Mediation: a tool for building community peace

Josephine Koroma works as Communication Officer at the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone (CCSL), and was one of the beneficiaries of a two-day training in MEDIATION Tool organised for field staff by the BftW-CPS Network in Sierra Leone. The training was conducted from February 29^th through March 1^st, 2024 in Freetown, and was part of a series of capacity building interventions being rolled out by members of the Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP is a new initiative introduced to the network by the BftW-CPS Support Team to build a team of local “experts” in various fields to continue with the work of the former even beyond BftW support.

Below, Josephine expresses her thoughts and impressions about the new-found knowledge and skills in MEDIATION…

“I consider the recent training on mediation very helpful to me and my organisation, because I have been equipped with added knowledge which I can use to promote peace in our communities of operations.

I think, conflict is natural and part of life. We encounter conflicting situations in our daily activities; in communities, within families, in organisations and so on. But it is sometimes not bad in itself, as it can have either productive or destructive ending – depending on how it is handled or managed. This is what makes “mediation” a very important tool for development and peacebuilding practitioners like us.

Like other CPS partners in Sierra Leone, we have many challenging and unresolved social issues, especially among community members. From this training, I see mediation as a structured and voluntary process that will enable us to now support local leaders to resolve some of the thorny issues in their communities.

I’m very grateful to BftW-CPS for giving us such an opportunity to learn and grow in our professional jobs!”

Josephine Koroma, Communication Officer – CCSL