Category: Uncategorized

Stockholm, Sweden, 15 October 2015.

The South Sudanese Red Cross and Sudanese Red Crescent Societies were the first to welcome the Listening Study, which took place in September and October respectively.

In South Sudan, Cecilia Brunström and Stefan Agerhem acted as listeners with Alex Modoyi Deti playing the crucial role of organizing and ensuring access to volunteers and other stakeholders. In all, 18 listening sessions were conducted in both the capital Juba  and in Bor.

The following week, Jessica Cadesky and Balthazar Bacinoni traveled to Sudan to meet Tarig Isaac , who  like Alex, had organized 24 listening sessions with volunteers and stakeholders in Khartoum and El Geneina, West Darfur.

Although all interviews will need to be transcribed and translated before we can begin to analyze these findings, anecdotally we have already begun to see some similarities in these two contexts.

Concerns about security and safety, reported high levels of self-motivation and satisfaction with  the work, and strong commitment to helping communities were amongst the issues raised by volunteers and those working with them.

London, UK  18 September 2015

From 16-18 September 2015, members of the ViCE project team met in London to discuss the overall approach and methodology for the Listening Study.

The meeting brought together Stefan Agerhem, Jessica Cadesky, Matt Baillie Smith and Cecilia Brunnström, while Balthazar Bacinoni was unfortunately unable to attend. Here, we discussed the deeper questions around the study, such as why this listening methodology, how it would be applied, what would the challenges be and how would we address them what is the overall vision of the ViCE project and how will the Listening Study contribute to this.

The two and a half day meeting produced concrete objectives of the study, list of technical considerations around the study, and the rough outline of the Listening Question Guide, which was later piloted in the Listening Studies in Sudan and South Sudan. All participants left with the excitement that we could not wait to share with the Global ViCE Team!