Health and Education Archives

Liberia: Maternal Waiting Homes In Rural Areas Lack Basic Necessities Putting Lives of Mothers and Babies at Risk

When Amelia Nyanamah entered the eighth month of her pregnancy her village midwife advised her to go to the nearby maternal waiting home for a safer delivery. The 38-year-old mother of four had already made the arduous 10-kilometer trip by foot from her remote village to the Lugbeyee Clinic waiting room when she gave birth to her fourth child in 2020. She thought she knew what to expect….

Jerome Saye
FrontPage Africa

Liberia: Health Authorities Prepare for Deadly Mpox Strain

Countries across Africa are on guard as a more severe strain of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has killed 1000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sickened more than 30,000….

Gloria Wleh
FrontPage Africa

Liberia Avoids the Deadly Mpox Strain for Now but Health Care Workers Say They Need More Supplies

Junior cries to his mother as another stranger approaches the front of their house. The two-year-old has met too many new people since he came down with mpox in August….

Gloria Wleh
FrontPage Africa

Liberia: Parents of Kids with Undiagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder Battle with Little Support

Having a child is a time of profound joy for most mothers, and so it was for Anita when told she had given birth to a girl who she named Maureen. But Anita’s dream of living happily together with her family fell apart when she learned that her child had autism spectrum disorder, a neurological condition that affects communication, social interactions, and behavior….

Joyclyn Wea
FrontPage Africa

Liberians Turn to Facebook to Find “Good Samaritans” to Fill In Gaps As Healthcare System Fails Them

Like too many people across Liberia Fatu Washington spent much of her youth “living with rejection from friends and neighbors”, as she put it, in her home village of ‘Joseph Town’ in Bomi County….

Varney Dukuly
FrontPage Africa

Overwhelmed Doctors at StarBase Treatment Unit Plead with People to Believe the Covid-19 is Real

Liberians are facing the latest and most dangerous wave since the Covid-19 pandemic started 15 months ago. This latest wave, caused by the highly infectious Delta variant which entered the country a month ago, has taken dozens of lives including journalists and high-profile personalities. As of July 11, 2021, the National Public Health Institute of…

Mae Azango
FrontPage Africa

Bridge International Promised to Solve Liberia’s Education Crisis. Six Years On Schools Are Still Failing

In 2016 US-based Bridge International Came To Save Liberia’s Schools. In the first of a two-part investigation with New Narratives Eric Opa Doue finds Bridge schools doing little better than state schools. YARPAH TOWN, River Cess County – Babygirl Smith helps her mother to sell snacks at the town market every Monday. The 17-year-old should…

Eric Opa Doue
FrontPage Africa

Teacher Shortages Force Schools to Close as Rural Education Crisis Continues

This two-part series examines the county’s school system. MONWEH, River Cess- Jacob Beegar sits on a rattan chair under a palaver hut while his friends run around. Jacob doesn’t join them. The 15-year-old doesn’t want to play. He would rather be in school. Jacob should be in the 4th grade at the nearby Giemengbleh Public…

Eric Opa Doue
FrontPage Africa

Will Liberia Finally Ban Female Genital Cutting?

Listen here: Liberia is one of just three West African nations where female genital cutting is legal. New Narratives’ Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh finds strong resistance to the bill from traditional leaders and little political will to challenge them. At the same time membership of traditional societies is plummeting.This story was a collaboration with Ok FM…

Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
Ok FM

As Membership Plummets Traditional Leaders Resort to Kidnapping, Forced Genital Cutting, and Extortion

In part two of this two-part series with New Narratives, Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh finds Liberians are abandoning the Sande traditional society leading some leaders to resort to kidnapping and forced cutting. MOUNT BARCLAY, Montserrado – Deborah Parker was 15 when she was sent to a “Bush school” run by the Sande traditional society in her home…

Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
FrontPage Africa

A New Bill to Ban Female Genital Cutting Looks Set for Defeat Even as Liberians Abandon the Practice

