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More than 800,000 people die each year as a result of unsafe sanitation and hygiene,  according to the World Health Organization (WHO).  That's why on World Toilet Day in 2018, Nine River (9River) Media pledged to fund the construction of toilets for hundreds of school children, who have no access to safely managed sanitation in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Few weeks ago, 9River and its charitable arm, the Hannah Deen for Social Care  organization , celebrated the completion of the first toilet block in Calabatown and Allen Town.  Work at the Vision Academy International School in Kola Tree, Calabatown, began at the end of 2019. Foday Conteh, the building contractor, worked with project manager Inyilla Borteh-Conteh,  and Mr. Lebbie, the town chairman.

Kadijatu 'KJ' Bah is a third-year student at Fourah Bay College. KJ was also the inaugural recipient of the Hannah Deen for Social Care Scholarship Award, funded by 9River Media, in January 2020. This August, KJ wrote about teenage pregnancy during the COVID-19 lockdown period,  peer pressure, and poverty.  In her second interview, KJ continues her conversations with young people in her coastal community in western Freetown, Sierra Leone. Listen to what the Save the Children Sierra Leone volunteer says about the negative impact of the pandemic on children and families.   Other articles by Kadijatu 'KJ' Bah Teenage Pregnancy in Sierra Leone

Monrovia--With over 600 reported cases in the last 7 months, Liberians are fired up for change. Recent r allies to protest gender-based violence, rape, and sexual assault, indicate the level of dissatisfaction with the lack of prosecution of perpetrators.  It is not uncommon to find perpetrators receiving no jail term even with evidence and a history of sexual assault.  While there have been improvements in addressing some of these issues, Liberia still has a long way to go, especially now that there is sufficient data to prove that sexual violence is still rampant and new strategies are needed to deal with it. Oftentimes, rape cases are withdrawn due to threats to the victims or resolution by parents and the perpetrator, without the victim’s knowledge.  From healthcare service providers to police officers, there are still gaps to fill to ensure that sexual assault survivors not only get the right medical care but also access justice. 

Mohammed Cheto Jalloh (second from right in the front row)  is a writer and poet. He is also an activist, and for someone so young, he is shouldering huge responsibilities.  M.C. Jalloh  is dedicated to stopping the rape epidemic and domestic violence in his community in Liberia.  He helps raise awareness by organizing marches, visiting universities around the country, and spreading the word.  Over the last five years, he served as co-chair of  the Montserrado County Children's Forum/Parliament. M.C. Jalloh recently graduated from the Monrovia College and Industrial Training School. Currently, he's studying public administration and sociology at the African Methodist Episcopal University in Monrovia, Liberia.

Teenage pregnancy is a major issue in Sierra Leone. According to statistics gathered by UNICEF and Sierra Leone's Demographic and Health Survey, 13 per cent of girls are married by their 15th birthday and 39 per cent of girls before their 18th birthday.  During the COVID-19 lock down period in my community, I noticed at least 10 teenagers who are pregnant. I was fortunate to chat with a few and Fomie Bangura is one of them.  “I was raped," she stated. “He promised me some money to help with my studies and raped me when I visited him to collect the money. I was asked out of the house by my parents. I had to go stay with my grandmother. I stopped attending school and started selling (fana makit).  I also spoke to Aminata Bangura (photo inset). She works for Save the Children Sierra Leone. According to her, peer pressure, other influences, and poverty are some of the reasons leading to teenage pregnancy. She also mentioned that teenage girls face lots of constraint...

Since President George Weah extended the measures put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19, new directives have been announced. The president said that the easing of public health emergency measures became necessary considering the new global reality and the advice of local health authorities. Under the updated guidelines, restaurants, stores selling dry goods, building materials, and electronic appliances, will be allowed to open provided they take in only twenty-five percent of their full occupancy at a time while observing social distancing. The president has also instructed the security forces to enforce the mandatory wearing of masks in all public spaces and ensure full compliance. The government will take the appropriate legal action in cases of violation of any of these measures. President Weah has revealed that the new measures will be assessed again in the near future in order to determine their effectiveness and the need for further easing so that possible economic...

