Andrea and Rob's experience in Pujehun District

 In the light of the Fourth Quarter HIV / AIDS Project sponsored by Global Fund, we visited the provinces for a period of five weeks. During these five weeks, we have conducted several pre-visitations to the different Chiefdoms, we sensitized 14 villages and 1700 people, and we organized a four-day HIV / AIDS workshop for 100 participants.

 The first two weeks Rob and Ahmed (a local volunteer) were very busy with the pre-visitations and the sensitizations. The pre-visitations entailed meetings with Paramount Chiefs, Councils of elders, youth leaders, women leaders, Mammie Queens etc. These meetings were used to inform the different Chiefdoms about PCSL and the project. Herewith, the structure of the program was discussed and a profound foundation for the rest of the project was formed.

 

The sensitization sessions took place after the pre-visitation meetings. In agreement with the Paramount Chiefs, travel schedules were created to visit all the villages. During these sessions, Ahmed and Rob sensitized around 1700 people about HIV / AIDS.

After two weeks, Andrea and Alisha joined Rob and Ahmed. From this moment, we started to prepare for the workshops. These preparations included logistics - like accommodation, food and transport –, selecting participants and creating the contents, manuals and other working materials for the workshops.

 

From the 28^th of September until the 1^st of October, the workshops took place in Futah Pejeh (one of the Chiefdom’s headquarters). Besides the workshops, we also took care of the entertainment. We arranged movie shoots (imagine people who have never seen a television, let a lone stand a movie on a big screen) and a football gala.

 

 For us, these weeks were very impressive. Before we came to Sierra Leone, we were dreaming about small huts, no electricity and no running water. However, to experience it in real life was completely different. Of course, it wasn’t always easy. After a few weeks, you are really looking forward to a shower and maybe a hamburger. But….the beautiful surroundings of the provinces, the hospitality of the local people, the adorable little children and of course the good work you can do give you so much more.

At this moment, it is hard to imagine that we have spent more than 5 weeks in the provinces. When we think back at it, time went by so quick. We had an amazing time, with some good and of course also bad experiences. But looking back at those 5 weeks, we are very grateful that we had the opportunity to experience the rural life up close. One thing is for sure, this experience really helped us to get a better understanding about Sierra Leone, its people, its culture and development work in general.