October 21, 2015 By Memunatu Bangura
Foundation for Rural and Urban Transformation (FoRUT) has ended a one-day validation workshop on its Strategic Plan for 2016 to 2020 at the Grassroots Gender Empowerment conference hall at John Street in Freetown.
Facilitator and Development Consultant, John Augustine Lahai, noted that the session was an important milestone in the history of the organisation as it moves towards a process of transformation to fully operate in Sierra Leone as a national non-governmental organisation.
He encouraged stakeholders to critically analyse the Strategic Plan, which will take the organisation’s development intervention through 2016 to 2020.
Giving an overview of the process, Lahai said FORUT, as it was previously known, had been working in collaboration with civil society networks, government, local and external strategic partners, noting that they had also intervened in three thematic areas to achieve their programmatic results and create impact in Alcohol, Drugs and Development (ADD), Child Rights (CR) and Gender Equality (GE).
Lahai said that the “over 20 years of existence FORUT had been the empowering men, women and children to fight poverty, corruption, injustice and alcohol and drug abuse. As part of its key strategies the organisation has focused on social mobilisation, advocacy, capacity building and provision of services for long-term development.”
He stated that in the area of intervention, FORUT had targeted beneficiary groups at all levels ensuring that policies of the Government of Sierra Leone have positive impact on men, women and children across the country, especially the poor and vulnerable in communities, to empower and capacitate them to exercise their rights and fulfill their responsibilities.
Executive Director, Bio Jenneh Jalloh, explained the transitional process to stakeholders, noting that with funds from NORAD in Norway, FORUT had been operating in three geographical areas in Sierra Leone – Western Urban, Maforki Chiefdom in Port Loko district, and Kongbora and Bumpeh chiefdoms in Moyamba district.
“With the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease, FORUT has embarked on awareness raising activities, safe practices, education, information, and community’s access to the right tools contributing to the reduction of the risk and impact of the Ebola outbreak in all 80 villages it operates in Sierra Leone,” she said.
She maintained that in preparing for the transition from FORUT to Foundation for Rural and Urban Transformation (FoRUT), a comprehensive Organisational Capacity Assessment Training (OCAT) plan was developed in 2014, which now provides a road map for implementing actions required for FoRUT to become a well-established national NGO and an active member of the civil society movement in Sierra Leone.