Policy Workshop and Valentines HHH

Today was the first day of a three day National Programme Quality Workshop at the National Stadium in Freetown. Although there was already a jam packed schedule planned, I was really fortunate to be able to get a half day with all the Programme Coordinators and Field Officers from the different districts we work in in Sierra Leone - it's a rare opportunity to get them all in the same place so I didn't want to miss out!

The workshop I facilitated was all about one of Restless Development's new strategic approaches called "Shaping Policy and Practice" which I have been working on since I joined the organisation. Traditionally, we've been a very service delivery type of organisation, based on our core volunteer-led programme model which means young volunteers become peer educators (in areas such as sexual health and life skills) to other young people. All great stuff which we still do, but we're now recognising that this kind of approach leads to incremental change (dependent on individual to individual contact) rather than more transformative change (that goes to the root of a problem and tackles it through a more systemic approach). So this often means finding out which policies don't exist (or do exist but are not being implemented) and designing programmes that aim to influence the decision-makers (government, donor or private sector) who have the power to change them. So today's workshop was a mixture of capacity building (so that our teams better understand what the new approach entails) and problem brainstorming to identify what are the main policy problems facing young people in Sierra Leone today. It was great to hear all their ideas and how passionate they are about addressing the issues. 

In the evening it was the Valentines Day run with the Hash House Harriers so we all dressed up in red (some taking it to extremes - see below) and went running in an area heading out of Freetown. At one point I realised that everyone we ran past was shouting "APC APC", which is the name of the ruling political party in Sierra Leone (All People's Congress). Apparently red is their campaign colour. Probably not the wisest of moves during a potentially turbulent election year?! Maybe we'll even it on a St Patrick's Day run in green, the opposition party (Sierra Leone People's Party, SLPP) colour?!

Long days (and nights)

This morning I was up at 6:30am talking to a pineapple, practising what I wanted to get across/get out of my 9am meeting with the Governance Adviser at DFID (UK Department for International Development). That's not a sentence I thought I'd ever be writing, but needs must. 


With a lot of our office out on field visits this week I haven't been able to run any internal workshops or group sessions so I've been busy setting up and attending external meetings to identify opportunities where our Civic Participation work could fit in with what other organisations are already doing/plan to do. Think the DFID meeting went really well (thanks to the pineapple practice?!) and it looks like there are lots of possibilities to follow up on, including one that links some of the work we've been doing on empowerment and accountability initiatives with DFID in London. 


Had a really big IT breakthrough today when Outlook finally worked!! I cannot begin to describe what a difference it makes to be able to download emails (when the internet is working) and then work on them offline. It means I'm not so reliant on the internet working throughout the day as long as it comes on enough to send and receive at various points. So I spent the rest of the day catching up on emails, following up from this morning's meeting and planning for the upcoming Programme Quality Conference in Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) at the end of February. I've felt so in the dark about so many things that I'd usually be really clued up on, so today it was like someone turning on a lightbulb to be able to get back up to speed. 


I didn't get home till 7pm and was just trying to figure out what I had in the flat to eat (an onion, some pasta, 2 tomatoes and a pineapple - yes the same pineapple from this morning) when Mr and Mrs Jabba invited me in to join them for grilled mullet, tabbouleh, hummus and Lebanese flat bread. I heart the Jabbas. Really kept me going all night while I was working on a report for the National Youth Commission on the role/capacity of District Youth Councils. I am really tired and it just seems like there aren't enough hours in the day, but I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow, eating croissants and drinking coffee at Bliss before joining Jem and Chris (who I met through the Open Mic night at O'Casey's) for an afternoon guitar/ukulele jam session. Hopefully with beer. Over and out for the weekend...

Mr and Mrs Jabba, "feeding me up" (as she says!)

Meet the Sierra Leone team!

Today I thought I'd introduce some of the team in our office in Freetown. It's not everybody, as I'm learning that it's very rare that everyone's in Freetown at the same time because so many of our programmes are located in other regions and managed from field offices all over the country. But hopefully it'll give a flavour of the office environment and some of the great people I'm working with, as well as some of the surrounding community(!)

With Mr Mansour, the tailor next to the office. He's going to make me an African dress once I buy some material 

Josephine (with her daughter) who I buy my bananas from everyday

The Youth Leadership and Advocacy Team - James, Quentin and David

Ahmed, Finance Coordinator/aka the boss man (-;

Mahmoud, the IT guy who got my Outlook to work. He's my bud

With Kebbie, who has a unique skill for bringing me tea and chilling me out just at the moment I want to throw my computer out the window. Don't know what I'd do without him! 

James - Monitoring and Evaluation Manager/aka Logframe King!

