By Foday Moriba Conteh
In a bid to validate and share the findings of a research conducted in 2021 by talented Sierra Leonean students in the country, the One Family People (OFP) in collaboration with the Institute of Gender Research and Documentation (INGRADOC), Fourah Bay College, and with support from the Liliane Fonds has on Wednesday 2nd March 2022 held its first ‘Breaking Down Barriers’ learning event to unveil the findings on Breaking Down Barriers 2021. The event took place at the Peace Museum Hall of the former Special Court for Sierra Leone at New England Ville in Freetown.
Speaking during the ceremony, the Executive Director of One Family People, Edward Emanuel, disclosed that ‘Breaking Down Barriers’ was initiated by the Liliane Foundation and the African Studies Centre (Leiden University) to identify the success factors of advocacy for children with disabilities. Together with One Family People in Sierra Leone, the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services and Cheshire Home Society of Zambia, an academic research was conducted with a view that the findings will serve as inputs to build a strong capacity for effective disability advocacy.
He said that while engaging stakeholders on their first learning event of ‘Breaking Down Barriers’ findings, a research is being conducted by a wonderful student on the Radical Inclusive Education Policy and the social safety net implemented by NaCSA.
According to him the One Family People in Sierra Leone, the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services and Cheshire Homes Society of Zambia are offering field supervision in order to ensure that the research is context-sensitive and meets quality and ethical standards.
He revealed how the project is aimed at generating robust evidence on the success factors of advocacy for children living with disabilities.
Edward Emanuel further highlighted that ‘Breaking Down Barriers’ Phase One wrapped up since 2020, during a final conference which brought together a good number of stakeholders from the academia.
Giving an overview of ‘Breaking Down Barriers 2, the Program Manager of One Family People, Samuel P.O.V Macaulay, mentioned that the research will mark the second phase of the project underscoring how they are in Breaking Down Barriers Phase 2 (BDB 2) after completion of BDB 1 which ended in 2020.
He stated that One Family People collaborated with the Institute of Gender Research and Documentation (INGRADOC) Fourah Bay College to validate and share the findings of the research conducted in 2021 by talented Sierra Leonean students on the following topics: “The Role of Successful School Leaders in the Implementation of Inclusive Education in Primary Schools”, “Examine the Inclusiveness of the Social Safety Net Program and focusing on PWDs”.
He went on to maintain that they decided to embark on the research because they want to act on key issues that are affecting persons with disabilities, get the facts right and then put them together.
Macaulay added that the research was not focused on identifying faults alone, but rather to know what were going on in disability circles in order to act on them to optimize provisions for disable persons across the country.
He said the undertaken BDB research focused on the social safety net programme which is implemented by NaCSA as well as the Radical Inclusion process geared towards enhanced inclusion of disabled persons within the educational system of the country.
The Programme Manager concluded by stating that the research findings will enable the Liliane Foundation to develop an evidence-based Theory of Change for disability advocacy and that it will also affect decision making processes on issues relating to persons living with disabilities in the country.
The ceremony was concluded by a presentation of the preliminary findings (cross country research), by Edson Kamara and the presentation of the preliminary findings of the national research by Kristabel Kallon.
