The Creative Arts Festival is part of a broader research effort to understand how young people experience and recover from crises.
All creative entries submitted to the festival are used as part of research for the After The End project. This research initiative explores how young people in Sierra Leone navigate life after crises such as Ebola, COVID-19, and mudslides.
By using creative expression as a research method, the project captures dimensions of lived experience that traditional surveys and interviews often miss — the emotions, memories, hopes, and visions that young people carry with them.
The festival connects this creative evidence with policymakers, NGOs, and academic institutions at the National Evidence Summit, ensuring young voices directly inform decisions about recovery, resilience, and development.
Learn More About UsUsing art, poetry, drama, and music as tools for evidence gathering alongside traditional research approaches.
Centring the perspectives and experiences of young people aged 11–24 in understanding crisis recovery.
Bridging the gap between lived experience and decision-making at government and institutional levels.
Guiding Questions
Participants are encouraged to respond to themes around their experiences after crises. Creative works may explore questions such as: