What Life Looks Like When Someone Sees You!

What does it truly mean to struggle in silence and feel like there’s no hope left, yet you keep going? And why? Because someone saw you. You’ve probably heard it before: how foundations and organizations assist vulnerable groups in Sierra Leone. “Oh, we do this, we do that. Here’s what we’ve done.” So, I’m not here just to tell you that. I’m here to do something different, to show you. And I hope you stick with me.

Have you ever considered what life is like for an average Sierra Leonean youth or widow? A youth who feels like opportunities are beyond reach. A widow raising children she didn’t bring into the world alone, yet must care for them by herself. She didn’t ask for this, and life didn’t ask her if that’s what she wanted, but it gave it to her anyway.

Every day, countless young people and widows across Sierra Leone face hardships like these challenges that test patience and resilience. These are realities that force you to survive, not because you choose to stay in survival mode, but because you have to. These stories are rarely heard, yet they are not just stories they are people’s lives. It can be difficult to relate if you’ve never walked in their shoes. But I urge you to care! I ask you to care enough to understand why foundations like the Jamil and Nyanga Jaward Foundation exist.

This Foundation helps young people who once struggled to find work learn basic skills and navigate the Internet to their advantage. Today, they know how to install solar panels, earn a living, and light up homes. They have the skills, confidence, and sense of purpose that come with being on a pathway, with the quiet nudge that says: “I can do this. I belong. I matter, and someone saw that too.”

When a widow once feared she couldn’t feed her children the next day, today she runs a small business that sustains her family. Why? Because the Foundation saw her potential. Because they believed that no one’s life deserves to live in constant fear and never realize the beauty of tomorrow.

This transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It happens one story, one person, one act of empowerment at a time. Through programs like the VSLA (Village Savings and Loan Association), the Foundation brings not just financial support but also family, community, and sisterhood to women. They give youth a sense of belonging, the knowledge that they are seen and valued, that they deserve help, not because they’ve done anything special, but because someone saw something in them worth investing in.

Through monthly Social Income payments, clean water projects for communities (which, by the way, help prevent teenage pregnancies, provide access to purified water, improve health, and reduce the stress of fetching water at night), and more, the Foundation makes a meaningful impact on lives.

At the Jamil and Nyanga Jaward Foundation, we don’t just talk about change; we show it and embody it through the lives of those we've helped. Behind every statistic is a story worth sharing.

To those who have always believed in the Foundation’s vision, your support is greatly appreciated, and you are genuinely helping to make a meaningful impact on these people's lives.