Goodwill envoy meets women and children

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) goodwill ambassador Daniela Poggi visited several programmes in Sierra Leone's northern Kambia district on Tuesday to hear, at first hand, the needs and concerns of women and children affected by war. The Italian actress, who arrived in Sierra Leone on Friday, visited health, education and water sanitation facilities, as well as a child protection programme run by the nongovernmental organisation Caritas, UNICEF Regional Communications Officer, Kent Page told IRIN on Tuesday. Poggi also visited a complementary rapid education programme for primary schools, which targets children left out of the normal school programme because of war. This initiative compresses a six-year learning programme into three years "so the children can catch up", Page said. After arriving on Friday, Poggi visited three UNICEF-supported programmes in the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, the following day. These included a programme for separated children run by the Italian-based nongovernmental organisation (NGO) Coopi, a street children's programme run by the Irish NGO Goal, and a drop-in centre for girls and women who have survived sexual abuse. On Monday, the actress met Sierra Leone's Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Septimus Kaikai, and Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs, Shirley Yema Gbujama. Travelling to Kambia, she stopped at a community for war amputees and a UNICEF-supported school, according to Page. She was due to visit Makeni, also in northern Sierra Leone, on Wednesday and Kenema, in Eastern Province, on Thursday.