ILO’s Opportunity Salone Programme Empowers Communication Officers

To empower the project partners of the Opportunity Salone programme to effectively communicate the results of its achievements, the ILO conducted a two-day communications training for communications officers from 4th - 5th June 2024 at Sahyre Court in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The specific objectives of the training included updating the skills of the officers on result reporting, articulating their messages clearly and concisely, how to compose themselves during interviews, amongst others.

The ILO’s Opportunity Salone programme supports SME businesses and SME Contractors by providing technical skills and financial support to boost their businesses, thereby creating more decent job opportunities for women, men, youth, and people with disabilities. Already these interventions have impacted the lives of people in Bo, Kenema, Port Loko and Bombali districts.

Through the Funds provided by the European Union in Sierra Leone, the programme has created access to communities through its routine feeder road maintenance, which has provided the much-needed support for farmers to sell their produce on time.

The training was attended by Partner staff from Ministry of Labour and Employment, Small medium Enterprises Development Agency, (SMEDA) Sierra Leone Chamber for Agriculture Development, (SLeCAD) Public Private Partnership units (PPP Units), Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) Sierra Leone National Youth Commission (NAYCOM) Apex Bank, Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce (SLCC) and the Districts Councils communication personnels from Bo, Kenema, Port Loko and Bombali.

The two-days of firsthand training covered storytelling techniques, improving writing skills, and basic camera techniques or skills to capture better photos and videos to aid stories and reports.

Participating in the training Ishmael Kamara Information Education Officer for Bo district councils’ states that the hands-on training provided is timely and much needed to build their capacity in effectively communicating not only ILO’s Opportunity Salone Programme impacts but also has provided new insights on how to communicate events, activities of what they do in their different offices.

Representing the ILO, Austin Nguku Technical officer, opportunity Salone programme, encouraged the participants to take these trainings seriously, as they will and be ready to provide human interest stories to show impacts of the programme’s intervention. He further stated that this training would provide them with the skills needed to package and report accurately, increasing the visibility of the opportunity Salone programme. He closed by reaffirming ILO’s Commitment in contributing to decent job creation and the promotion of social justice for all in the implementation of their various projects in country.

In her closing remarks, Rebecca Memsie Kamara Communication Officer, National Youth Commission expressed gratitude to the EU and ILO for such intervention, which she stated that some of their colleagues are not from communication backgrounds. Still, this training will serve as a guide to help improve their capacities in dispensing their jobs as communication personnel and encourage the ILO to conduct such on a periodic basis which will serve as refresher training.