Youth Millennium Foundation

My name is Alpha Barrie, and I am the youth coordinator of the youth millennium anti-drug abuse project Sierra Leone.

 

I have seen and observed the problems of drug abuse amongst youth in post-conflict Sierra Leone. During the brutal and destructive civil war in Sierra Leone, drugs have been known to have fuelled/facilitate some of the terrible human right abuses committed by rebel forces, of

African ECOMOG forces and militias loyal to the government of Sierra Leone. Many of these youth were former child combatants who have grown through war years, and can hardly cope without such drug abuse. Yet in finding alternatives to their problems, I founded the project youth millennium anti-drug abuse project to take the challenge and effect positive change and transformation in the lives of these youth.

It is hard to see young people I have known in my childhood, with whom I grew up as neighbors and friends to be carried away into the awful practice of taking drugs and influenced by other negative activities. I could not turn a blind eye to these challenges young people face in my community and so decided to fight back in ways that can help change these bad attributes.  I realized the enormous influence and peer pressure from other young people that has at last drifted the youth into drugs and gangs. I believe that they have a future and must not languish in the streets. Through involving the youth in positive community activism, volunteering on issues of peace, role plays, theatre, drama, music, computer training and other educational and recreational activities, I am beginning to see little by little the great impact and change amongst the youth from drug abuse to youth who are gaining a sense of self-esteem through youth community service and enterprise, through youth entrepreneurship, training and activism..