How teens in Sierra Leone spend years in prison awaiting their trial

Categories: Africa | Photo project |

We continue to talk about how and under what conditions young people live in remote parts of the world. This time we are publishing a photo project by Fernando Moleres dedicated to Sierra Leone, a small country in western Africa, known throughout the world for its low standard of living and, perhaps, the most beautiful African landscapes. True, quite recently the title of one of the sources of the Ebola epidemic was added to the image of the state.

In Sierra Leone, there is a special prison called Pademba, to which Fernando Moleres dedicated this project, eventually receiving a Tim Hetherington grant for it. Pademba differs from any other prisons in that only teenagers are kept here, waiting for a trial for several years in their case.

As an illustration, the photographer cites the story of a young boy named Abdul Moresey, who ended up in prison on charges of murder in 2007, when he was just a child. Abdul went to the river with his friend of about the same age - as a result, the boy drowned, and his parents blamed Abdul for everything: he had no chance to get help from his family or lawyers, so he spent four years in Pademba, waiting for a verdict. Most of the teenagers in this colony can boast of similar stories - about their life behind bars and immediately after the release of Fernando Moleres and films his projects.

(Total 29 photos)