engage in prostitution. In addition, personal experiences also drive Fatmata’s desire to support girls. While in primary and secondary schools, I navigated my way through greater challenges. I repeated more than 5 times because I had limit and sometimes no support. As a girl who was very determined to continue my education, I did petty trading by selling biscuits, candies, chew gums, cigarette, and other items to pay my school fees, lesson fees and buy school supplies. I was so passionate about education and my dreams came true after hard work and resilience, says Fatmata.

Intercommunity Girls Space Empowerment Program started with 5 girls at our Head office in Freetown in May 2021 and has grown to over 250 girls and 20 chapters in schools and the communities across Sierra Leone.