SLADEA in Peace Day Celebrations 2013 : Peace at Home

s the 2013 campaign of the Civil Peace Service Network for International Day of Peace, on 21st September, SLADEA as a member of the network was also taking part in the program to raise awareness on problems affecting Peace at Home and proposing solutions. With the initiative the network of partners of the German Organisations Bread for the World – Protestant Development Service (BfdW) and Association of Development Cooperation (AGEH) want to sensitize the public on the destructive effect of domestic violence, sexual harassment and abuse. Provincial Tours Together with Freetong Players International the CPS-Partners traveled to the provincial Headquarter towns of the country -Kenema, Bo, Makeni and Freetown to spread out the message. The stages for the performance were central market places, to reach the masses. A huge audience attended the shows and gave interesting feedback and agreed with the topic of the drama: ”That is exactly what I am experiencing at home …” Lessons Learnt From The Play The play is about a small family consisting of an alcoholic, jobless and violent father. Virgina a helpless mother relentlessly trying her best to feed and raise her family and Sally their unique daughter. In the play, Virgina encourages Sally to have a love affair with Uncle Moiwo, an old friend of the family just arriving from the United States of America. She expects him to give her daughter all the Dollars he brought from the USA. Virgina naively believes Uncle Moiwo who pretends having brought 40 containers with him, and promises to help Sally´s parents who are facing many financial difficulties. But the real intention of Uncle Moiwo is to date Sally and sexually abuse her. While the abused Sally, kneeling down in the middle of the street, having no other choice than to cry, to express her bitterness, a young couple, speak to her, take her home and sermonize her parents. Finally both recognize their responsibilities and promise that this will never happen again and that they will from that moment, do their best in order to turn their home into a lovely heaven of peace, harmony and happiness. Final Performance On the 21st of September, the date of the International Day of Peace, was the final concert at St. Anthony Hall, Syke Street in Freetown. Not just the Freetong Players International that rocked the house, other musicians of the Peace Song attended the great show. At the end of the program the audience were asked to give some short peace statements such as PEACE starts at HOME, PEACE starts with YOU, PEACE makes your home BEAUTIFUL, PEACE maintains LOVE and much more. The CPS-Network looks back to a very successful campaign 2013.