Jalloh, Youth Leadership and Advocacy Programme Manager

The ladieeeeeeeeeez (in a very male dominated office!) - Juliette (Office Security/my Krio Teacher) and Fatthi (Administrator/my Sierra Leonean Fashion Guru)

Field trip to Rotifunk

Rotifunk. Quite possibly the coolest name for a town I've ever heard. Had visions of a community of James Brown fans, but as it turns out they're more into Afropop, which frankly is still very funky. 

Today, Cathrin (Sierra Leone Country Director), Thomas (incoming Senior Manager who's visiting from his current job with AusAID in Papua New Guinea), Daniel (Youth Empowerment Programme Coordinator) and I left Freetown in the morning and headed east along possibly the bumpiest road I've ever been on, but the road was nothing compared to the bridge that we had to cross to get there. We all decided to walk it, leaving poor David (the driver) to brave taking the car across on his own.

The bridge to access Rotifunk

One of the better tracks

On the bridge to Rotifunk

We started the visit with a performance from the Youth Action Group who our Volunteer Peer Educators are supporting through their work with the community. I have never heard such strong, confident singing from a group of young people and found myself reminiscing about pathetic school assembly singing at home when I was at school. Pales in comparison. 

We then had a meeting with the Rotifunk Community Board, made up of key people like the school principal, church minister, district council reps, district and chiefdom youth council rep and community health officers. All spoke highly of the great work our Volunteer Peer Educators are doing, raising awareness about issues such as teenage pregnancy, STDs, drug and alcohol abuse and delivering training such as civic education and sexual and reproductive health education. We then went to see them in action at the community's Youth-Friendly Resource Centre. They were so passionate about the work they're doing and I was thoroughly impressed with their dedication and adaptability to work in a community completely different from their own (we place volunteers nationwide) that speaks a different language, eats different food and has different customs. It's the first time I've had a chance to see our volunteer programme in action since I joined Restless Development back in June last year, and it really brought everything to life which is massively motivating, and makes my internet/power/water frustrations seem really insignificant in contrast.

Youth Action Group in full voice

School principal opening the Community Board meeting

With Thomas (our new Senior Programme Manager) and the Volunteer Peer Educators

River Number Two

Went to a beautiful beach called River Number Two down the coast from Freetown today. Called River Number Two because of the river that flows into the sea there. Doesn't appear to be a River Number One though, which is a bit confusing. I'll let the photos speak for themselves...  

First full week!

I've just reached the end of my first full week in Freetown and despite continuing to struggle with the limited access to internet, power and water I'm starting to make some (albeit slow) progress at work.


This week I've facilitated three internal sessions on Civic Participation - an introductory session for the programmes team, a problem analysis session with the managing committee and a visioning session with everyone. The important thing with all these sessions is that the ideas are coming from our team in Sierra Leone and I'm just facilitating the process. After all, I'm only here for a short time and won't actually be implementing any of the programmes directly myself. The team here are really enthusiastic and came up with some great problem trees that analysed the causes and consequences of some of the most pressing issues for young people in Sierra Leone (many in relation to the upcoming elections). Later in the week, I ran a visioning workshop to get everyone to think about the change we want to see for young people in Sierra Leone in three years time. Being a hot Friday afternoon when everyone (including me) was starting to flag, I wanted to make it as fun as possible and really get some "blue sky thinking" going on to push the boundaries of our day in-day out programmes work. Everyone got really into it and came up with some great ideas that have given us a clearer picture of the changes we want to see in Sierra Leone in terms of Civic Participation. So the next step is to connect the dots from where we are now (problem analysis) to where we want to be (vision). It's a bit like having the bookends to an empty shelf of books which we now need to fill. 

Facilitating the Civic Participation workshops

David Bayo and Cathrin Daniel present their Civic Participation Visioning

Civic Participation Problem Tree Analysis - Cathrin, James and Jalloh

Also this week, I visited some of our drama peer educator volunteers in the middle of Freetown. I've never seen anything like it. They basically pick a really busy spot and draw attention to themselves by singing, dancing and drumming in order to get a crowd interested. They then perform drama skits to raise awareness around issues ranging from HIV/AIDS and drug and alcohol abuse to voter education. Really impressive stuff, especially in the midday heat.

The drama volunteer peer educators in action. Can you spot me and Hilda (new Programme Manager from The Netherlands)?! 

Chatting to the drama volunteers after their skit

Open Mic night at O'Casey's

Tonight I braved singing and playing my ukulele (which I've never done in public) at an Open Mic night at O'Casey's (the popular Irish bar in Freetown). There's a reggae band who play every week, and you can just get up and perform whatever you want. It's a really nice atmosphere and they serve cheap beer and the best burgers I've had in ages. Result.

Last minute chord check with Jem

Freetown ukulele debut (-;

Singing with Tom on guitar