Beyond the Classroom: My Journey Doing a Placement-Based Master’s Dissertation in Sierra Leone – YOA

“I come as one, but I stand as ten thousand.” These phrases by Maya Angelou have been a lifelong mantra for me. They remind me that wherever I’m going, I carry the experiences, classes and contributions of the folks and communities who’ve formed my journey. When I started my grasp’s diploma in Africa and International Development at the University of Edinburgh, I knew I wished my dissertation to be greater than an educational train. I wished to conduct analysis that related my expertise as a improvement practitioner with the theories, questions and debates I had encountered in the classroom. Before transferring to Edinburgh, I had spent a number of years constructing and managing a non-revenue organisation in Nigeria, working with teenage moms and ladies in marginalised communities. Through this work, I had skilled the alternatives that worldwide improvement funding creates, however I had additionally encountered a few of the pressures that accompany it. I had develop into more and more in understanding how donor funding influences the choices, priorities and independence of grassroots organisations. “Who determines what gets funded? How much freedom do local organisations have to pursue their own priorities? What happens when an organisation’s mission does not fit neatly within donor expectations?” These have been questions I had encountered in observe, and I wished to look at them extra critically by analysis. That curiosity ultimately took me to Sierra Leone, the place I spent 5 weeks conducting fieldwork with Women Against Violence and Exploitation in Society (WAVES), a girls’s rights organisation working to finish feminine genital chopping (FGC). What started as a dissertation placement turned one among the most vital studying experiences of my postgraduate research.

Finding the proper organisation for my analysis
One of the first challenges was figuring out an organisation whose work aligned with my analysis pursuits and securing an OPPORTUNITY to undertake the placement. My organisation in Nigeria had beforehand partnered with the Global Fund for Children (GFC), whose method to versatile funding had influenced my fascinated with donor relationships and native organisational autonomy. When I started contemplating potential dissertation placements, I reached out to GFC, which launched me to WAVES in Sierra Leone. Ame Atsu and Remijus Nwobi, GFC’s West Africa coordinators, have been notably useful in facilitating communication and the mandatory preparations. WAVES was an acceptable organisation for my analysis due to its longstanding work addressing feminine genital chopping, its relationships with communities and its dedication to the full abandonment of the observe. Its expertise working with totally different funding companions additionally offered a possibility to look at how donor expectations affect organisational choices. My analysis centered on how donor funding buildings form the methods and autonomy of grassroots organisations working in direction of the abandonment of FGC. However, securing the placement was just one part of the course of. I additionally needed to navigate educational deadlines, moral approval procedures, journey threat assessments and college necessities. The course of was demanding, notably as a result of my proposed analysis concerned a delicate situation and journey to a nation the place safety issues required further consideration. I submitted my undertaking paperwork on the ultimate day of the deadline, unsure whether or not the mandatory approvals would come by in time. The expertise taught me an early lesson: “Conducting research outside the university requires considerable planning, patience and persistence.”

Arriving in Sierra Leone
I arrived in Sierra Leone on 5 May 2026. My first two days have been spent in Freetown earlier than travelling to Bo, the place WAVES had its major workplace. One of my earliest encounters was with a ferry operator who requested me in Krio, “Na usai yu de go?” that means, “Where are you going?” Coming from Nigeria, I instantly recognised similarities between Krio and Nigerian Pidgin English. It was a small however memorable second. The language felt acquainted, but I used to be acutely aware that I used to be getting into a totally different nation with its personal histories, identities and social realities. Throughout my keep, I skilled this combination of familiarity and difference. In Freetown, I visited We Are Purposeful, an African-rooted donor organisation. Our interplay launched me to a few of the complexities of funding girls’s rights and child safety initiatives, together with the methods African-rooted donor organisations stay related to wider worldwide funding techniques. It was an fascinating introduction to the questions I had travelled to Sierra Leone to analyze. After two days, I travelled to Bo to start my placement with WAVES.

Learning from inside an organisation
One of the best benefits of my placement was the alternative to watch organisational processes fairly than relying solely on interviews and revealed reviews. At WAVES, I used to be welcomed into the organisation’s every day actions. I attended weekly workers briefings, reviewed strategic paperwork, examined programme reviews and hung out understanding how the organisation deliberate and applied its interventions. I used to be given a workspace close to the programmes workplace, which allowed me to work together with workers and observe facets of their on a regular basis work. These experiences gave me a perspective I won’t have gained by distant interviews alone. I may see how programme priorities have been mentioned, how workers managed competing obligations and the way organisational choices have been formed by obtainable sources. I additionally started conducting interviews with workers members about funding availability, donor priorities, reporting necessities, neighborhood engagement and organisational independence. Initially, my interview questions have been too broad. I wished to grasp nearly all the things about how funding influenced the organisation, and I quickly found that asking too many questions may forestall me from exploring the most vital points in ample depth. After reviewing my early interviews, I narrowed my analysis focus to how WAVES maintained its dedication to the full abandonment of FGC whereas navigating the expectations of various donors. This adjustment improved the high quality of my conversations and helped me determine the central points rising from the analysis. It additionally jogged my memory that “Research is rarely a straightforward process. Sometimes, the questions we begin with are not the questions that eventually produce the most meaningful findings.”

