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CenHTRO Builds Capacity of Sierra Leone Implementing Partner World Hope International

Friday, March 25, 2022

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CenHTRO traveled to Sierra Leone in late February and early March to strengthen relationships with anti-trafficking stakeholders and continue capacity building efforts with our implementation partners in the West African country. 


In addition to attending and presenting at the National Conference on Trafficking in Persons, members of the CenHTRO team worked with implementing partner World Hope International to build clinical capacity for WHI’s Recovery Centre and monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) capacity for planning and reporting on WHI’s anti-trafficking, CenHTRO-funded projects. 
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Clinical Capacity-Building

CenHTRO Pre-doctoral fellow Elyssa Schroeder conducted clinical and organizational capacity building at WHI’s Recovery Centre during this trip. The Recovery Centre is a shelter for survivors of trafficking, located in Freetown. Schroeder met with the Recovery Centre director, social workers, counselors, and houseparents to discuss trauma-informed practices and protocols for staff and residents. This included training on neurobiology of trauma, treatment of complex trauma (polyvictimization), conflict resolution, and staff wellness. She also led a workshop to gain valuable staff feedback on WHI survivor assessment tools.

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Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Capacity-Building 

CenHTRO MEL Coordinator Dr. Rebecca Poon engaged WHI staff in a variety of MEL capacity building activities. She first worked with WHI’s four field officers and M&E coordinator to improve the clarity, feasibility, and alignment of their work plans.

She worked with the program manager and M&E coordinator on improving processes for planning and reporting of project activities, and developing action points to address needs and issues that surfaced during discussions with staff. Furthermore, she provided targeted support to strengthen the rigor of project activities, such as an activity to train local leaders and assess their growth in understanding child trafficking issues.

During the last two days of the trip, Poon worked with the social workers, counselors, and case management coordinator on MEL tasks at WHI’s Recovery Centre. She provided coaching support to the M&E coordinator as he led discussions of the data process for Recovery Centre activities. The last day was focused on data verification of select activities, outputs, and common performance indicators reported in previous quarters. 

Read more about the Sierra Leone Prevention and Response to Child Trafficking in Persons (PARC-TIP) projects.  (PDF)

The work described in this article was funded by a grant from the United States Department of State. The opinions, findings and conclusions stated herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State. 

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