Raising Community Voices (RCV) Project was initiated in Liberia four years ago (2020) through support of the Embassy of Ireland to address Gender Based Violence issues, promote Gender Equality through empowerment of women and girls in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Project addresses all forms of violence and root causes that limit women and girls opportunities to reach their full potential and contribute to the country’s development and at the same time negatively impacts their health and well-being.
The project was designed to strengthen local capacity, including civil society organizations (CSOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) to lead GBV prevention and response activities in communities across three counties: Montserrado, Lofa, and Nimba. It is a community based GBV prevention and response approach aimed to build the capacity of CSOs and CBOs, including community volunteers, community caseworkers, female community mentors, and community male and female facilitators, to implement key GBV prevention and response activities. RCV provides essential GBV case management services to women and girls who have experienced or are at risk of GBV and links them to specialized services. At the same time, RCV enhances at-risk women and girls’ recovery and resilience through psychosocial support services, mentoring adolescent girls, and facilitating Girl Shine life skills sessions with teenage girls. The project facilitates engaging men and boys through accountable practices discussion sessions to promote gender transformation and ensure they are responsible to women and girls through their attitudes and behaviors.
The RCV project intervention aligns with Plan International Liberia Country Strategy (CS 2019 -2024) which targets girls and young women, ensuring they are free from all forms of violence and harmful practices, are equally valued, and care for in resilient communities. The CS seeks to ensure girls and young women have bodily integrity and are free to make decisions affecting their wellbeing.
International Rescue Committee (IRC) initially implemented the project in the targeted communities, but later, after two years of successful work, IRC, through a transitional arrangement with Plan International Liberia and IrishAid, handed over to Plan International Liberia the RCV project including staff turnover for continuation of the project activities in the beneficiary communities. Since than the project has received boost in implementation and yielded fruitful outcomes evident by case studies and success stories reported. During the last two years stories of change continue to be told at all levels of the project including from communities in Nimba, Lofa and Montserrado. Community leaders and other stakeholders such as town chiefs and district commissioners are speaking about changes in their communities owing to the intervention of the Project. Some of these leaders specifically mentioned reduction in violent activities and peaceful co-existence, promoting unity and conflict mitigation and resolution among women, men and young people at the community levels. In other testimonies, the RCV project resulted to some communities setting up bylaws and community rules aimed to instill discipline and peace among community dwellers. Domestic violence among other vices are said to be on the decrease as most young older men learned to become productive and law abiding citizens from the project activities
On the other hand, women empowerment through life skills and livelihood economic activities introduced in the project has changed the lives of lots of women some of whom are able to set up small businesses to sustain themselves and their families instead of depending on their spouses. Several women benefitted from Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA), a key part of the Women Rise engagements, and are today self-reliant and self-dependent supporting their individual families with dignity and respect.
RCV has changed the perception of men toward women in that men, who participated in the Engaging Men in Accountable Practices (EMAP), a component of the project, have reported changes in the way they live with their wives and children. Some husbands learned to treat their wives as equal and support them with farming and household chores against traditional norms and perceptions that limit women and subject them to certain roles in the family. Besides, Girls education and intellectual development is now prioritized in some of the project community especially with most girls who formed part of ‘Girl Shine’ have eyes opening to the importance of education and desire to learn. The drive for girls’ education has significantly increased as many more girls through inspirations from Girl Shine are seeking to enroll in school and the awareness for parents to send their girl children to school has increased.
It can be recalled in September, 2023, officials from the Embassy of Ireland which sources funding for the RCV project, teamed up with Plan International Liberia program staff for a joint fields monitoring of the project to get acquainted with the project activities impact and outcomes at the level of communities involved. The Ireland Embassy officials were accorded warm receptions at different locations visited in Nimba and heard testimonies about changes which occurred because of the intervention.
“We thank you so much for bringing this project to us. It has brought great changes in the lives of our girls, boys, men and women. Violence has reduced and there is peace everywhere. The women and their spouses are working together. Children are listening to their parent and our girl children are taking education serious”
Chief Zawolo Belleh of Neigbein Town, Nimba County said.
On 31 January, the RCV project officially closed with final reports of implementing partners and other office and field staff consolidated. Prior to the closing date, three teams of project staff toured the project communities in the three counties of Lofa, Nimba and Montserrado to inform the project participants including local leaders and stakeholders, men, women, boys and girls’ beneficiaries about the project closure and proposed sustainability plans. One team visited six (6) communities in Lofa, including Konia, Borkeza, Zorzor, Salayea, Telemu, and Gorlu while a second team visited and had meetings with community leaders and project participants in Neigbein, Kialay, Larpea, Dagamu, Gbesala, and Zorgowee, in Nimba. At the same time, a third team was in Montserrado and had closing meetings with beneficiaries and stakeholders in Soul Clinic, Chicken Soup Factory, New Kru Town, Neezoe and A. B. Tolbert Road.
The meetings in the project counties centered on the project closure awareness among beneficiaries and stakeholders and recommendations for sustainability of the activities in the absence of funding. The teams’ engagements in the communities covered questions and answers as to what went well, what did not and what needed to be improved. The staff proposed a sustainability plan for the activities and urged the beneficiaries to take ownership and work done so far and urged the implementing partners and communities to sustain the project gains even though donor funding has depleted.
The staff thanked the communities for their cooperation and support resulting to the project’s success and delivered appreciation certificates to local leaders on behalf of the Country Director (CD) of Plan International Liberia, Miriam Murray. Community Leaders of all 17 communities where the project was implemented received certificates from Plan International Liberia and Irish Aid presented to them by the visiting teams.
Up to press time, it is not clear if the RCV project will received additional funding for extension. There has been calls for the project to extend to other districts in the three counties and even include other counties of Liberia including Southeast Liberia.
