Traditional, religious and other community leaders

Messages that contradict time-honored traditions, especially when they come from outsiders, are usually met with mistrust and rejection in the small, close-knit and relatively isolated villages of Sierra Leone. For this reason, AIM relies on first convincing locally influential people – if that is successful, these people can then gain access to the rest of the community, legitimize the presence of the AIM team through their approval and, last but not least, act as multipliers themselves. This target group includes traditional and religious leaders in particular, but also other respected voices in the community such as school principals and teachers.