MONROVIA – The Migrants As Messengers( MAM), a peer to peer awareness-raising campaign that empowers young people in Liberia to make informed migration decisions, has recently completed a strategic planning retreat held between February 2-4, 2022 at the Bless One Hotel in Marshall, Margibi County, which allowed the organization to evaluate the project impact considering future interventions and developing new strategies and initiatives to meet emerging migration needs as well as discussed various strategic issues and identify opportunities for strengthening the effectiveness of the projects.
Giving an overview of the event, Catheryn B. Kenny, the Project Assistant, said the retreat provided an opportunity for volunteers to engage with each other in deliberative dialogue, reflecting on ways to sustain a safe migration campaign through the volunteers-led association (Migrants as Messengers Association of Liberia-MAMAL). She said during every session, the supervisors assessed points on several issues, including their objectives as a sustainability plan.
“Notably, the retreat provided a prospect for the volunteers to explore innovative ideas and engage in team-building exercises to improve inter-team communications and productivity,” she said.
She also stated that the retreat included a presentation of the MAM project, general discussion, and joint group work, adding that during the joint group session, participants discussed case study experience, reflecting accurate migration and irregular migration situations amongst youths, possible causes of such conditions, and interventions that could avert such problems. She also said that. In addition, volunteers developed succinct activities that the team would passionately implement.
Mr. Siaffa Tamba, the Country Focal Person for MAM at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), provided further details of the exercise and said that this retreat’s specific goal is to improve the volunteers’ responsibilities from a series of interactions to a more structured and sustained initiative. He told other objectives achieved include clearly defining and communicating the purpose of the volunteers-led association to all volunteers, explicitly outlining the desired activities and outcomes for progress and success along the way, explaining the roles and responsibilities of the volunteers’ leaders, engaging in positive team-building amongst the volunteers and identifying opportunities for a future awareness campaign to promote safe migration.
He also said that the retreat allowed the volunteers and supervisors (MaM Team) to reflect on its implementation, accomplishments, future activities, and the resources necessary to achieve its goals. By the end of the retreat, participants will better understand individual and divisional responsibilities and a coherent approach to strategic and operational engagement with the volunteer’s association. Leaving the team with a solid and well-thought-out strategic direction to achieve and sustain the project goals.
“The participants were able to get a better understanding of individual and divisional responsibilities and a coherent approach to strategic and operational engagement with the volunteer’s association; leaving the team with a solid and well-thought-out strategic direction to achieve and sustain the project goals,” he said.
Since the launch and implementation of the Migrants as Messengers project in Liberia, the MAM Liberia team has implemented several awareness campaigns that provide access to safe migration information among youths and aspirant migrants. Over time, the team has embraced the principles of creativity, understanding of project goals, joint planning, and an integrated approach to the activity’s implementation cycle.
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