Liberia is one of just three West African nations where female genital cutting is legal. In this two-part series with New Narratives Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh finds strong resistance to the bill from traditional leaders and little political will to challenge them. At the same time Sande’s membership is plummeting. MOUNT BARCLAY, Montserrado – 18-year-old Dearest is one…

Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
FrontPage Africa

FGM Bush Schools Still Operational Despite Three-Year Moratorium

GARPUE TOWN, Grand Bassa County – Schools are now open in Liberia, but 14-year-old Tutugirl has not joined her classmates. Tutugirl says it has been impossible since she returned injured and traumatized from the “bush school” where she and her friends were forcefully taken after they were kidnapped from this town in September. While she…

Rita Jlogbe Doue
FrontPage Africa

Traditional Leaders Say They Will Not Stop Female Genital Cutting Without More Money

Massa Kandakai, the head of over three hundred FGM practitioners in Montserrado County, says she along with her women have fulfilled their part of the bargain with UN Women by closing all bush schools in Sonkay Town and Todee in Montserrado. Kandakai says UN Women should uphold the agreement by continually supporting them – with monthly salaries, access to cell phone networks, fishponds and processors for making Farina or flour from cassava and potatoes. The women say they will revert to the practice if their requests are not met….

Rita Jlogbe Doue
Front Page Africa

Liberia: 2022, A Bad Year for Victims of Child Rape

Martu Yardolo had just turned 17 when she says she was given a drug hidden in a drink and gang raped by three men. It was the night of her birthday. Yardolo was looking forward to celebrating with her friends. Instead but it ended in violence that has destroyed her world Commentary by Evelyn Kpadeh…

Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
Front Page Africa

Domestic Violence and Gender Based Violence Continue to Plague Liberians

Domestic and Gender Based Violence continue to be major problems in Liberian society including here in Bong County. Of about two hundred and fifty five inmates currently behind bars at Gbarnga Central Prison, seventy are there for sexual violence offences. But anti-violence activists say cases that make it to conviction are just a tiny share…

Nukanah Kollie
Super Bongese Radio

Rescued From Bush School, Girls Detail Female Genital Cutting; Mother Pursues Justice

In the last few years the Liberian government has enacted a range of efforts to combat violence against women and girls. A new domestic violence law, a National Road Map and President George Weah’s announcement of a two million dollar national emergency fund, have done little to stop the violence. It continues right under the…

KpadEvelyneh Seagbeh
Okay FM/Prime/ELBC

Monrovia and Paynesville are Drowning in Plastic; One Company Tries to Help

MONROVIA – Waste plastic is becoming a scourge around the world but it is especially true here in Liberia’s capital city and its satellite sister, Paynesville. Discarded plastic is choking waterways, blocking drains, killing fish, and leaching harmful chemicals into the water and soil. By Tina S. Mehnpaine, with New Narratives With poor or limited waste management…

Tina Mehnpaine
Front PageAfrica

One Year Since President Weah Declared Rape a National Emergency Activists Say Nothing Has Changed

MONROVIA – It was a year ago that President George Weah declared rape a national emergency. His announcement came in response to a crime that shocked the nation: a fifteen-year-old boy had raped a three-year-old girl, using a razor blade to commit the crime. That followed years of cries by women activists for governments to…

Mae Azango
Front Page Africa

Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh reports that drug addiction continues to stalk Liberia’s former combatants

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By Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh
Various Radio

Liberians Overdosing At Home Over Fear of Coronavirus

PAYNESVILLE – Beginning June 9, Mary Jones, a 42-year-old mother of four, took sick for a week. She had sore throat, headache and running stomach, the same symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus. Jones bought drugs from two pharmacies and took them. She thought she would contract coronavirus or be tested for the disease if…

By Naomi F. Kennedy
FrontPage Africa

Health Authorities Calm Over Limited Ventilators

MONROVIA – Liberia has only six ventilators, one of the country’s many challenges in combating the novel coronavirus pandemic but health authorities say they are not worried about that. Why? They have not had to use the available, meager equipment. “The absence of ventilators is not having any impact on us because none of our patients…

Varney Kamara
FrontPage Africa