Echoing Malala's voice: Youth take over Sierra Leone's national parliament

As youth from all over the world today join Malala Yousafzai in taking over the United Nations General Assembly in New York, thousands of miles away, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, a group of 50 young people between the ages of 11 and 18 are setting out to do the same in their national parliament.

24 boys and 26 girls, from communities where Plan works all over Sierra Leone have been inspired by Malala’s call to action on education, giving a voice to the 66 million other girls who, like she once was, are denied an education.

They too want to raise awareness by advocating draft resolutions that directly fall in line with the Millennium Development Goal’s objective to achieve universal primary education.

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Case study: Salamatu's school dream comes true

Two years ago, Salamatu, 19, was forced to drop out of business school because she could not afford to pay the tuition fees after the death of her father and brother.

Plan Sierra Leone and local partner, CIFORD, set up youth savings and loans groups in her community and it was not long before Salamatu had joined, become chairwoman of her group, and taken out her first loans: one to buy a bag of rice to start up her small business and one to pay her school fees.

She is one of over 3,000 young people in Freetown, Sierra Leone, participating in Plan's youth savings and loans programme, which introduces 15-25 year olds to financial literacy.

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