To address this challenge, Rainbo Initiative has launched a new four-year regional programme supported by the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women and Girls. The initiative will strengthen survivor-centred services, violence prevention, and cross-border coordination across the Mano River Union (MRU), ensuring that women and girls can access support regardless of where they live or move.

The programme will be implemented in Kambia District (Gbalamuya), Kailahun District (Koindu), and Pujehun District (Gendema) in Sierra Leone; Foya in Lofa County and Bo Waterside in Grand Cape Mount County in Liberia; and Pamalap in Forécariah Prefecture and selected communities in Conakry, in Guinea. These communities are connected by trade, migration, family relationships, and shared culture, but have historically been served through separate and largely unconnected protection systems. Over its lifetime, the project is expected to directly reach more than 3,000 survivors through response and service provision, and more than 300,000 people through awareness-raising, community messaging, and training for government stakeholders and frontline workers engaged in border coordination. It will also launch Voices Beyond Borders, an advocacy platform strengthening women’s voice and leadership in border communities across Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

What makes this initiative unique is its focus on the realities of women and girls whose lives regularly cross national borders. A survivor who begins receiving support in Koindu, Sierra Leone, but later relocates to Foya in Liberia or Pamalap in Guinea for safety or family reasons can easily lose access to services and support. In many cases, she must start her journey all over again, repeating traumatic experiences and navigating unfamiliar systems.

This programme is designed to change that. Through strengthened cross-border referral pathways, coordination mechanisms, and survivor-centred case management systems, service providers across Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea will be better connected and able to support survivors more consistently. Rather than creating parallel structures, the project will strengthen and link existing national systems to ensure continuity of care across borders.

Violence against women and girls remains a serious concern throughout the region. Women and girls continue to experience sexual violence, intimate partner violence, harmful practices, and other forms of abuse that limit their safety, wellbeing, and opportunities. Women engaged in informal cross-border trade often face harassment, exploitation, and abuse in border areas and marketplaces, while women and girls with disabilities frequently experience additional barriers in accessing services and justice.

The project prioritises those who face the greatest obstacles to protection and support, including survivors of sexual violence and IPV, women engaged in informal cross-border trade, adolescent girls at risk of exploitation, and women and girls with disabilities.

A central feature of the initiative is its commitment to prevention. Through community dialogues, local radio programmes, school engagement, survivor solidarity groups, and women-led prevention platforms, the project will challenge harmful social norms that perpetuate violence while promoting respect, equality, and accountability. Special attention will be given to strengthening women’s leadership and collective action through the launch of Voices Beyond Borders, a regional platform designed to amplify women’s voices and strengthen advocacy across MRU border communities.

The programme will also strengthen the capacity of health workers, police officers, social welfare officers, and justice actors to provide survivor-centred support and improve collaboration across borders. Disability inclusion will be integrated throughout the project, ensuring that services, information, and participation opportunities are accessible to women and girls with disabilities. Speaking on the significance of the programme, Daniel F.H. Kettor, Executive Director of Rainbo Initiative, said:

“This initiative represents an important step toward creating a truly cross-border response to violence against women and girls. Survivors do not stop needing support when they cross a border, and neither should our services. Through this partnership, we will strengthen coordination across Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea to ensure survivors can access effective, survivor-centred support wherever they are”

The initiative builds on Rainbo Initiative’s more than two decades of survivor-centred service delivery and its growing regional presence in Liberia and Guinea. Working alongside governments, civil society organisations, women’s rights groups, and community leaders, the programme seeks not only to improve services for survivors but also to strengthen systems, transform harmful norms, and promote lasting change across the region.

Through this initiative, Rainbo Initiative and its partners aim to build a regional model of cooperation that ensures protection, dignity, and justice follow women and girls wherever they go within the Mano River Union region.

About Rainbo Initiative

Rainbo Initiative is a survivor-centred organisation providing free medical, psychosocial, and referral support services to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence while advancing community-driven prevention, advocacy, and disability-inclusive protection across Sierra Leone and the wider Mano River region.

Media Enquiries:

Lamin Kargbo
Communications and Advocacy Coordinator
+23278752613
lamin.k@rainboinitiative.org