Friday, April 26, 2013

Day 3 - From UNICEF meeting to Shakira dancing!

Another day in the LemonAid Fund week saw The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP) PhD delegates having a slew of back to back power packed meetings with different stakeholders in Sierra Leone. From the head of UNICEF to the American Ambassador and his wife, directors of the AIDS secretariat, Ministers of Education and Social Welfare, Directors of FGM NGO's, the delegation had a huge mission in front of them because everyone was excited to share possibilities and conduct dialogue with a group of psychologists from around the globe.

LemonAid enabled these meetings because of their long and trusted presence in Freetown, Sierra Leone. So much so that when Dr. Nancy Peddle (founder) walks the streets of Freetown, she's often greeted with a "Hi Aunty Nancy!". The Ministry of Social Welfare was particularly enamoured with LemonAid's work and The Chicago School Students and put forth the proposal of having a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry and TCSPP for continuing work with Sierra Leone including offering office space, Internet, support and protection.

The Group had wonderful dialogue with each stake holder by listening to in depth experience on the ground, fact checking, sharing of ideas and approaches. Through this many bridges were formed throughout the day.

The next day was very poignant to the delegation as they came out of meetings and academic ivory towers and fully demonstrated their talents and those of who they engaged. The delegation went to Goshen Community School in Rokel and listened to village students do their morning prayers, do some class work, recite skits and dance. At one point, a star dance student was asked to dance but became shy so TCSPP students instead danced to Shakira's 'Waka Waka'! The students then engaged the little students with capacity and skill building games. PhD Candidate Valerie Saffold had a blast playing with the little children and reveled in the simplicity and warmth whilst marveling at their football (soccer) skills!

The PhD delegation than drove deep up north to study and understand Female Genital Mutilation(FGM)/Cutting/Initiation and were deeply touched to interact with religious leaders, former cutters, chiefs of districts and the director James Kunduno of the Amazonian Initiative Movement. The speeches and presentations were impassioned and intellectually stimulating so much so that the FGM group spent the rest of the day whilst the remaining students went back to the Delle-Peddle School to continue work on their consultation presentations coming up to a varied cross section of Sierra Lenonian society.

1 comment:

  1. It seems that this wonderful post went missing:

    First full fledged work day in Sierra Leone and what a day! It's one thing to learn in a course and to know you're doing a field experience, but to see what your professor is all about, to literally see them walking the walk and talking the talk is something else. All of the PhD Delegates from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology (TCSPP), the USA's oldest Psychology School, stopped in awe and admiration to wonder at the school that their delegation leader Dr. Nancy Peddle had built in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Dele-Peddle School some 12 kilometres away from the centre of Freetown is nothing short of splendid. Delegates commented on being completely taken aback by the shape in which the school is in. Modern, spruced up with caring and diligent teachers, switched on children which has them seeing them ranked as some of the best in Freetown, Sierra Leone, one could not help but marvel at the delicate balance of a Western influence (e.g. the child welfare centre) juxtaposed with indigenous culture prevalent everywhere. As the delegates watched content parents pick their children up from school, we knew we were witnessing the flourishing of a seed planted a long time ago.


    The PhD delegation from The Chicago School is here to build capacity and to learn more about Sierra Leone. There are specific groups on forgiveness, trauma, female genital cutting (FGC) and education etc. Deseree Howlett, PhD Candidate from TCSPP is working in the FGC group and spoke briefly about how meeting Minister Moijueh Kaikai, Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs and Pastor Peter Kainwo changed her perspective on crucial aspects of the issue. By combining local and global thinking, a truly humanitarian partnership, Howlett was able to understand how to best proceed with the 'Children of Influence' Club her group is starting. Knowing the position of the government, of UNESCO (officials which TCS students met with through LemonAidFund) and of the pastor's on ground experience, Howlett along with her group was able to tweak the consultancy strategy for best practise in Sierra Leone. Howlett sounded completely charged up with the new knowledge and though mindful of the fact that progress might be slow, she was positive about the impact taking place slowly but surely.


    All the students, both of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and the Dele-Peddle School were floored by the library that Ms. Vicki Brown single handedly organised from the United States. Drawing on part from friends and part on ingenuity, Brown collected 20,000 books and had the shipped to Sierra Leone in a sea container. The library is nothing short of inspiring and it was evident the respect of the students who wanted to get a glimpse of 'Aunty Victoria', the lady whom the library in which they diligently study is named after. Speaking to Brown and walking around, many of the delegates were touched by the personal connections they had to text books they use in their own work with colleagues in the USA or grew up with e.g. The World Book Encyclopedia Set.


    Later, the TCS students met with various Sierra Leonian groups in the capacity of International Psychology consultants in order to facilitate ground breaking presentations and recommendations to be delivered in the near future.


    Many thanks to the Capacity Team for posting their thoughts during The Chicago School of Psychology's Field Experience to Sierra Leone.



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