When the classroom meets actuality
During my grasp’s programme, I had studied improvement financing, localisation, accountability, gender and the relationships between worldwide donors and native organisations. These ideas turned way more tangible throughout my placement. For instance, workers described how versatile funding from GFC allowed the organisation to reply to rising neighborhood wants and modify programme actions with out prolonged approval processes. This was particularly vital for an organisation engaged on a difficulty as socially and politically delicate as feminine genital chopping. At the similar time, I noticed how different funding preparations concerned strict reporting necessities, predetermined indicators and appreciable administrative obligations. There have been events when workers spent vital quantities of time finishing donor reviews or responding to compliance necessities as a substitute of taking part in deliberate neighborhood actions. These experiences helped me perceive that “Debates about localisation and organisational autonomy are not simply academic arguments.” They affect how organisations spend their time, allocate sources, reply to communities and pursue their missions. I additionally started to understand that an organisation can expertise appreciable flexibility inside one funding relationship whereas dealing with restrictions inside one other. For me, this was an vital lesson about the complexity of improvement funding. It challenged me to look past the insurance policies and commitments of particular person donors and study how totally different funding preparations work together inside an organisation.

Taking the analysis into communities

Some of my most memorable experiences occurred outdoors the workplace. During the placement, I visited communities in Sierra Leone’s Southern Province, together with Bali, Nengbema, Ngalu and Kpar, the place WAVES supported neighborhood-based mostly interventions. I noticed protected areas and adolescent golf equipment the place ladies participated in discussions about bodily autonomy, rights and points affecting their lives. Watching these actions introduced one other dimension to my analysis. It was one factor to examine neighborhood-led approaches to altering dangerous practices. It was one other to watch how organisations engaged ladies and communities in conversations about points that have been deeply related to cultural and social identities. I additionally had alternatives to talk with totally different stakeholders, together with neighborhood leaders and people related to conventional initiation practices. These interactions required appreciable sensitivity. During the analysis, I encountered totally different phrases used to explain feminine genital chopping, together with feminine genital mutilation, feminine circumcision, initiation and Bondo or Sande practices. I discovered that the phrases folks used typically mirrored totally different understandings of the observe and their relationships with it. Rather than assuming that everybody understood these phrases in the similar approach, I needed to pay attention rigorously and take note of the meanings members connected to them. Some interviews additionally required interpretation between English, Krio and Mende. This launched one other layer of complexity as a result of translating somebody’s phrases doesn’t all the time seize each cultural that means, emphasis or expression. These experiences jogged my memory that “Conducting research in another community requires humility, cultural awareness and a willingness to question one’s assumptions.” As an African improvement practitioner, I arrived with sensible expertise of working in grassroots organisations. However, I additionally needed to recognise the limits of that familiarity. My expertise in Nigeria helped me perceive sure organisational challenges, nevertheless it didn’t imply I routinely understood Sierra Leone’s cultural and political context. That distinction turned an vital part of my studying.

The challenges I didn’t anticipate
Undertaking a placement-based mostly dissertation was rewarding, nevertheless it additionally got here with challenges. The wet season affected motion between areas, whereas unreliable electrical energy and web connectivity typically disrupted my plans. Arranging interviews required flexibility as a result of workers members have been typically travelling for programme actions or responding to organisational obligations. Some analysis members have been troublesome to achieve, and I often needed to reorganise my schedule round their availability. One expertise notably challenged my judgement. I had organized interviews with a Sowei and a chiefdom chief in a neighborhood roughly an hour away. With no organisational automobile obtainable, I travelled with a WAVES workers member by bike, regardless of my college’s journey protocol advising in opposition to this mode of transport. At the time, I used to be involved about lacking interviews that had taken appreciable effort to rearrange. Looking again, I recognised that the strain to gather knowledge had influenced my evaluation of the dangers. It was an vital reminder that “Research objectives should never take precedence over agreed safety procedures.” Another problem was balancing the roles of researcher and placement participant. I used to be grateful for the hospitality and assist I obtained from WAVES, however I additionally had a accountability to look at the organisation’s experiences critically. This meant remaining unbiased in my evaluation, defending members’ identities and recognising that individuals won’t all the time really feel snug discussing delicate organisational issues. I approached consent as an ongoing course of and took care to not disclose pointless data that would determine members. These experiences strengthened my understanding of analysis ethics past the approval kinds and educational tips I had studied earlier than travelling.

