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Investor Trip to Sierra Leone, West Africa

February 15th to February 23rd, 2009

This is a trip designed for investors in the work of Search for Common Ground (SFCG). We will be visiting the people of Sierra Leone in a spirit of partnership and solidarity, recognizing that they are tackling incredibly challenging issues in their daily work to rebuild their country. This will be a unique opportunity to visit a country that is recovering from ten years of violent civil war. We will meet and learn from its people, and witness the breadth and depth of the extraordinary work that is being undertaken to transform the conflict and bring about a sustained peace.

Trip participants will meet in Brussels airport on Sunday, February 15th and fly together to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. Once in Freetown, participants will be fully briefed on the history of Sierra Leone and current conditions. We will hear how Search for Common Ground is addressing the issues that are key to building peaceful communities throughout the country. We will experience life in the city and then enjoy the richness of a rural community – we are planning a field trip for two nights, in different locations.

Voters in 2007's presidential elections

Search for Common Ground has two major areas of work in Sierra Leone - its countrywide media (through its radio programming – and known as Talking Drum Studio) and its community peace-building unit. Talking Drum Studio has been enormously successful and its programming reaches about 90% of the country. The two activities work together in a powerful and synergistic manner, and deal with many varied topics, such as re-integrating child soldiers and returning ex-combatants, HIV-AIDS, corruption, education, health and women's rights. We will hear how last year SFCG played an important role in ensuring peaceful democratic elections, and how women are being empowered to take on local leadership roles.

Sierra Leone is a beautiful, tropical, resource-rich country – while at the same time it is at the very bottom of most of the UN indicators for poverty. So the trip will be fascinating, inspiring and challenging. We will be based in a comfortable hotel in Freetown and then escorted on all our excursions throughout the week. The costs on the ground are $2,900 per person, including all hotels and transport, but not flights.

This promises to be a ‘once in a lifetime' experience. If you are interested or have further questions please contact Jane Shaw at jshaw@sfcg.org or (415) 331-3123, or Philip Hellmich at phellmich@sfcg.org or (202) 777-2202.

Click here to read more about Search for Common Ground's work in Sierra Leone.