Erica Bonanno of our sister Conflict Resolution MA program is in Sierra Leone doing a program assessment for Search for Common Ground. From the first post to Erica’s blog:

My project here is to do an evaluation of the radio program dealing with children and youth issues, called Golden Kids News (here is a description of Golden Kids News on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_lFFJaMc4w). In order to evaluate the impact of this radio program on listeners, I will be spending the next few weeks traveling around the country. I will be spending a week in Kabala, a small town in Northern Sierra Leone where Search has a second office, and then another week in Bo, another rural area where we have our third office in the country. My short time in the offices will be spent talking to the producers of Golden Kids News. I will then spend about a month traveling around to villages where I will be interviewing, holding focus groups (which are pretty much group interviews), and giving out surveys. The rural areas are supposed to be much safer than Freetown. These tools, which I will be designing this week, will help to collect data about how the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of listeners may have changed as a result of listening to Golden Kids News. I will then spend my last few weeks back in Freetown, where I will write up my report and present my findings to the Directors and staff.