Six German students in partnership with Forum of Conscience (FOC) and six Sierra Leonean students have ended a six-week project on raising awareness on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report.
Ms. Diane Bombart, Ms Maike Schoelmerich, Ms Rebecca Killan, Mr Sebastian Mr Stefan Biro and Mr Moritz Monninger all German students from the southern German city of Munich came under the auspices of Commit, a volunteer association which supports local initiatives in Africa in order to implement educative development projects.
These Germans traveled together with the six Milton Margai College of Education students: Abu Bakarr Kargbo, Charlestina Riddle, Emmanuel Robin-Mason, Fatmata Sumaila, Kombah Momoh and Nancy E. Bassie and FOC to ten secondary schools in the provinces spreading basic concepts of conflict management and human rights.
The central goal of the project, according to John Caulker the director of FOC, was the promotion of the TRC report and its recommendations to contribute to sustainable peace in Sierra Leone.
He said the project was also to train the German students and the Milton Margai students in trauma management, TRC contents, conflict theory, Sierra Leonean history and team building philosophy.
Mr Caulker pointed out also that the project involved also the establishment of various methods to be used at schools to convey the TRC message in ways that could be easily understood by secondary school pupils.
After the project ended last Friday, the German students assured that, “we will tell secondary school pupils in Munich about their fellow pupils in Sierra Leone and try to create further links between our countries through pen friendships”.