Stay up-to-date with Trócaire's work overseas, get news on key global social justice issues, and find out about our latest campaigns in Ireland and how you can get involved.
Koroma is challenging the men in her district to bring about change in her community
Onita Mariatu Koroma (47), a nurse from the Port Loko District in North Western Sierra Leone, is running for re-election in June 2023. Photo: Tolu J. Bade/Trócaire
Onita Mariatu Koroma (47), a nurse from the Port Loko District in North Western Sierra Leone, decided to run for councillor in 2018 because she was tired of waiting for change in her district.
“As a nurse in the local hospital, I can see the need and the flaws in the health system,” Koroma says.
“People come to us looking for help and we can’t always provide it because of a lack of funds. For years, we advocated for cost-recovery drugs to provide patients with, and it was eventually budgeted for by the council. But we don’t have a single paracetamol on the shelf.”
In 2018, Koroma was elected as councillor and is now running for re-election in the June local elections.
“As a councillor, I can say, ‘we’ve made a budget, where are the drugs?’. We also had challenges with a bridge, where it was budgeted for repairs, but it never happened.”
Haja Yapate Sankoh, Salamatu Baba Kamara, Onita Mariatu Koroma and Zainab Mariama Fofaneh from the Port Loko District in Sierra Leone are running for councillor positions in the June 2023 local elections. Photo: Tolu J. Bade/Trócaire
The mother-of-two said that in addition to funding and corruption, her gender is also a barrier to her succeeding in politics in her “patriarchal” district.
“It has been really challenging being one of the few women in the council because many of my insecure male colleagues see me as a threat,” Koroma says.
“They use tactics to undermine me by telling our constituents that I am not working in the party’s best interest, or I have no money to be a councillor. I lost the election for deputy mayor because of these comments from the men.”
“I know that my capacity as a woman far outweighs the need for me to have money. But unfortunately, the people in my constituency want cash handouts. They don’t realise that as a councillor and a nurse, I struggle to send my children to school and to provide food for them. We need to educate people that we are not here to bribe them, we are here to make sure that the money the council has is being used well.”
Koroma says that despite the barriers, the women in her district “won’t give up”. She welcomes the new Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) Act which was passed in November 2022 saying it is a “game changer”.
Veronica Sesay, SLPP MP and Chair of the Women’s Caucus in Sierra Leone’s Parliament with the GEWE ACT 2023. Ms Sesay was instrumental in the passing of the Act. Photo: Tolu J. Bade/Trócaire
The Act states that 30 percent of candidates on party ballots must be women in local and national elections. Currently, just 13 percent of politicians in parliament in Sierra Leone are women. In 2020, Sierra Leone ranked 182nd out of 189 countries on the UN’s Gender Development Index.
The Act also provided for access by women to finance, extended maternity leave, equal pay and stipulated a 30 percent female quota of staff in companies with more than 25 employees.
With funding from Irish Aid, Trócaire and partners (Campaign for Good Governance, Association for the Wellbeing of Rural Communities and Development, Women’s Forum for Human Rights and Democracy, Social Enterprise Development, Network Movement for Justice and Development) have been campaigning for the passing of the GEWE Act for the past four years and have worked closely with members of parliament to draft the law.
The organisations also trained women to become empowered and know their political rights and developed an election manifesto to support women who are running for election.
Koroma says that the training she received from Trócaire partner Social Enterprise Development (SEND) helped her to respond to and overcome intimidation and abuses she received while working in politics.
“The GEWE Act will change things for women like me – if the men are willing to obey it,” Koroma says.
“We will have to see a big change in the attitudes of our male colleagues and within the party politics. The men have to be willing to allow women to take their seats and take up positions. I can’t see the men pushing women to succeed. I don’t think the men are ready. I think it will take a lot more advocacy and training. We are not getting tired. We are just getting started on our fight to be leaders of our country.”
“Men for centuries have left women at home to look after everything in the house. If they trust us to manage our homes and our children, why wouldn’t they trust us to run the government?”
