Published: September 18, 2026
MONROVIA — Medica Liberia has begun the Montserrado component of the SASA! Together Set-Up and Start Phase Training of Trainers, bringing together government officials, civil society organizations, community actors, and Medica Liberia staff to strengthen community efforts to prevent violence against women and girls and promote gender equality.
By Destiny D. Jabula
The nine-day training, which began on September 16 and runs through September 24, 2026, is being conducted under the Liberia Spotlight Initiative 2.0, funded by the European Union (EU) and delivered to the Government of Liberia through UN Women. It seeks to equip facilitators with the knowledge and tools to support implementation of the SASA! Together approach across Liberia’s eight target counties. The Montserrado cluster includes participants from Montserrado, Grand Bassa and Grand Cape Mount Counties.
Opening the training, Medica Liberia Executive Director Cllr. Yah V. Parwon said the initiative’s success should be measured by the change it produces in communities.
“Our purpose is not fulfilled when we complete the agenda, receive a certificate or submit a report. Those are steps along the way. Our purpose is to help build communities where women and girls can live safely, exercise their rights and participate in decisions that affect their lives,” Parwon said.
Parwon extended appreciation to UN Women Liberia for funding Medica Liberia’s work under Spotlight Initiative 2.0 and engaging a consultant from Raising Voices in Uganda to guide the training. She also acknowledged the European Union’s support to the initiative and the partnership among government, the United Nations, civil society and communities toward greater safety, equality and opportunity for women and girls.
SASA, which stands for Start, Awareness, Support and Action, is a community-driven approach to preventing violence against women and girls by examining power, gender inequality and harmful social norms while encouraging positive community action.
Parwon said the approach requires more than one-time awareness activities, stressing the need for continued engagement with individuals, community leaders and institutions.
“SASA! Together asks us to examine power: how it is used in relationships, how unequal power sustains violence against women, and how people can use their influence to support change. It is a community mobilisation approach, not simply a collection of awareness messages to deliver and move on from. It requires sustained engagement with individuals, community leaders and institutions,” she said.
The training focuses on the Set-Up and Start phases of SASA! Together, preparing participants to facilitate community dialogue, establish partnerships, engage stakeholders and support the identification and mentoring of Community Activists.
Participants include county gender and SGBV focal persons, community mobilizers, media practitioners, traditional and community leaders, and representatives of civil society organizations including Helping Our People Excel, Youth Crime Watch Liberia, Rising Youth Mentorship Initiative (RYMI) and the National Coalition Against Harmful Practices (NACAHP), among others.
Shamella E. Matthews, Executive Director of the Rising Youth Mentorship Initiative, said in her remarks that the training would help her organization strengthen its engagement with young people through school clubs and mentorship programs.
“A lot of the things that we face when we are adults, it starts from down the road. It starts from our ideologies, those things we’re exposed to. So I’m grateful and I’m glad to be here today, and I look forward to learning more about the SASA that we can be able to integrate into our school clubs and with our girls that we are mentoring,” Matthews said.
The training uses interactive discussions, reflection exercises, case studies, role plays, storytelling, simulations, group work and practical facilitation sessions to build participants’ skills in addressing power, gender equality, violence, healthy relationships and social norms.
According to UN Women Programme Analyst Dhogba G. Mabande, the training forms part of the Spotlight Initiative’s work on violence prevention and social norms, with SASA serving as a methodology for community engagement.
“This is a very key component of the Spotlight Initiative in which UN Women is contributing. Under our campaign on prevention and social norms, SASA is the innovation and methodology that we are using in our community engagements,” Mabande said.
He urged participants to pay close attention to the training as they will be responsible for taking the approach into their communities.
“We are very positive that we are going to get the best nine days of intensive training, because at the end of the day, we depend upon you to roll out these trainings and engagements in the community. We do not want errors or disagreements in the approach that will be provided, so we ask you to pay attention, be involved and ask all the questions,” he said.
At the close of the training, participants will develop county-specific action plans covering stakeholder engagement, community entry, partnerships, recruitment of Community Activists and timelines for beginning SASA! Together Start Phase activities.
The Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and County Gender Coordinators, is supporting the initiative by providing strategic guidance and aligning the program with national priorities on gender equality, GBV prevention and women’s empowerment.
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry, Spotlight Coordinator Edward E. Gboe said engaging underserved communities and stakeholders in decision-making would be important to sustaining intervention results.
“We take interest in the objective of the training, particularly engaging with local communities in the response mechanism for development. We know that our communities are mostly underserved, so all of our interventions must be intentional in mobilizing communities, especially not only our beneficiaries but our stakeholders in decision-making but also in helping us to sustain the results,” Gboe said.
The Montserrado training is the first of two geographical clusters. The second will bring together participants from Bong, Lofa, Nimba, Grand Gedeh and Maryland Counties for training in Bong County later in September and early October.
Following the training, Medica Liberia will provide mentorship, supportive supervision, coaching and technical assistance as participants begin community entry and other Start Phase activities, with follow-up, peer learning and field monitoring expected to strengthen implementation.
Parwon said the ultimate measure of the initiative would be whether the expected change is reflected in the lives of women and girls.
“The results may be reported through Medica Liberia and Spotlight, but the change must be felt in the lives of women and girls. That is the standard I ask us all to work towards,” she said.
Discussion about this post