Sierra Leone

Strenghtening Communities - Na Wi Pot

The Mano River Basin, encompassing the forest region where Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia meet, is a particularly vulnerable region as an epicenter of conflict and atrocities in recent wars. Since 2003, this area has been the focus of Na Wi Pot, a project that promotes peace, prevents and responds to violence in vulnerable border communities with its base in the Kailahun District of Sierra Leone. During the war, most civilians living in the area fled while the various fighting forces terrorized those that remained. Now that the war has ended and the soldiers have disarmed, many challenges face Kailahun. As refugees return to the district, the returnees and the ex-combatants need to determine how to live together as a community.

Suspicions and stereotypes abound, and divisive rumors circulate regularly. Supported by a consortium comprising the International Rescue Committee (IRC), Center for Victims of Torture (CVT), and Search for Common Ground/Talking Drum Studio (SFCG/TDS), Na Wi Pot promotes community-focused public awareness and education; advances social cohesion; strengthens the capacity of individuals, community structures, local organizations, and governing institutions in border communities; and offers direct services to war and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) victims, reinforcing its efforts through locally-developed radio programming.

SFCG's role has been media and outreach programming that support regional solidarity and social reintegration around Kailahun District and border communities in Liberia's Lofa County and Guinea's forest region. In 2003, SFCG/TDS launched a community radio station, Radio Moa, giving voice to the people of the Mano River Basin and providing information access where communication structures were almost nonexistent. With listener ratings as high as 85% in some areas, Radio Moa provides local and regional radio programming targeting the concerns and issues of various interest groups, particularly youth and women, while highlighting success stories of local action resolving problems and working directly with other Na Wi Pot programs.

Through Radio Moa, SFCG national and district programming strands are aired linking national issues into community dialogue and vice versa thereby creating a sense of nationhood and inclusion.

In the project's first year, SFCG and its partners implemented and put into operation a community radio station; four community resource centers; three district-wide peace-building events and activities attended by over 35,500 youth, ex-combatants, women and returnees; completed capacity building for 788 community members, line-ministry employees, and public servants; and provided direct services to over 1,110 clients, including psychological counseling, information on local conditions, and skills training to trauma and GBV survivors.

SFCG/TDS supports the outreach programs of the Na Wi Pot consortium, drawing people, networks, and resources together. SFCG/TDS encourages social cohesion via drama performances and increases individual capacities through training, reports on and raises public awareness of campaigns such as UNICEF's National Child Protection Campaign, and creates and adapts radio programs to reflect current national and community concerns.

Radio Moa Programmes

Radio Moa programming highlights include a Mende program that uses traditional local stories, proverbs, and parables to explore human rights within the Mende traditions and culture in order to generate discussion.

• Prevention is Better than a Cure focuses on HIV/AIDS and health-related issues;

• Cool Heart Talk Programme addresses suicide prevention;

• Unity Boat, a radio drama, focuses on identified issues specific to the forest region.

Community focused programs have also been developed such as:

• Tok from Wi Paramount Chief Dem'is, where Kailahun District paramount chiefs talk about community plans and activities, and

• Kpala Hindasia, which allows farmers to talk<p> about local farming issues.

Other programs address cross-cutting issues such as drug abuse, GBV, war trauma, torture, human trafficking, human rights, governance, democracy and shared values and experiences of diverse groups of people across the Mano River Basin including youth, refugees, returnees, ex-combatants, and survivors of torture and GBV abuses. Broadcasts are in several local languages including Mende, Kissi, Krio, and Liberian English.