Following Sierra Leone's independence from Britain in 1961, the country descended into 35 years of internal conflict, which decimated key social and economic infrastructure. Intermittent bouts of civil war have been characterized by widespread use of child soldiers, kidnapping of girls and women for use as sex slaves, rape, torture, and massive human displacement. During the war, more than 50,000 people died, while more than half the population - 2.5 million - were internally displaced. The United Nations estimates that over 416,000 Sierra Leoneans fled the fighting and sought refuge in neighboring Guinea and Liberia.

Following democratic election in May 2002, Sierra Leone embarked upon a process of peace-building and rehabilitation. Former child soldiers, rape and torture victims, and displaced peoples are slowly recovering and rebuilding their lives. Despite these recent improvements, youth in Sierra Leone continue to struggle with scarce economic opportunities, high unemployment rates, a collapsed education system and a lack of appropriate skills training programs.

War Child is supporting Artists United for Children and Youth Development (AUCAYD), a group of young people who use music, drama and dance to spread important social messages to children and youth, with a focus on HIV prevention and peace-building.

The War Child program offers IT courses, including social media use, as well as basic maintenance for both hardware and software. With the assistance of two local music studios, the participants are also trained in video and music production, using industry standard programs such as Pro Tools, Logic and AVID.

Not only will AUCAYD continue to go out into the community to spread their positive social messages, they will be using all the online and offline opportunities that the training has opened up to them to maximize the reach of the project.

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