In the last week of June, Sierra Leone hosted the Strengthening Families Conference, an event led by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church) in partnership with Sierra Leone’s First Lady, Fatima Maada Bio. In addition to its stated theme of “female empowerment”, “child protection” and “family values,” it was clear that the conference also wanted to highlight religious unity. The Head of the Interreligious Council of Sierra Leone, Catholic Archbishop Edward Tamba Charles, was one of the many speakers.
On the surface, the event looked harmless. The First Lady was given an award for partnering with the Mormon Church to build a Safe House for victims of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). However, not one mention was made of the specific legal reforms that would actually protect women and girls; keep the houses they already live in safe enough that they don’t need to flee to government-built shelters.
That silence was no accident.
The LDS church is working alongside Family Watch International, a U.S.-based group notorious for exporting anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion agendas. Together, they are pouring money into events across Africa to promote conservative ideology of religious devotion and rigid gender roles dressed up as “family values”.
Sierra Leone is one of their new targets.
While these foreign groups claim to care about women and children, their actions show otherwise. They fight against comprehensive sexuality education. They dismiss reproductive rights altogether. And they want governments, including ours, to enshrine their doctrine into policy.
For two days, SFC’s speakers glorified the “traditional” household. Family became a proxy for obedience and religious devotion. Women across the board were told to do more. By Archbishop Charles: “teach their daughters to be caring wives and mothers, limit extended family involvement in their marriages, and avoid the negative effects of social media.” By the First Lady: “check themselves and see what needs to be changed in their homes.” Women’s empowerment was reduced to maternal sacrifice and raising prayerful families. Topics like sexual health, gender inclusion and reproductive rights were either ignored or cast as cultural threats.
But women in Sierra Leone are not dying from a lack of faith. They are dying from a lack of access — access to contraception, quality maternal care, and safe abortions. They are dying because the laws meant to protect them are either missing or ignored.
The Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Health Care Bill could change that. It is a practical, life-saving step toward safeguarding women’s health. But instead of engaging with the bill on its merits, conservative actors have flooded the well of Parliament and public space with fear, misinformation, and imported outrage.
This is not an accident either. It is part of a strategy. And the interreligious bodies have played right along. When the Safe Motherhood Bill was presented to Parliament last December, they did not respond with empathy or evidence. They called the bill Satanic. They branded it “un-African.” They claimed no unplanned pregnancy, even one from rape, should be safely terminated.
Yet where was all this noise when the Child Rights Act was presented to Parliament? The law, which was supposed to ensure stronger safeguards against child abuse, exploitation and harmful traditional practices, fell short of explicitly outlawing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), When it was passed on 3rd July, 2025 without the most vital stipulations, despite repeated pleas from activists and experts, were the interreligious bodies galvanized to action? Did they flood Parliament with placards, t-shirts and outrage? Did we get the prayers, all-night vigils and press releases? No. Just silence. And that silence wasn’t neutrality, it was a choice not to protect children when it truly mattered.
You know who did not stay silent? The ECOWAS Court. In a landmark ruling just five days later, it found that Sierra Leone had violated its human rights obligations by failing to outlaw FGM and protect survivors from harm. It ordered the government to pass legislation, offer compensation, and take meaningful steps to prevent further abuse. That is what protection looks like. That is what valuing women and girls actually requires.
This is the real work of strengthening families. And it is done by anti-FGM activists, human rights defenders, feminist organisations, health workers, educators, and by young women and girls themselves. They are the ones keeping girls in school, pushing back against child marriage, and providing reproductive health care in clinics with few supplies and even fewer staff. They do this quietly, without grants, billboards, or foreign sponsors. But they do it effectively, because they live the reality that these conferences remain blind to.
In recent years, Sierra Leone has made meaningful progress. The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act established quotas for women’s political participation and access to financial services. The Radical Inclusion in School Policy created stronger protections against discrimination and marginalization in the educational system. These reforms were not gifts from donors or the products of hotel seminars. They were hard-won by Sierra Leonean advocates, feminist lawyers, policymakers, and communities of women who have seen their sisters and mothers suffer.
The Mormons say they love families so much they have the right to reshape ours. But look at their record: widespread sexual abuse, an ideological split over child marriage and polygamy, a history of racism, a mass exodus of original members. Their expansion is not just religious. It is political. In the past decade, Mormon membership in Africa has surged. What they are framing as harmless missionary work is strategic ideological warfare. They want influence over schools, laws, and public discourse because they have lost too much ground in their own country and see us as puppets whose souls they can colonize for a few leones.
And they know exactly where to push. In a country where institutions are under-resourced and fragile, where poverty and corruption are widespread, and economic pressures leave persistent gaps in social services that religious organisations are quick to fill, the Mormons have found fertile ground for fear-based messaging. And local partners to amplify their messages. To claim culture when it suits them. To invoke tradition when it gives their politics moral cover, and to hide behind religion the moment children require protection.
We must ask whose values these really are, and what value these imported moral codes add to the life of the average Sierra Leonean. We must resist these snake oil salesmen and their local enablers with every fibre of our being. Not just the laws they oppose, but the worldview they sell. One where rights are conditional and morality solely applies to women. Where only women must shoulder all the burdens yet make none of the decisions.
Mek we tok true. Our nation’s future will not be shaped in imported conventions with glossy brochures. It will be shaped in Parliament and clinics and classrooms, by Sierra Leoneans who truly understand what is at stake, and who demand better lives for their children. Because real families are not strengthened by slogans or scripture or speeches at Bintumani Conference Centre. They are protected by law
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