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Sierra Leone

ACF applies CLTS methodology to trigger communities in the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone

The EVD outbreak in West Africa is showing that the crisis will continue until a change in the population’s behaviour will occur breaking the virus’ transmission cycle at community level. As much as the case management capacities will increase they will not be sufficient unless the international communities accomplish in triggering the change in the communities’ behaviours. How to achieve this change is at the core of the debate of the actors involved in social mobilization activities.

In Moyamba District ACF has successfully adapted the CLTS approach to respond to the peculiarities of the EVD outbreak. In the communities where ACF has piloted this new approach, Community Led Ebola Management Eradication (CLEME), the organization has accomplish to break through the reluctance of the communities in adopting specific behaviours to prevent the virus transmission and to successfully engage community volunteers in surveillance activities capable to ensure that safety measures are implemented at community level and that risky behaviours are not adopted.

James Senesie, ACF WaSH PM who designed the concept of the CLEME explains “through community discussions about Ebola and how the virus is spread, the communities are led to identify the unsafe activities they are doing and how they are putting themselves at risk for then being directed towards the identification of their own solutions to avoid infections”. Senesie adds “this approach could represent a successful model for community engagement in the fight against Ebola because it allows communities to find solution that fit their individual needs and their culture”.

Following the success of the CLTS methodology that focuses on the behavioural change needed to ensure sustainable change without utilizing a top-down approach, ACF hopes that the implementation of the CLEME approach will extend to additional communities in Moyamba District and in other districts in Sierra Leone ensuring first of all the communities’ ownership in the current Ebola emergency response and the communities’ resilience to potential future outbreaks.

Contacts in Sierra Leone:
Isotta Pivato, Advocacy Expert, advocacyexpert@sl.missions-acf.org
George Massey, WaSH Head of Department, wash@sl.missions-acf.org