By Abass Jalloh
Search for Common Ground (SCG), one of the leading organizations that seek to support peace building in conflict areas around the world, is ending its operations in Sierra Leone.
SCG has been operating in Sierra Leone since 2000, doing various interventions as a way of supporting and promoting peace after the country’s civil war.
Media Coordinator for SCG, Emrys Savage (popularly known as King Fisher), told the state broadcaster yesterday that the organization would now turn its attention to other conflict-prone places.
According to Savage, SCG is not owned by the media as most people may think, and is an international conflict-transformation organization whose Key offices are in Washington and Brussels, and operates in more than 35 countries worldwide.
Despite ceasing work in Sierra Leone Savage said the organization would continue to support the “Talking Drum Studio” – a group under SCG producing radio drama series, to continue the legacy of the organization.
He said SCG believes in a “win-win situation”, saying they help transform the world by dealing with conflicts, doing this by getting people to sit together to find long-lasting solutions to conflicts.
On their achievements, Savage explained that from 2000 to the present, the “Talking Drum Studio” has been the media and outreach tool they use to produce the famous real-time radio soap “Atunda Ayenda” which has over four thousand, five hundred (4,500) episodes.
The Atunda Ayenda programme, which is also known as “Lost and Found”, was launched by the Talking Drum Studio in 2001, and it has grown to be the studio's most popular programme in Sierra Leone. It has surpassed other programmes like Bush Wahala, Golden Kids News, Common Ground Feature, Home Sweet Home, Wi Yone Salone, Salone Uman, Leh Wi Mek Salone (formerly Troway Di Gun), and Luk Wi Pipul, all of which are produced by Talking Drum.
Additionally, Atunda Ayenda is divided into different storylines which depict or interpret the status quo of Sierra Leone.
Savage said after an earlier exhaustive focus on the disarmament and demobilization process by way of resolving conflict, the programme later focused on democratisation and good governance, transparency, gender, accountability, and many more.
Savage said Search for Common Ground helped build and transforms many community radio stations and institutions across the country. He highlighted the Independent Radio Network (IRN) as one of the institutions that Search for Common Ground has been very instrumental in supporting. He recalled producing the initials programmes for IRN in 2002, and that IRN has now grown on its own. “So that is a big legacy for us”, he said.
He disclosed that community radio stations such as Radio Moa in Kailahun, Voice of the Peninsula at Tombo, Radio Gbaft in Mile 91, and Radio Bintumani were all pioneered by SCG.
Savage added that the organization has been prominent in supporting elections processes in Sierra Leone, and having organized debates for members of parliament. He said SCG would video-record those debates and disseminate them to the people at the constituency level.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (08/06/22)
