Social Workers Sierra Leone (SWSL)-Click here to learn more.
SWSL awards Dr. Nancy Peddle and LemonAid Fund a Certificate of Appreciation
Hassan Koroma founded Social Worker Sierra Leon (SWSL) in 2012 after completing his Diploma in Social Work from Milton Margai College of Education and Technology in Sierra Leone. Social Work, though professionally recognized for decades in many countries, is a fairly new and misunderstood profession in Sierra Leone. He soon discovered that leveraging the professional profile of social work would require an organized group of local social workers which has evolved into SWSL now 144 members strong. Guided by the mission, “To nurture and develop every social worker and also to strive to improve the lives of our community members”, they have since improved countless lives through engaging in various services and projects.
Hassan's initial connection with LemonAid Fund was in 2011 through a mutual acquaintance at a time when he was struggling to launch his idea of organizing a professional social work society in Sierra Leone. Dr. Nancy began the process of building Hassan's capacity, skills and knowledge through coaching and funding various psychosocial projects which included LemonAid Fund's signature psychosocial approach: Forgiveness, Gratitude and Appreciation in efforts to prevent youth violence.
In 2014, the Ebola crisis hit Sierra Leone causing a shift in the efforts of SWSL to crisis response. LemonAid Fund saw SWSL as one of the network partners and provided support to their efforts. Throughout the Ebola crisis SWSL provided psychosocial support, community healing, distribution of basic needs of food, clothing as well as psychosocial care of orphans.
In November 2017, Dr. Nancy facilitated a community-based psychosocial support training for 30 SWSL members to help them in their efforts to assist survivors of the August 2017 mudslide that killed over 1,100 people and left over 3,000 traumatized and homeless. The training along with financial support enabled the social workers to engage in 6 weeks of group sessions for 75 families out of the 1,616 households affected by the disaster. This training has helped build the capacity of SWSL in addressing and helping with building a more resilient and peaceful Sierra Leone.
Currently, as Sierra Leone’s people adjust after a presidential election which brought a change in parties, unrest continues to surface in various regions prompting SWSL to send a proposal to LemonAid Fund that provides FGA psychosocial support to address and prevent post election violence. “There are so many differences between party supporters and among people internally of how they perceive the elections,” Hassan explains. “Here in Sierra Leone, elections have a different dimension. It is clearly a country that remains very divided by politics due to the variety of ethnic groups and tribes.” The FGA sessions are helping heal the divide. Hassan states that these sessions allow the participants "to pin down things with the election, allow them to see beauty of letting go of the things you don’t have control over.”
Hassan's initial connection with LemonAid Fund was in 2011 through a mutual acquaintance at a time when he was struggling to launch his idea of organizing a professional social work society in Sierra Leone. Dr. Nancy began the process of building Hassan's capacity, skills and knowledge through coaching and funding various psychosocial projects which included LemonAid Fund's signature psychosocial approach: Forgiveness, Gratitude and Appreciation in efforts to prevent youth violence.
In 2014, the Ebola crisis hit Sierra Leone causing a shift in the efforts of SWSL to crisis response. LemonAid Fund saw SWSL as one of the network partners and provided support to their efforts. Throughout the Ebola crisis SWSL provided psychosocial support, community healing, distribution of basic needs of food, clothing as well as psychosocial care of orphans.
In November 2017, Dr. Nancy facilitated a community-based psychosocial support training for 30 SWSL members to help them in their efforts to assist survivors of the August 2017 mudslide that killed over 1,100 people and left over 3,000 traumatized and homeless. The training along with financial support enabled the social workers to engage in 6 weeks of group sessions for 75 families out of the 1,616 households affected by the disaster. This training has helped build the capacity of SWSL in addressing and helping with building a more resilient and peaceful Sierra Leone.
Currently, as Sierra Leone’s people adjust after a presidential election which brought a change in parties, unrest continues to surface in various regions prompting SWSL to send a proposal to LemonAid Fund that provides FGA psychosocial support to address and prevent post election violence. “There are so many differences between party supporters and among people internally of how they perceive the elections,” Hassan explains. “Here in Sierra Leone, elections have a different dimension. It is clearly a country that remains very divided by politics due to the variety of ethnic groups and tribes.” The FGA sessions are helping heal the divide. Hassan states that these sessions allow the participants "to pin down things with the election, allow them to see beauty of letting go of the things you don’t have control over.”
In addition to collaborating on the projects and trainings, LemonAid Fund has supported SWSL in their Social Work Month celebrations during the month of March for the past three years. The 2018 Social Work Month celebration was a joint collaboration of SWSL and the social work societies of both Fourah Bay College and Milton Margai College of Education and Technology. The festivities included a public awareness march with nearly 300 participants, and a discussion of the social work profession with the theme of 'Social Workers: Leaders, Advocates & Champions’ (borrowed from the United States National Association of Social Work).
Hassan hopes to travel to other countries internationally and in West Africa to meet directly with social work professionals who can help SWSL achieve their goal to provide sustainable programs that will demonstrate long term measurable results making it the “face” of social work in Sierra Leone.
Since that first meeting in 2011, Dr. Peddle and LemonAid Fund have served as a mentor, coach, and funding resource to SWSL. “I am most grateful for her help in identifying my potential and recognize my dreams into reality,” says Hassan. “Dr. Nancy gave me the tools and now I can really make a difference. She helped me to actually feed the beauty of my work into reality.“
