Psycho Social support for Ebola victims

As IsraAID Sierra Leone ushered in the new year embarking on new projects that marked a shift from Ebola recovery to sustainable development in Sierra Leone, in line with the government agenda for 2017. Work started immediately with the conceptualization and preparatory foundation for two new project focusing on reducing sexual gender based violence and adding psychosocial support modules in the education system, helping to build the capacity of public school teachers.

IsraAID is taking a community based grassroots approach to programming this year aiming to involve the community not just beneficiaries in all our projects. It is only with their help that we can be successful and sustainable.

In order to ensure the community takes ownership of IsraAID’s projects, the field staff set out to meet with various stakeholders from the government to the populous, holding meetings not only to share ideas but to hear how the community sees themselves as partners in the projects.

IsraAID met with the Ministry of Education, to discuss how and where to pilot our psychosocial support curriculum for teachers.  With the full support of the ministry IsraAID is set to begin implementation in early March.

IsraAID also held stakeholder meetings with different community factions including, the police, military, chiefs, traditional leaders, heads of local government, and community members to discuss a program to reduce the instances of gender based violence in the district and improve referral pathways for those who need support follow an incident. The all stakeholders were very supportive and looking for ways to be actively engaged in the project including requests for training and support with difficult cases.

IsraAID Sierra Leone will continue to support the country’s neediest people providing programming that answers the needs of the people and the government in the most sustainable way possible.