Monrovia, Liberia: When Kulah Borbor’s daughter was 13 years old, she asked her mother if she could join Liberia’s secret Sande Society. Most Liberian women are members of the Sande, so her daughter’s request was nothing unusual. But Borbor, a gender-based violence officer with the West Point Women for Health and Development Organisation, immediately discouraged…
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NN’s Breakthrough Reporting Prompts Liberian Leaders to Announce an End To Female Circumcision
Monrovia – Traditional leaders and government ministers have revealed a secret agreement to shut down the activities of Liberia’s secret women’s society, the Sande, for an indefinite period. The deal will see all Sande land turned over to the leaders of the Poro men’s society. A ceremony handing over the land from the women to…
NN’s Tetee Gebro to Appear On Panel at New York Film Festival on Global Human Rights
Tetee Gebro, a reporter for New Narratives’ supported Liberian radio station SkyFM, will appear on a panel at the City University of New York’s Global Film Festival highlighting the work of documentarians and journalists covering issues relating to human and women’s rights. Tetee was one of two reporters in New Narratives’ network to do groundbreaking…
Newsweek/Daily Beast Reports on Bravery of NN’s Mae Azango
Liberian Writer Mae Azango Forced Into Hiding for Story on Female Genital Cutting by Danielle Shapiro Mar 23, 2012 4:45 AM EDT Ever since she published a front-page story about female genital cutting within a secret society of women, the Liberian journalist Mae Azango has lived in fear, and threats have sent her into hiding—but she says…
NN’s Mae Azango Interviewed By Radio France International
Liberian journalist urges women to speak out on excision Journalist Mae Azango Glenna Gordon By Laura Angela Bagnetto Liberian journalist Mae Azango has been forced into hiding after publishing an article in the Liberian daily Front Page Africa on the practice of female genital cutting or excision in the country. Azango, a New Narratives fellow talks to RFI’s Laura-Angela Bagnetto about…
Amnesty International Joins Calls for Police Protection of Mae Azango and Her Sources
DOCUMENT – LIBERIAN POLICE MUST TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION TO PROTECT JOURNALIST AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT 13 March 2012 Liberian Police Must Take Immediate Action to Protect Journalist Mae Azango, an investigative journalist based in Monrovia, is receiving death threats after publishing a story in FrontPage Africa uncovering the practice of female genital mutilation of girls [FGM]…
Committee to Protect Journalists Calls on Government to Protect NN Reporter After Threats For Story on Genital Cutting
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the Government of Liberia to protect NN Fellow Mae Azango and her newspaper FrontPage Africa after threats they received for a story on female genital cutting in the country. Mae faced big challenges convincing victims to talk about the practice because it is part of an ancient…
NN Executive Director to Present at African conference on Media Development
New Narratives Executive Director Prue Clarke will present on a panel discussing business models in African media at the Commonwealth Sierra Leone Media and Development conference in Freetown January 25-27th, 2012. Prue will discuss New Narratives’ innovative approach to media business model building and the work of Columbia University students on the topic, supervised by…
NN’s Leymah Gbowee wins Nobel Peace Prize
New Narratives is ecstatic that our advisor, Leymah Gbowee, has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Leymah’s courage and that of her “Women of Peace” in standing up to the warlords who had torn their country apart, has been an inspiration for New Narratives reporters and staff. We have been touched by Leymah’s dedication to giving…
New Narratives in Newsweek
A piece by NN’s Prue Clarke and Emily Schmall for Newsweek magazine caused an uproar in Liberia this month by highlighting the disparity between the way President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is viewed by the international community and the way she’s seen at home. With vote counting underway the President looks certain to face a tough…
FrontPage Africa and New Narratives Fellow Mae Azango Wins Pulitzer Grant
FrontPage Africa reporter Mae Azango has been selected as one of four African journalists to win a prestigious grant from the U.S.-based Pulitzer Center to cover reproductive health issues. Mae will join 3 other African journalists awarded the grants at the International Conference on Family Planning in Senegal from November 28 – December 3. The…
NN Welcomes First Opinion Writing Fellow, Robtel Pailey
New Narratives welcomes its first opinion writing fellow, Robtel Pailey. Robtel is a writer and activist who has extensive experience in the development world and government. She is a graduate of Howard and Oxford universities and is undertaking her Ph.D. at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African studies in London as a…
NN fellow Tecee Boley Reports from Water Week in Sweden for the Pulitzer Center
Tecee’s trip is part of a grant she won from the Pulitzer Center grant to cover water and sanitation issues. It’s Tecee’s first trip out of West Africa and she’s getting lots of ideas for how she’d like to see Liberia improve. …
A Year’s Success – New Narratives Changing Media Landscape, Awards Fellows
When President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s attention was drawn to the award-winning ‘5 LD for Sex’ lead story carried in the FrontPageAfrica newspaper little was she and the rest of Liberia to realize that a brand new team of female journalists were just beginning to unearth untold societal issues. Covering issues of fistula, rape, abortion, female circumcision,…
NN Executive Director Prue Clarke and advisor Agnes Umunna on Women and Crisis Panel
From Congo to Liberia to Afghanistan and Bosnia, women continue to bear the brunt of conflict. As many as three in four women were brutally raped in Liberia’s civil war. The carnage in Congo has gone on for 13 years with no sign of stopping. They are victims of an insidious new development in warfare…
United Nations launches investigation into peacekeepers use of child and teen prostitutes after NN reporting exposes widespread practice
The UN Mission in Liberia has launched an investigation into the use of prostitutes by it’s 8000-strong force of peacekeepers in the country after NN fellows Clara Mallah and Tecee Boley reported on several young teenage girls who claimed to have slept with peacekeepers since they were as young as 9. The story entitled: “I…