As part of the MA in Intercultural Communication and International Development programme, Matthew Thomas is taking the module International Project Management. The module gives students the opportunity to work as a team on a real-life project. Matthew explains:
"I've had the opportunity to be manager for a project to promote the twinning of Sheffield, UK and Makeni in Sierra Leone. Our team, consisting of Alessandro de Nittis, Jie Yuan, Xiaorui Wang, Clare Kinsella, and I, were assigned to produce materials to strengthen the link between these two cities with the eventual goal of an official twinning. Our team of Sheffield students has been working remotely with partners at the University of Makeni to produce a website, The Makeni-Sheffield Project, which has been a challenging but exciting chance to get some experience in international project management. I'm proud of our team for working hard on this and I'm very grateful for the contributions of our partners in Makeni. Our website is a great end result and hopefully the beginning of a stronger relationship between two amazing cities."
The Makeni Trust Fund actively supports development projects in and around the city of Makeni, in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. It is a small registered charity based in Sheffield, UK, established in 2009.