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The DUBAWA Week For Truth schools visitation campaign is a sensitisation campaign to create awareness and amplification of truth in public discourse.
It is held annually in various West African nations, including Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, and The Gambia, where DUBAWA operates.
The objective is to enlighten high school students on the significance of fact-checking and to make them meticulous about how they consume information and share it with the public.
This year’s WFT online training for volunteers covered essential topics, including information disorder: misinformation and disinformation, how to spot fake images, steps to follow when verifying ‘false information,’ and how volunteers should comport themselves while on the field representing the reputable organisation.
The campaign also provided a golden opportunity to inform citizens about the significance of the DUBAWA ChatBot App, created by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), to help verify claims.
Volunteer training
About a thousand Sierra Leonean students benefitted from the WFT training this year.
Out of the 15 volunteers recruited for this year’s Week For Truth campaign, five (5) were selected from the North, three (3) from the East, and the rest from the Western Area, Freetown, all in Sierra Leone.
Impact of WFT in Sierra Leone
This year’s ‘Week For Truth’ campaign targeted dozens of students in Sierra Leone, including the schools’ instructors and authorities, from the country’s junior and senior high school levels.
In Sierra Leone, 15 volunteers were recruited for this year’s DUBAWA’s Week For Truth Schools Visitation. On Oct. 27 and 28, 2024, the volunteers visited numerous ‘junior and senior high schools’ and took them through the ‘essence to verify every piece of information’ on their social media handles.
Testimonials
Solomon Dickson, a volunteer in Freetown—who has volunteered with DUBAWA for the past two years, told DUBAWA this year’s Week For Truth Schools’ Visitation campaign is a huge success, adding that—the number of students the campaign was able to reach this time around, was higher than the other years.
“The campaign organised by DUBAWA on the importance of verifying and fact-checking information is highly relevant and impactful, especially in today’s world where misinformation can spread rapidly. It taught me the practical steps for assessing the credibility of information, which is essential for making informed decisions.
“By critically using the DUBAWA ChatBot, I learned how to better verify social media messages and even information from mainstream media. Overall, the DUBAWA Week for Truth 2024 campaign has reinforced the significance of approaching information responsibly,” volunteer Dickson told DUBAWA.
Alusine Rhemie Wilson is a multimedia journalist and fact-checker residing in Makeni City, Northern Sierra Leone, and has volunteered with DUBAWA in the past Week For Truth campaigns in the country.
Wilson shared his experience with DUBAWA during this year’s school visitation campaign, Wilson said he is grateful to always be a part of the Week For Truth Team.
He noted that being part of the team to amplify truth and raise awareness of media and information literacy in the country is something he holds dear to his heart.
“Serving as a volunteer for DUBAWA didn’t only offer me the opportunity to improve my fact-checking knowledge but also re-energised me to share my experiences about fact-checking with students, teachers, and my social media audience across the globe,” he added.
The students were not left out of the experience.
Mohamed Bangura, an SSS2 pupil of the Albert Academy, expressed interest in learning about the functions of the DUBAWA ChatBot App, which helps people quickly and smartly verify ‘claims’ or ‘false statements’ made by people in authority or places of thrust.
Matilda Thomas, a pupil of the Government Model Secondary School (GMSS) in Freetown, said she was happy about the great campaign, remarking that she had never heard such information before.
She added that, with the knowledge gained from the volunteer who visited her school, she will make sure that she passes it on to other people, including her family members and friends at home.
“The training is a valuable idea. This is the first-ever training we have received on the topic you have just taught us. This training on fact-checking and media literacy will go a long way in shaping our future as students,” Mariatu Kamara, a pupil beneficiary attending the Heritage High School in Makeni City, said.
Ms Kamara added that the all-important training by one of our volunteers in Makeni, Alusine R. Wilson, is a huge step in the right direction, stating,
“The little knowledge gained during the training will greatly help me to fact-check information I come across on social media because I have active social media handles.”
