Liberia is taking a major step in the fight against sickle cell disease, a condition that affects an estimated 1,600 newborns each year and claims many lives before age five. Through a new government-led initiative, health authorities are working to improve early diagnosis, treatment, and public awareness, offering hope to families and aiming to reduce…
Health and Education
As Many as 1,600 Babies Are Born With Sickle Cell Disease Each Year and Up to Half Die Needlessly Before 5. Finally the Government is Doing Something About it
By Gloria Wleh, senior reporter with New Narratives Summary: 72ND COMMUNITY, Montserrado County — Suitcases are being packed here for yet another flight. For 19-year-old Tilnette Woods and her mother, Johnetta Harris-Kamara, plane journeys have become part of their lives. Tilnette has sickle cell disease, an inherited condition that changes the shape of red blood…
Liberia’s Science Conference Opens With Calls to Turn Research Into Action
Liberia’s Science Conference Opens With Calls to Turn Research Into Action highlights the opening of the 5th Emmet A. Dennis National Scientific Conference in Monrovia, where researchers, health professionals and government officials gathered to discuss how scientific evidence can improve healthcare and disease prevention in Liberia. Speakers emphasized that research should not stop at presentations…
Blinded by the Smoke: The price Ghana’s fish smokers are paying
By Wonder Ami Hagan In the doorway of her small roadside shop in James Town, Accra, Naomi Dowuo rests her chin in her hand, the blue sea sparkling in the sun behind her. The 70-year-old wears a purple tie-dye kaba, a colourful headwrap and thick-lensed eyeglasses, the kind a doctor prescribes. Only one of her…
Liberia’s Science Conference Opens With Calls to Turn Research Into Action
By Joyclyn Wea, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives Summary: CONGO TOWN, Monrovia — Scientists, health workers and government officials gathered for the Emmet A. Dennis National Scientific Conference, a national gathering of Liberian researchers presenting evidence they hope will shape how the country prevents disease and cares for patients. This is the fifth…
Called a ‘Dragon’: A Mother’s Struggle Exposes Failure to Provide Help for People with Disabilities
A Liberian mother is struggling to care for her daughter, who lives with a disability, while facing stigma and discrimination from members of her community. The family’s experience highlights the challenges many people with disabilities encounter, including limited access to support services, social exclusion, and inadequate government assistance. The story draws attention to the need…
Called a ‘Dragon’: A Mother’s Struggle Exposes Failure to Provide Help for People with Disabilities
By Tetee Gebro, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives Summary: • A family in Monrovia was forced from their home because the landlord believed her five-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy, a disability caused by damage to the developing brain, was cursed. • Liberia has laws and a government agency to protect people with disabilities, but…
As Hypertension and Obesity Rise, Government Urges Citizens to Get Moving
As hypertension, diabetes, and obesity continue to rise in Liberia, health officials are urging citizens to make exercise part of their daily lives. A new National Exercise and Wellness Day aims to encourage healthier habits, regular health screenings, and active living to help prevent chronic diseases and improve overall well-being. Tetee Gebro reports in this…
Global Study Shows Most African Workers ‘Struggling’; the Cost is Paid by Teachers, Healthcare Workers Who Hold the Economy Together
By Tetee Gebro and Joyclyn Wea, health and gender correspondents with New Narratives Summary: BENSONVILLE, Montserrado County – Before sunrise, Elaine Duowai prepares lesson notes in a house where electricity is not reliable. By morning, she is walking to Euphemia Barclay Elementary School, where some pupils are already missing from the rows of benches before…
As Hypertension and Obesity Rise, Government Urges Citizens to Get Moving
By Tetee Gebro, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives Summary CATHOLIC JUNCTION, Monrovia – Rain was falling Saturday morning when Nadia S. Jolo joined a group of people walking from through Monrovia’s streets as part of the country’s first National Exercise and Wellness Day. For the 51-year-old, getting wet was not enough to turn…
Liberia Launches Exercise Campaign to Tackle Rising Chronic Diseases
Liberia has declared the last Saturday of every month National Exercise and Wellness Day as hypertension, obesity and other chronic diseases become a growing health threat. Tetee Gebro reports on the campaign and why health officials say regular exercise, healthier eating and routine health checks must become everyday habits. This story was produced in collaboration…