The significance of educational supervision
One of the most vital turning factors got here throughout a progress evaluation with my educational supervisor, Dr Simeon Koroma, in direction of the finish of May. After reviewing my fieldnotes and interview summaries, he recognized gaps in the proof I had gathered. Although my interviews offered useful views on funding relationships, I wanted extra detailed details about WAVES’ price range construction, funding tendencies, organisational historical past and geographical attain. I additionally wanted to strengthen the connection between the experiences members described and the institutional situations shaping these experiences. The suggestions was extraordinarily useful. It pushed me to return to some questions, search further information and make clear data I had initially missed. For instance, I had not constantly recorded the right spellings of some neighborhood names. I additionally wanted to determine whether or not funding for FGC interventions appeared as separate price range traces or was included inside broader gender-based mostly violence and child safety programmes. With restricted time remaining, I couldn’t resolve each query earlier than leaving Sierra Leone. I subsequently developed a comply with-up plan to handle the excellent gaps after returning to Edinburgh. This expertise bolstered the significance of sustaining common communication with an educational supervisor throughout fieldwork. It additionally taught me that “Compelling stories and interviews are not sufficient on their own. Good research requires careful documentation, supporting evidence and a willingness to identify weaknesses in one’s work.”

Learning past the analysis
My time in Sierra Leone was not restricted to interviews, organisational paperwork and neighborhood visits. I additionally wished to grasp the nation past the rapid topic of my dissertation. I visited museums, historic websites, markets and different locations that launched me to totally different facets of Sierra Leonean life. One of the most emotional experiences was visiting the Sierra Leone Peace Museum. Learning about the nation’s civil battle and listening to accounts of the violence folks skilled was deeply unsettling. It inspired me to suppose extra rigorously about the historic experiences that proceed to form political establishments, communities and improvement interventions. At the Sierra Leone Museum, I additionally encountered images, masks and different supplies related to Bondo society. These visits helped me recognize the cultural and historic dimensions of the topic I used to be learning, whereas recognising the significance of approaching questions of tradition by a human rights lens. Outside these experiences, I loved assembly folks, studying expressions in Krio and discovering native meals, together with cassava leaf stew. I additionally discovered that casual conversations typically created sudden analysis alternatives. While staying in a lodge in Bo, I met politicians and improvement professionals, together with somebody who later participated in my analysis. These encounters jogged my memory that “Learning and networking do not happen only in formal academic or professional spaces.” However, in addition they required me to stay conscious that individuals I encountered by such networks represented explicit views fairly than the experiences of a whole neighborhood.

Completing the analysis after leaving Sierra Leone
After an emotional farewell with the WAVES crew on 4 June, I returned to Freetown, the place I spent one other 5 days conducting interviews and fascinating further stakeholders. I held a focus-group dialogue with members of the Forum Against Harmful Cultural Practices in Sierra Leone (FAHP-SL), exploring their experiences with coalition advocacy, donor relationships and neighborhood engagement. I additionally interviewed representatives of a world donor organisation, though arranging these conversations proved tougher than I had anticipated. By the time I returned to Edinburgh, I had gathered appreciable analysis materials, however there was nonetheless vital work forward. I transcribed 20 audio recordings and started organising the knowledge utilizing NVivo, qualitative analysis evaluation software program. The course of required me to learn transcripts repeatedly, revisit my recordings and replicate on the meanings behind members’ responses. Sometimes, a citation that appeared simple in a transcript carried hesitation, emphasis or emotion that turned extra obvious once I listened to the recording once more. I additionally continued speaking with WAVES to make clear excellent questions. Over the following weeks, the crew offered further organisational data, together with price range ranges, programme allocations and particulars about funding buildings. I carried out one other interview with a GFC consultant on-line. These comply with-up conversations strengthened my evaluation, though I remained acutely aware of the limitations of the proof I had gathered and the views that weren’t represented. One lesson stayed with me all through this stage: “Fieldwork does not necessarily end when you leave the field.” Research continues by transcription, clarification, evaluation, writing and the relationships established with members and host organisations. It additionally requires persistence and respect for the indisputable fact that the people supporting your analysis have obligations past your dissertation.

Why I’d advocate a placement-based mostly dissertation
Looking again, selecting a placement-based mostly dissertation was one among the most respected choices I made throughout my grasp’s programme. It offered a possibility to apply educational information in a skilled atmosphere, strengthen my analysis abilities and achieve firsthand expertise of the institutional realities I had spent months learning. Beyond analysis, the placement allowed me to construct relationships with practitioners, have interaction stakeholders throughout totally different sectors, develop better cultural consciousness and deepen my understanding of worldwide improvement observe. It additionally strengthened abilities which might be useful past academia, together with vital pondering, communication, adaptability, moral judgement, downside-fixing, stakeholder engagement and dealing throughout totally different cultural and institutional contexts. For college students contemplating a placement-based mostly dissertation, I’d encourage you to discover the alternative, notably in case your analysis pursuits join with actual-world challenges. A placement might help you develop skilled networks, perceive potential profession pathways and produce analysis that speaks to the experiences of organisations and communities. It is vital, nonetheless, to determine an acceptable host, agree on expectations, safe the mandatory approvals, plan for prices and dangers, and stay versatile when circumstances change. Not each placement will unfold as anticipated, and that’s part of the studying. My expertise in Sierra Leone jogged my memory that