AWE Media Sierra Leone

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson At its head office at 21 Conteh Street in Makeni, leading humanitarian organization Action to Heal Foundation Sierra Leone (A2HF-SL) on October 4, 2020 supported 40 Vulnerable and physically challenged school going pupils in Bombali district with assorted learning materials plus financial funding in their second “Back to School Donation”   The donation marks the foundation’s second educational helping hand provided to vulnerable and physically challenged school going pupils in the country since it was established in 2019 by way of complimenting Government’s Free Quality Education drive. In her welcome address, Zainab Mummy Tholley, the Foundation and CEO-I called on parents and beneficiaries to accept the donation and use it judiciously.  She further disclosed that this year’s donation is bigger than the previous one and that dozens of books, pens, sharpeners, erasers, rulers, a black board and the sum of Le 100,000 each will be given to the best JSS pupil prom...

Cashew is a “hanging diamond” as described by Karene district farmers due to its economic viability. However, farmers engaging on cashew cultivation in this part of the country have not been realizing a greater dividend from their labor, until the intervention of COOPI through the European Union funded project “Fostering Smallholders Agriculture in Sierra Leone” under the theme of “Pro-resilience Action 2015”.  Now farmers have started realizing not only income from the sales of the cashew, but also diversifying their food consumption” says John Dto Kamara, District Council Chairman, Karene District. The newly opened Cashew Processing Unit (CPU) in Kamalo, Karene district on the 7th October 2020 is one among the six Cashew Processing Units constructed by COOPI with funds from the European Union in four operational districts of Kambia, Port Loko, Bombali and Karene. The Kamalo CPU was officially handed over to the Cashew farmers and processors through the Ministry of Agriculture and For...

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...