Experiences from Northern and Eastern parts of Sierra Leone:
Students and school authorities commended DUBAWA and pleaded for more such initiatives.
Students and teachers at the Missionary Church Africa Junior and Senior High School in Magburaka Town, Tonkolili District, Northern Sierra Leone, expressed satisfaction with the training.
Adam Kamara, who visited this school, said the authorities beamed joy after the learning opportunity for the students and their teachers.
“Raising awareness at the Heritage High School and the United Methodist Secondary School, both in Makeni, in the North of Sierra Leone, was a great feat,” Kamara said.
Views from the Eastern part of Sierra Leone
Kenema Town, Eastern Sierra Leone, was not left out of the show. One of DUBAWA’s volunteers in that part of the country noted that the campaign was more than ‘exceptional.’
A volunteer from Kenema City expressed his huge thanks and appreciation to DUBAWA—for the great opportunity to work with the revered fact-checking institution in West Africa.
Like the other volunteers, Fidential Mamadu Bailor Bah said that this year’s school visitation campaign was the best for him, describing it as “impactful and very timely.”
“The students actively participated, asking insightful questions about WeekForTruth2024, which the volunteers comprehensively addressed. Teachers from the participating schools also gained valuable insights through these engagements,” — Bah added.
What are schools’ authorities saying?
The principal of the Albert Academy Senior High School in Freetown encouraged the students to practice what they had been taught.
Principal Vandy commended the idea, tagging it “a timely move” as the country recently passed the Cybersecurity and Crime Act, 2022. He said that the internet had been polluted with unnecessary things–adding that dozens of his boys had been victims of false information in numerous ways.
Asked if he had any experience with his students who had fallen short for sharing ‘false news/information,’ he disclosed that such a situation occurred during the school’s third-term examination in the previous academic year.
Vandy revealed that a particular boy from the arts faculty shared misleading information with his colleagues, referencing a wrong date for the commencement of an examination that the students in the mentioned faculty should write.
“A good number of the boys in the Arts faculty who were supposed to write a scheduled pre-examination test–as a result of the ‘misleading information’ one of their colleagues in the same faculty shared in their WhatsApp forum,” he indicated.
What are the new volunteers saying?
Volunteers spoke to students and school authorities about the significance of the Week For Truth campaign and enlightened them on DUBAWA’s ChatBot Verification App.
Mohamed Adam Junior Kamara explained that it would help them to verify every claim they may want to fact-check so they would know whether the claim the person made is ‘false’ or ‘true’.
Mr Kamara also said that he was fortunate to have schooled over a thousand pupils on how to detect misinformation, mal-information, and dis-information, adding he equally took the opportunity to speak to the schools’ authorities regarding the negative impacts of ‘fake news,’ and how the DUBAWA’s ChatBox (verification app) could help them.
“At #DUBAWA #WeekforTruth2024 #Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID). I’m confident that 75% of pupils and teachers of the schools visited can now detect fake news, fake photos, and false information, and fact-check whatever information they encounter,” he noted in his report submitted to DUBAWA.
What do the students’ leaders (prefects) say about the campaign?
One of the school’s prefects at the Government Model Secondary School (GMSS) in Freetown told DUBAWA that they are glad for the knowledge that DUBAWA impacted them and that they would always fact-check information before sharing it with friends, family, and the public.
Marian Kamara added that, as a school prefect, she will ensure that the knowledge she has gained about fact-checking every piece of information is properly used.
“Misinformation is the order of the day all over social media, and I have even been a victim of sharing fake or false information, which cost me a lot as a school prefect.” James Thoronka, who was at the Albert Academy school in Freetown, also told our researcher.
He said this after volunteers spoke to them on Tuesday, October 28, 2024, about media literacy and verification procedures and how they can stay safe on social media.
Conclusion
All the volunteers were grateful to DUBAWA for being selected for the opportunity.
