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• Our office: Freetown
• Our areas of focus: Health, empowering women and girls, media development, economic opportunity
• Our partners: , ,
• On social media:  , and

About our work

Radio is still the most important source of information in Sierra Leone, but online access is growing quickly, particularly among young people. We’ve been working in Sierra Leone since 2007 on projects that span radio, mobile, social media and community discussion groups. We are proud to run Sierra Leone’s most popular Facebook page, which played a significant role in dispelling misinformation during the country’s 2018 and 2022 elections.

In 2019 we launched a bold new girls’ education and empowerment project – supporting radio stations across the country to create vibrant programming that challenges the discriminatory attitudes holding girls back from realizing their dreams. Our Kokotu Barray (Open Secret) radio drama addresses the challenges which girls often face in Sierra Leone - including relationships and teen pregnancy - while discussion programs feature girls' own success stories, to inspire others to return to education or training.

During the 2022 presidential and parliamentary elections in Sierra Leone, we recognized the need for media literacy training to a growing youth population who use social media every day and are at risk of being drawn into fake news, hate speech and disinformation. We trained bloggers, journalists and influencers on how to use social media responsibly and how to detect fake news. We also used our Facebook page to reach audiences on responsible use of social media and detecting and stopping mis- and disinformation and hate speech.

Our Women Arise and Shine project promotes women’s participation in social, economic, and political space and rights by increasing women’s access to economic resources and in decision-making processes. We provided technical support to a local radio partner (Radio Wanjei) to produce radio content, organise listening sessions and facilitate community discussions around women and girls’ empowerment.

We have also worked with GDI Hub and Koalaa to raise awareness of the power of assistive technology for people living with disabilities in Sierra Leone. Our film series, Hands On, features three amazing stories of how assistive technology has brought immense change in individuals’ lives, while highlighting their challenges.

Sierra Leone is also one of three countries of focus for our flagship media development project, PRIMED (Protecting Independent Media for Effective Development) - through which we are strengthening independent media to produce trusted public-interest journalism and generating evidence around what works in strengthening media viability.

Previously, our Tawa Fo Welbodi (Determined For Health) project provided trusted information and busted harmful myths about malaria, a disease which accounts for 40% of deaths outside hospital, and - during the COVID-19 pandemic- information about the virus and when and how to seek treatment. This project built on the expertise and insight our team gained during the 2014-15 Ebola crisis, when we worked closely and swiftly with media and NGO partners to provide life-saving information through radio discussion and drama programming, public service announcements, digital content and capacity strengthening.