Fed, But Starving: Health Workers Say Misinformation, Fees and Aid Cuts are Causing a Dramatic Rise in Severely
Cases of severe child malnutrition are rising in Liberia, as misinformation about infant feeding, healthcare costs and cuts to international aid put vulnerable babies at greater risk. In Grand Bassa County, the story of four-month-old Princess shows the devastating consequences when families lack access to accurate nutrition information and affordable treatment. King Brown reports in…
A Government Assessment Shows Liberia Is 69 Percent Ready for Ebola. Frontline Health Workers Say the Missing 31 Percent Matters
By Augusta S. Lafalay, senior reporter with New Narratives Summary: • A nationwide Ebola preparedness assessment found Liberia 69 percent ready overall, while logistics scored only 47 percent, leaving major gaps in equipment, supplies, isolation facilities and training. • Frontline health workers say those logistics gaps can mean the difference between safely isolating a suspected…
Ten Years On, Liberia’s Ebola Survivors Still Fighting the Aftermath
A decade after Liberia was declared Ebola-free, many survivors and families are still living with the emotional, physical, and economic scars of the devastating outbreak. From grandparents raising orphaned children to survivors coping with lingering health challenges and trauma, their stories highlight the long road to recovery and the need for continued support, remembrance, and…
Ten Years On, Liberia’s Ebola Survivors Still Fighting the Aftermath
By Nukanah Kollie with New Narratives Summary: SUAKOKO, Bong County — All was calm at Phebe Hospital on a recent afternoon. White buildings sat behind freshly cut grass. Ambulances stood nearby. The former Ebola Treatment Unit looked like an ordinary hospital ward. More than a decade ago, it was part of an hourly battle between life…
Families live with hidden risks from lead as battery recycling pollutes the air
By JENNIFER AMBOLLEY ASHAIMAN, Accra — Salma Iddrisu sits beside her large pan here in the centre of the Ashaiman scrapyard, selling food to workers as the day’s activities go on around her. The 38-year-old has been doing this for the past six years. She arrives in the morning, sets up her food and can…
Experts Raise an Alarm as Aid Cuts and Price Rise Lead to Acute Childhood Malnutrition Tripling as More Babies Die
By Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon, climate and environment reporter with New Narratives Summary GBAA-GAYE TOWN, Grand Bassa County – Eight-month-old Helen does not play the way babies usually do. She lies against her mother’s chest, as they sit under a palaver hut in this remote village surrounded by forest and accessible by one hand-cut road. Helen’s legs are…
Seven In 10 Women Take Antibiotics Monthly, Experts Raise Alarm To Catastrophic Public Health Outcomes
Health experts in Ghana have raised serious concerns after research revealed that seven out of ten women reportedly take antibiotics every month. They warn that this widespread practice could accelerate antimicrobial resistance, making common infections harder to treat and posing catastrophic risks to public health if urgent action is not taken. Jennifer Ambolley reports in…
Fed, But Starving: Health Workers Say Misinformation, Fees and Aid Cuts are Causing a Dramatic Rise in Severely Malnourished Babies
By King Brown with New Narratives Summary: BUCHANAN, Grand Bassa County— The sun is hot here in Big Joe Town, outside Grand Bassa’s capital city. Lovetee, 21, sits on a wooden chair watching her four-month-old daughter, Princess, lying weak on her lap, suffering from diarrhea. Princess’s ribs show through her skin, and her hair is thinning…
800,000 Liberians Likely Have Kidney Disease. Most Won’t Survive It
By Augusta S. Lafalay, senior reporter with New Narratives Summary: In 2021 Anthony Gbeh had never heard the word “dialysis”. Today, it has become the center of his life. The 45-year-old goes to the country’s only dialysis center here at John F. Kennedy hospital, every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, spending about 12 hours a week…
African Civil Society Leaders Say the Global Aid System Is Broken; 200 Gather in Accra This Week to Create a New Africa-Led Model
By Tetee Gebro, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives Summary: In the four years to 2023 the European Union spent $16 million to boost the systems that would keep Liberians safe from gender-based violence. But in 2026 FrontPage Africa/New Narratives found a completely broken legal system in which victims had little chance of accessing…