Rainbo Initiative

🌍👧🏿👦🏿 Day of the African Child 2026

Every child deserves more than survival, they deserve to thrive.

On this year’s theme of universal access to WASH, we are reminded that safety, dignity, and clean water are not luxuries. They are rights.

At Rainbo Initiative, we know that protecting children from violence and ensuring access to water and sanitation go hand in hand. No child should have to choose between protection and basic necessities.

Today, we recommit to a Sierra Leone where every child is free from violence and empowered to live a healthy, fulfilling life.

Together, let’s build that future. 💙

🚨 WE’RE HIRING: SECURITY GUARDS (9 Positions) 🚨

Join Rainbo Initiative and help create a safe and secure environment for staff, survivors, visitors, and assets.

LOCATIONS
📍 Freetown – 4 Positions
📍 Kenema – 3 Positions
📍 Kono – 2 Positions

REQUIREMENTS
✅ WASSCE or equivalent
✅ 2+ years’ security experience
✅ Police Clearance Report
✅ National ID Card
✅ Two Moral Guarantors

📧 Apply now: https://rainboinitiative.org/jobs/

⏳ Applications reviewed on a rolling basis. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

🔴 RED CARD to Child Labour, and the Violence That Comes With It!

Every child deserves a childhood of learning, play, and safety, not work, exploitation, or abuse.

Child labour doesn't just steal education and dreams. It opens the door to sexual and gender-based violence. Working children, especially girls, are exposed to harassment, assault, and abuse, often with no safe adult to turn to.

At Rainbo Initiative, we believe protecting children from labour is protecting them from violence.

Together, let's show zero tolerance for exploitation in all its forms and build a future where every child in Sierra Leone can grow, learn, and thrive free from fear.

🟡 Fair play for children. Decent work for adults.

🔁 Throwback Thursday | Our Survivors Took the Lead

At Rainbo Initiative's 2025 Sponsored Walk, our Survivors Solidarity Group (SSG) made history.

Walking alongside SGBV survivors, the SSG formally presented a position paper to the Government of Sierra Leone, handed to Hon. Isata Mahoi, Minister of Gender and Children's Affairs, calling for urgent regulatory action on how digital media reports on sexual and gender-based violence.

Survivors are increasingly facing secondary trauma, privacy violations, online bullying, and misinformation, not from strangers, but from bloggers and content creators who prioritize engagement over ethics.

The SSG's recommendations call on the Ministry to address:
▪ Exposure of survivor identities
▪ Sensationalized and inaccurate reporting
▪ Victimization and secondary trauma
▪ Breach of confidentiality and case integrity
▪ Violation of data protection principles
▪ Exploitation of SGBV cases for monetization

Online platforms can be powerful tools for advocacy. But that power must come with accountability.
Survivors led this call. We stand behind them.

Today, the Rainbo Centre in Kenema had the honour of welcoming members of the Irish Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade during their official visit to Sierra Leone.

The delegation comprising two Members of Parliament, joined by Irish Ambassador to Sierra Leone Patrick McMagnus and Carol Hannon, Head of Development, was warmly received by our dedicated staff and the courageous survivors at the heart of everything we do.

Together, they toured our newly renovated facility, a space transformed to deliver stronger, higher-quality services to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Every corner of this centre reflects our unwavering commitment to those who walk through our doors.

Perhaps most powerfully, the visit opened a space for honest conversation, one that put survivors' voices, experiences, and resilience front and centre.

As our Response Supervisor in Kenema, Hellen Adama Bockarie, put it:

“Every survivor who comes to Rainbo deserves to leave with more than services; they deserve to leave with their dignity restored, their voice heard, and hope for a brighter future.”

We are grateful for the continued partnership and solidarity of the Irish Government, whose support through Irish Aid makes this work possible. Visits like today reaffirm that when institutions show up for survivors, it sends a message that matters: you are not alone, and your healing matters.

💛 Together, we are building a Sierra Leone where every survivor finds safety, justice, and hope.

🤝 A new chapter in the fight against gender-based violence in Sierra Leone.

On Monday, June 8th, 2026, Rainbo Initiative officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BRAC Sierra Leone-NGO, marking a powerful new partnership to protect adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) across the country.

Together, we are committing to:
✅ Coordinate referrals so GBV survivors can access free medical care and psychosocial support at Rainbo Initiative facilities
✅ Advocate jointly for gender-responsive budgeting and policy reform
✅ Conduct research that generates evidence to drive national change
✅ Run joint awareness campaigns for SRHR services and financial inclusion
✅ Build the capacity of frontline staff through GBV case management training

“One organisation alone cannot do this work. We need each other. Someone empowered by BRAC will come to Rainbo, and they will be empowered again,” Daniel Fayia H. Kettor, Executive Director, Rainbo Initiative.

This partnership is rooted in a shared belief: that every survivor deserves to be seen, heard, and supported, and that collective action is the most powerful tool we have.

The MoU is valid from June 2026 to December 2028. This is only the beginning.

At sixteen, the person who abused me was not a stranger. He was a neighbour, someone from my own community, and he did it repeatedly. When the pregnancy came, the cruelty did not stop with him. My uncle, the man paying for the roof over my head, drove me out of my grandmother's home the moment he found out. I ended up sleeping on a bare floor in a stranger's parlour, hiding myself away on the days I had no food, terrified of being seen.

Everything began to change when my case was referred to the Rainbo Centre. From the moment I arrived, I received psychosocial counselling, a full medical examination, food, and transport support. For the first time since the abuse, I felt seen and cared for. The team at Rainbo Centre did not just treat my wounds; they stood beside me for every step of what came next.

When it was discovered that I could not deliver my baby naturally, the Rainbo Centre paid for my surgery. They had already paid for my scan and provided all my medications throughout and after my pregnancy. I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Throughout it all, I continued going to school, sat my BECE examinations while pregnant, and have since resumed classes. I am now in SSS I.

Rainbo Initiative did not stop there. They enrolled me in the Self-Help Group, where I attend regular meetings and feel part of a community again. Through one of their partner programmes, I now receive a monthly social income of Le 800 for 36 months, providing stability and allowing me to support my son and continue my education.

Today, I have returned to live with my grandmother. I am healing, my son is growing, and I am preparing for a future I once could not imagine.

"What happened to me does not define where I am going. Through the care and support of the Rainbo Initiative, I found my dignity again, and I am not letting it go."

My story is proof that even when the people closest to you fail you, compassionate and consistent support can restore a life. I am still here. I am still learning. And I am not done yet.

🚫 No means NO always❕

Consent matters. Respect matters. Together, we can end all forms of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) by promoting respect, supporting survivors, and speaking out against abuse.

✋ Say NO to SGBV. Stand for a future free from violence.