Elizabeth Newland

Country: Sierra Leone

My birthday is 2019-11-30

Status: Maternal Orphan

I want to be a banker.

I enjoy playing with toys.

My favorite subject is art.

Elizabeth lives with her siblings and grandmother in the fishing village of Tombo. Elizabeth's grandmother is unable to find work, so she struggles to provide for Elizabeth's basic needs. Elizabeth has a servant's heart and enjoys helping her grandmother with the housework. Her favorite color is pink, and she loves rice and potato leaf. Elizabeth's biggest wish is to attend school. She loves learning about money and hopes to become a banker one day.

Most parents struggle to provide their families with more than one meal a day, so the cost to send their children to school is not easy to come by. Typically, those who can afford to send one or two of their children to school will choose to send only their sons. Girls whose parents cannot afford to send them to school will be left at home to tend to daily chores, and their smaller siblings while the parents are away earning their daily wages. This lack of education and supervision makes girls just entering adolescence very vulnerable to teenage pregnancy. Girls who have not been given access to education are often left with no option but to marry at young ages to be financially supported by their husbands.