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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
BARNESVILLE – David Wesseh, a resident of Kebbah, appears confused after his two houses were unroofed by a heavy storm. Wesseh, his wife and his seven children are being accommodated by friends not far from where his roofless houses stand, but he is worried that he and his family could catch coronavirus. There have been no…
Mount Barclay, LIBERIA – Going to the “Sande Bush” school was never a dream for Dearest, Tina or Precious. The three girls, all high school students, say they were abducted by traditional leaders in September and taken by force to the Sande without the consent of their parents. They spent six terrifying weeks at the…
MONROVIA – Weatta Gbelly has seen hardship in her 35 years but nothing prepared her for the Covid-19 pandemic. Ms. Gbelly has never had the virus, neither does she know anyone who has, but she has suffered just the same. Ms. Gbelly is a mother of six. She and her husband used to farm to support…
BUSHROD ISLAND – 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…
MONROVIA – Weatta Gbelly has seen hardship in her 35 years but nothing prepared her for the Covid-19 pandemic. Ms. Gbelly has never had the virus, neither does she know anyone who has, but she has suffered just the same. Ms. Gbelly is a mother of six. She and her husband used to farm to support…
In 2007, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf introduced a policy mandating that all primary school-age children go to school. Parents risk fines or even being jailed if their children work on the street instead of attending school. Nearly four years later, the streets of the capital, Monrovia, are still crowded with young school-age children who work…
Cestos City – Hannah Toe is in the twelfth grade class at Cestos High School in rural Rivercess County. She looks youthful with cornrows and a red flower headband in her hair matching her ruffled top, but she is 24 years old and already a mother, with a five-year-old son named Tony. Part 3 of…
Cestos City – Twelve-year-old Baby Girl Yarkah is in the first grade and attends the Upper Timbo Community School in Little Liberia, Rivercess County. She shares a small chair with another girl because there are not enough seats to accommodate the school’s 200 students. The chairs have no arms. There are no desks at all….
Cestos City – Students in Rivercess County are learning less than half of the curriculum each semester because of untrained teachers and a broken pay system that forces teachers to abandon schools for days, even weeks at a time. The first of a 3-part series on Liberia’s rural schools crisis by New Narratives fellow Mae…
Forkpah Town, Clay Ashland, Tiny Pewee Wamah tries to hold the piece of boiled cassava his mother hands to him, but his tiny trembling hands soon let go and the cassava falls to the bright red earth. The 14-month-old baby tries to find strength to cry but his voice soon fades. By New Narratives fellow…
It is often said that the growth of a nation depends on the economy and the ability of its people to venture into the private sector. Since the war, petty trading is fast becoming the main form of employment for many Liberians. Some are taking it to the next level – entrepreneurship. But this new…
The cultural practice of female genital cutting is rampant in Liberia, especially in the countryside. Parents send girls as young as infants to ceremonies conducted by a secretive indigenous religion known as the Sande to be cut without knowing the health risks involved. But openly talking about this secret rite of passage is taboo here. …
It is often said in Liberia: “to spoil it is easy but to build it is hard.” So is the case with water and sanitation here. The 14-year civil war destroyed much of the water supply and sanitation facilities. People escaping brutal battles in the heart of the country relocated to Monrovia—overcrowding the city’s slums…
Having children early may seem like an adventure for many teenage girls, but most soon discover that this choice leads to lasting consequences. The high rate of teenage pregnancy increases the economic burden of Liberia by creating generation upon generation of very poor families. The majority of teen moms live at home with their parents,…
