I have finally arrived in Luton to begin working for Home Leone. My plan is to work in Luton at the Home Leone office until the foundations are set and ready for the big move to Sierra Leone. My role initially is to address the organisation of research, a key aspect required to implement the most sustainable, relevant and effective project possible.
The most important aspect of which is the research into understanding and learning from the community we are building for.
Alongside facilitating the generation of funding and contributing to the communications and marketing, I am spending much of my time thinking about how Home Leone is going to look in practice and therefore what aspects of research are key to understanding the community in Sierra Leone. This I feel consists of establishing key links and partners to work alongside in Sierra Leone and planning detailed research into community and relational dynamics. Key aspects of the research will include; learning about livelihood activities, the utility of local resources and access to productive assets, addressing local participation in decision making and involvement in the building process, opportunities for women in employment and household ownership to ensure in practice that they are equal and finally how we can focus on procuring local goods and services from local suppliers to promote local enterprise. I look forward at this stage to putting the research planning into practise to eventually provide a valuable, sustainable and transformative housing development project.