The Managing Director for Sierra Leone’s leading betting company, Mr Martin Michael, has wooed the country’s private sector community to support Her Excellency, Fatima Bio’s ambitious plan of protecting girls from sexual and gender based violence and early child marriage.
He made this call by delivering a speech at the launching of the Strategic Plan 2019-2022 on the ‘Hands Off Our Girls’ Campaign at the Bintumani Conference Center in Freetown over the weekend.
The Managing Director and philanthropist assured the First Lady of Mercury International’s unwavering commitment. He described the plan as ambitious, which the First Lady has decided to undertake as her flagship project.
He urged the First Lady that the plan is achievable even when statistics relating to violence against women in Sierra Leone remain appalling.
The Mercury International MD underscored the point that the capacity of bodies charged with implementing the laws on sexual and gender based violence remains highly incapacitated, adding that traditions and customs also seriously hinder prosecution of SGBV cases/matters.
Martin Michael noted that the goals of the 2019-2022 Strategic Plan are many, and that if they lead to the reduction in violence and child marriage it would be great for Sierra Leone.
He called for the inclusion in the Free and Quality Education matters relating to child marriage and sexual and gender based violence in order to increase the awareness around these issues among parents, nurses and teachers.
Mr Michael ended his address by assuring the First Lady and her visiting colleague First Ladies, from Ghana, Cape Verde, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Liberia, that Mercury International is making its voice loud and clear by calling on all to ‘Hands off our Girls.’
Mercury International has always supported the Government of Sierra Leone in whatever endeavours -be it in education, sports, humanitarian activities, arts and music. It is therefore not a surprise that Mercury International could back the First Lady of Sierra Leone.
Mr Martin Michael was among various speakers who made presentations during the launching of the ‘Hands Off Our Girls’ Campaign, which flagship project is championed by the Office of the First Lady.
A number of other First Ladies from the sub region also witnessed the strategic launching and added their voice to what they have referred to as a problem not only peculiar to Sierra Leone but to all African countries. They called for the political will to end the menace.