AWE Media Sierra Leone

By: Amadu Wurie Timbo The Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF) and partners have on Friday October 9, 2020 engaged Journalists and CSOs in Makeni in a day’s stakeholders meeting. The engagement which was held at the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone Northern Region Office in Makeni, Bombali District begins SiLNoRF and Partners match towards this year’s World Food Day Celebration. Journalist and CSOs took part in an open discussion, identified major challenges and recommended that SiLNoRF and partners should heighten their awareness raising to the public on the right to food nationwide to ensure that Government see the need to make laws that will ensure food availability, access and utilization. Abdulai Kamara, the Project Manager at SiLNoRF intimated this medium that SiLNoRF in partnership with CoMNeT is implementing a 38-month project titled “Promotion of the Right to Food” with funding from Welt Hunger Hilife (WHH).  He reiterated that “The project operates under...

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By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Despite efforts made by Government and child rights activists to curtail early marriage of girls, families in distant towns and villages of the northern province of Sierra Leone are trading their teenage daughters into early marriages by way of escaping economic hardship during this COVID-19 pandemic period. This act is an attempt to frustrate all efforts to end child marriage in Sierra Leone even though the imperative recommendation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) 395 states that, ‘’…the Government enact legislation making it a criminal offence to permit, authorize and assist in the marriage of children under 18 years of age. Since the pandemic struck several economic and social activities have been put to a stall still in Africa and the wilder world. In Sierra Leone, the pandemic has crippled previous advancements made by Government to promote Gender Rights and to protect the Girl Child against traditions, myths and cultural practices. These effo...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Sierra Leone accounts for 69.3 percent of illiterate male population whereas 80.0 percent of the female population is illiterate the Ministry of Education has confirmed. This puts the country among nations across the world with the highest illiteracy rate.  Findings of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) shows that women and girls were mostly affected by the county’s eleven years civil war which exposed women to a number of abuses including sexual and other human rights abuses leaving many as victims of rape and war widows.  In order to redress such violations encountered by women, the TRC put forward imperative recommendations for education, skills training, access to justice and economic empowerment to be provided for Women by the Government. Paragraph 495 and 496 of the Commission’s recommendation upholds that: “skills training programs should be provided for amputees, other war-wounded, victims of sexual violence, and war widows. On the successful com...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson One of the utmost aims of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Sierra Leone is to ensure that never again violations of human rights such as drugging, forced recruitment, rape, and sexual assault be meted on children as it was during the nation’s civil war. Therefore, the Commission made recommendations on the following areas in order to ensure the welfare of children in Sierra Leone. These include: Child Rights Bill, Age of Majority, Adoptions, Fostering and Guardianship, Early Marriages, Sexual Offences against Children, School Education and Laws on the Employment of Children to ensure that the rights of children are fully protected are to be ensured by the government. Among the areas highlighted above, school education is the prime focus of this publication as it is considered to be the basic building block for national development. The TRC recommendation 385 clearly states that, ‘’The Commission notes that primary school education is supposedly...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson✍️   With support from the European Union through the PRO-Act 2015 Resilient Project Cooperazione Internationale (COOPI) has trained over 200 Smallholder Cashew Farmers in Kambia, Port Loko, Bombali, and Karene on Safety Standards in Cashew Processing and General Food Safety from August 25 – 4th September 2020. The training which was held in four different locations in the districts headquarter towns of Kambia, Port Loko, Bombali, and Karene respectively catered for over fifty Cashew Farmers and Processors in the each of the four districts.  Elvis Lamin Koroma was lead facilitator of the entire training. He disclosed to Northern Times that the training featured a number of key issues but importantly it was tailored to fit the participants who were thoroughly guided on topics such as: What is Food Safety, its standards, concepts and processes, As well as the Health and Safety of the Consuming Public and the Needs for Safe Cashew Processing and Safe Food.  When as...