New graduates in Sierra Leone are bothered by the lack of jobs as a result of the global pandemic. Shortly after the implementation of social distancing, one key mechanism to contain the spread of the coronavirus, many offices in Sierra Leone stopped accepting new intakes. As a result, new college graduates have been left unemployed, broke, and frustrated. “Since the start of this pandemic, my friends and I have been finding it very difficult to find a job," said Isatu Conteh, a graduate from the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) in Freetown. "We’re still relying on family and friends, which does not augur well. Because the essence of spending years in university studying is to be able to have a job and start living your dream life," she said. "Not to come back and continue to be a burden to others.”  Hamza Koroma (seen in the photo) is another new college graduate of Fourah Bay College (FBC). He said that although Sierra Leone is a c...

Five years ago, Liberia was in a fight for its life.  The small West African country threw everything it had in its health systems at the dreaded Ebola virus disease. By the time the epidemic was over, more than 11,000 people in the tri-state region of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia had died. Still based in Monrovia, Kamal Anisiobi writes about the impact of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic. S uch is the severity of the situation that the President of Liberia George Manneh Weah saw it fit to drop an awareness song , sang by himself and other Liberian artists, to let his people know about this new fast-killing virus and ways of preventing it. Weah hopes to appeal to the nation of some 4.5 million people to ensure COVID-19 does not spread. Unfortunately,  Environment Protection Agency Executive Director, Dr. Nathaniel Blamah was confirmed to be the first to test positive with COVID-19, the disease associated with the new strain of the coronavirus, after he recently retu...

On Women's Day 2020, enjoy this archive photo of Haja Zainab Hawa Bangura and a group of Sierra Leonean women as you celebrate the day. Currently, Zainab is the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Nairobi. She was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in December 2018.

Hannah Iyatunde Abigail Deen (of blessed memory) was a native from Sierra Leone, born in January 1938. As a young woman growing up, she was always determined to work in a hospital as a caregiver and when all the applications she made to acquire a scholarship failed, Hannah could still not bring herself to stop believing in her dreams. Years later,  she got married and started a beautiful family. She later joined an organisation in Freetown to help the aged, after her children were all grown up. She worked there for many years until she passed away in August 2019. However, her dedication to serving humanity did not die along with her. Lango Deen Sankoh, her eldest daughter founded an organization called Hannah Deen for Social Care or Hannah for Social Care in her memory. Today, Friday the 31st of January 2020, Lango made a donation of Le4,000,000 to Kadijatu Bah, a Social Work Student at Fourah Bay College in Freetown, as a way to help foster her education, so that she...

George Soros announced the launch of a new university network at the 2020 World Economic Forum Meeting in Davos. The Open Society University Network (OSUN) aims to prepare students around the world for global challenges. Mr. Soros is endowing the academic network he has created with one billion dollars ($1 billion) and asking other philanthropists to contribute.  Over the past 30 years, Soros has given more than $32 billion to education and social justice causes.  “We are looking for farsighted partner institutions who feel a responsibility for the future of our civilization, people who are inspired by the goals of OSUN and want to participate in its realization,”  he said in a statement.  When OSUN begins this year, it will stretch from Bangladesh and Central Asia to the Palestinian territories, from South Africa to Colombia, and from leading universities and research institutes in Europe and the United States to  Syrian and Somali refugee camps. ...

In 2008, Angélique Kidjo visited a UNICEF-supported girls’ education project in Sierra Leone. The singer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador spoke to a group of teenage girls in a village in Bombali District, northern Sierra Leone. The girls had dropped out of school due to problems related to child marriage and exploitation. "Your country needs doctors, nurses, teachers, and engineers to take it forward,” Kidjo said at the event covered by Issa Davies . “And if I am here today, it is because I was determined to be educated.” A year before Angélique visited Sierra Leone, the singer-songwriter and activist was called "Africa's premier diva" by TIME magazine. In 2019, the BBC dubbed Angelique Kidjo “Queen Of African Music” after a performance at the Royal Albert Hall. It doesn't get any bigger than that. That's why in 2020, she has been billed as the "Daughter of Independence"  to celebrate the 60th independence anniversary of her native Benin and...