This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the “Investigating Liberia” project. The Swedish Embassy provided funding, but the founder had no say in the story’s content….
By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon with New Narratives Liberia is facing a full-blown drug crisis according to a new report that finds the reasons for the crisis are rooted in poverty, failures of post war justice, unemployment and a growing regional drug trade. The report, the first to look at the reasons for the growing problem,…
By Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives WEST POINT, Monrovia-When the sea turns rough, Elizabeth Gray and her family have nowhere to run. Water floods through their home in this low-lying informal settlement, forcing her three children to relieve themselves indoors while waves crash just meters from their door. As this year’s rainy season gets underway,…
By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, senior reporter with New Narratives Mount Barclay, Johnsonville —Inside a fenced compound lined with barbed wire Jakuba Kamara sits quietly among dozens of recovering youths once gripped by drug addiction. After six months at this rehabilitation center Kamara reflects on the harrowing life he left behind. The 42-year-old remembers the stench…
Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives Summary · Ocean surges destroy fences along Liberia’s Sinkor coastline, with UN projections warning that 230,000 Liberians face losing their homes to rising seas by 2100 · Stark inequality emerges as former President George Weah’s residence stands protected by boulder barriers while neighboring properties are unprotected · Critical infrastructure is…
By Anthony Stephens and Allison Hunter with New Narratives Summary: Caroline Armah is exactly the sort of person the development world has tried to champion. The 33-year-old entrepreneur is building a business solving one of the most fundamental problems Liberia faces: affordable, childhood nutrition. Armah’s business Calaw Foodssells a nutritional supplement made of finely ground…
By Aria Deemie and Jake Duffy with New Narratives Summary: PAYNESVILLE, Montserrado – On a warm Saturday afternoon, Chris Onanuga, Liberia’s newly appointed presidential envoy for tourism, mingles with young people at a recreation day in Voka Mission. Some kick a football; others seek shade beneath sprawling trees. To Onanuga, the scene is something more…
By Aria Deemie with New Narratives Despite a raft of government reforms and international partnerships, Liberia continues to face serious human rights challenges, according to the 2024 U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices released this week. The report found there were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Liberia…
By Jerome Saye with New Narratives Summary: GBOBAYEE TOWN, Nimba County – It is evening here as Paul Flomo hangs his single barrel shot gun over his shoulder and heads into the forest to hunt. Not so long ago it was Paul’s job to stop hunting in this ecologically rich part of the Nimba Mountain…
By Joyclyn Wea with New Narratives WEST POINT, Monrovia — As heavy rains batter the coast, fear thickens in West Point. Five years ago a storm surge took the home Sarah Gary’s father built when she was a child. Now Gary lives in a house just feet from the Atlantic’s rage. Every rainy season more…
By James Papy Kwabo Jr. and Peter Kollie with Alternate Youth Radio and New Narratives ZORZOR, Lofa County – In a region where access to essential medicine can determine whether someone lives or dies, one young nurse is quietly building a health movement from the ground up. Despite the lack of support for entrepreneurs in…
By Tetee Gebro with New Narratives GANTA, Nimba County — McArthur Davis was 18 when doctors told him to burn his clothes to cure what they thought was an infection. His vision was failing, sores covered his body, and though clinic after clinic had treated him, he never got better. It wasn’t until he reached…
By Jennifer Ambolley Summary: By Jennifer Ambolley BALUNGO, Upper East Region –Asoke Douglas Aganawini rises with the sun each day in this remote community in the far northern part of the country. Climate change has pummeled farmers here with unpredictable rainfall and higher temperatures. But for Asoke it’s been particularly hard. The 45-year-old began losing…
By Fatu Kamara with New Narratives TODEE DISTRICT, Montserrado County – For Christian Liberians Christmas is normally a period of smiles, joy and exchange of gifts with friends and loved ones. But as more Liberians fall below the poverty line, for many, that is not their experience this year. This year’s Christmas has brought more…
By Joseph Titus Yekeryan with New Narratives SALALA, Bong County- The midday sun beats down here as 10-year-old Nulee runs from one vehicle to another with plastic sachets of cold-water urging passengers to buy. “Cold water, cold water here! Make your chest cold!” he calls out in a high-pitched voice. His childhood, once filled with…
By Eric Opa Doue with New Narratives ITI, River Cess – The horizon is gray and murky here and in neighboring Glanyah, two communities battered by the wrath of nature. Mohammed Keita, sits on an old sponge mattress gifted him by a neighbor, in the ruins of his former home that was destroyed by flooding…
By Fatu Kamara with New Narratives SINKOR, Monrovia – Amos Kollie sits sadly in front of his house here on a recent sunny morning. Amos once spent his days plying the city’s streets on his motorcycle. But since a serious accident in 2022 the 29-year-old has no job prospects and depends on handouts from his parents…
By Nukanah Kollie with New Narratives PALALA, Bong County — There is joy, excitement, smiles and relief for Tetee Suah as she plays with her newborn daughter, just a day old, in the maternal waiting room of the Palala Clinic in Bong County. At 43, Suah is at an age where pregnancy and childbirth can…
Liberia’s new public health law, which was passed by the House of Representatives in 2022, is currently being debated in a special session by the Senate where it is facing a barrage of opposition from abortion opponents. A provision in the bill, which contains a range of other public health elements, would make abortion legal up to 18 weeks of pregnancy as long as it is done by a doctor, the most liberal in Africa….
WEIJA, Accra – For close to a year, Evans Antwi had been feeling unwell. His breathing was labored, and he couldn’t sleep. He often felt a tightening in his chest, and he suffered persistent headaches. Unsure what was happening to him, Evans managed his symptoms with over-the-counter medication. That was until he started coughing out blood. The…
Tamale (N/R): Lamnatu Seidu works six days a week in this shea butter processing centre here in Sagnarigu District. The 52-year-old mother of five is shrouded in smoke as she roasts nuts in a traditional roaster fueled by firewood and shea cake. She coughs and wipes her red eyes every few minutes. The smoke makes…
