Unfortunately in Sierra Leone today a majority of its nationals are unemployed. This is a matter of fact, the government estimates about 62 percent are without jobs. The impact of unemployment seem to hit the youths more than any other section of society.

This condition seems somehow desperate and authorities concerned for the welfare of youths like, the Ministry of Youth and Sport and other local and international NGOs,  are trying to find ways to reduce the number of youths on the street of Freetown.

Around June 2007, many youths were employed by the Youth Employment Scheme (YES), an initiative which was incorporated by a local organisation to clean the streets of the city. As a result many youths benefited from the scheme, and it also helped to  cut down the number of street hawkers and young people existing by street life. There did appear to be problems with the scheme, for example the amount of wages was not very attractive and this resulted in the situation again seeming to deteriorate. The number of street children and youth  seems to increase everyday as a result of lack of support and other basic necessities.

 The young people nowadays, especially the female often turn to do petty trading in the streets of Freetown . Some of them have no alternative but to turn to prostitution to survive.  As for the male counterpart they engage in small hand businesses around the streets, neighbourhoods and in peoples backyards. They are referred to as juman in Sierra Leone. These are the types of people that you can find around the street of Freetown. Decent, agile and young looking guys just doing what they can for basic necessities.

”Freetown” may symbolise “freedom” but  it is not free to live as the name may be taken to imply. People are not free to get whatever they want without money and it must be high on the new government’s agenda to generate meaningful employment and real jobs for the youth of the country.