If a Liberian hasn’t eaten rice at least once during the day, then he will tell you that he really hasn’t eaten. But our staple food is becoming more expensive, as global food costs are skyrocketing. This is angering many Liberians, who say they’re going hungry as a result, and putting a strain on the…
Health and Education
Teen Pregnancy is a Growing Problem for Liberia
Teen pregnancy is on the rise in Liberia and fast becoming a national crisis with far-reaching effects. With one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the world, many young girls in Liberia are exposed to sex by age 9, and about 3 out of 10 Liberian girls get pregnant before the age of…
Women at Particular Risk in Liberia’s New Drug Trade
Drug trafficking and drug use is on the rise in Liberia according to a new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The problem is fueled by the influx of drugs into the region by South American drug cartels who see this as an easy route to get their products to Europe….
Nearly Half of Liberia’s Children are Malnutritioned
In Liberia, one out of every four children suffers from acute malnutrition, according to health organization Equip Liberia. And as many as five children die of hunger every day in towns and villages across the country. In collaboration with New Narratives and Truth FM, Rose Kaiwuh has this report on our country’s nutritional crisis….
Broken Promises of Foreign Palm Oil Company Anger Locals
Two years ago the government of Liberia signed an $800 million dollar concession agreement with Malaysian palm oil giant Sime Darby to cultivate 220,000 hectares of land. In the agreement, the company promised to build schools and clinics and provide workers with decent housing. More than a year later workers are living in the shells…
In Run-Up to Election, Women’s Views Diverge on Liberia’s First Female President
INTRO: Six years ago in the Liberian presidential elections slightly more than half of voters were women, giving rise to the first female president in Liberia and Africa. But with barely two months to go before elections women say the president shouldn’t take their vote for granted. From Monrovia, New Narratives fellow Fabine Kwiah reports….
Drug Trafficking on the Rise in Liberia, Leaving a Legacy of Users (PART II)
Cocaine trafficking through Liberia, a country with few effective counter narcotics programs, is on the rise. The United Nations says it’s exacerbating an addiction problem stemming from Liberia’s civil war. In a collaboration between New Narratives and Radio Veritas, Fabine Kwiah takes a closer look. …
In Run-Up to Election, Women Debate Record of Liberia’s First Female President
Six years ago in the Liberian presidential elections slightly more than half of voters were women, giving rise to the first female president in Liberia and Africa. But with barely two months to go before elections women say the president shouldn’t take their vote for granted. From Monrovia, New Narratives fellow Fabine Kwiah reports. …
New Drug Route Through West Africa Leaves Trail of Addicts
Cocaine trafficking through Liberia, a country with few effective counter narcotics programs, is on the rise. The United Nations says it’s exacerbating an addiction problem stemming from Liberia’s civil war. In a collaboration between New Narratives and Radio Veritas, Fabine Kwiah takes a closer look….
Liberian Women Suffer Sexual Harassment in Silence
It happens all the time. Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, an inappropriate word or unwanted touch. Sexual harassment is rampant in Liberia. There is no specific law prohibiting harassment. Victims say they are reluctant to talk about it because they fear reprisals. The Legislature is now considering the passage of a Decent Work…
The Power of One: Hanna Slocum Changing Women’s Lives
The West African country of Liberia is considered one of the world’s worst places to be a woman. In the aftermath of the country’s brutal civil war, women have limited access to medical care, jobs, and education. Rape is so common that many women don’t know it’s a crime. And most women raise their children…
Child and Teen Prostitution Flourishes in Monrovia Grow
Teenage sex workers say the government has failed to deliver on any of the promises they made after reports in several Liberian media houses last year revealed Liberian girls were forced into prostitution to survive. After the New Narratives story was published in Front Page Africa and aired on Sky FM President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf…
Liberian Teen Prostitutes Face Abuse
MONROVIA (Reuters Trustlaw) – When darkness falls on Monrovia and most of the Liberian capital’s half a million inhabitants return home to rest, an army of teenage girls as young as 13 sets out to work as underage prostitutes, charging as little as 5 Liberian dollars (3 U.S cents) to clients who often abuse them. “I…
As Bones Surface, Massacre Survivors Demand Collective Burial
During the Liberian civil war, tens of thousands of dead were buried in unmarked graves. Mass graves litter the country including the capital city Monrovia. As Fabine Kwiah reports some leaders are calling for these graves to be excavated and the bodies reburied. …
Liberian Government Neglects Mass Graves
It’s been seven years since the end of the civil war in Liberia, but there are still some gruesome reminders of the past. Mass graves haunt the capital. Former TRC Chairman Jerome Verdier is among several leading human rights advocates demanding the graves be opened and the dead be given proper burials. Tetee Gebro reports…
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…
“I Sleep with More than 20 Men a Night.” Teen Prostitution Grows in Monrovia
Rose is 15, and has been selling sex for money since the final chapter of the war in 2003, when she was eight. “I got on the street during World War III to prostitute. I am on the street to look for a living because I am from a poor background and I got no…
$5LD for Sex
By day, the infamous Anthony’s Provision Shop at the Lapazee, Airfield Community in Monrovia sells soap, creams and candies. By night, children use it to sell sex. “I have been on the street for so many years. Seven years on the street. I was just a baby. My parents are all dead and they left…
3 out of 8 Rape Victims Aged Under 12
Three-year-old Love walks uncomfortably into this clinic for victims of rape. A pretty little girl with braids, Love (not her real name) looks up nervously at her weeping mother. Love’s father is shaking with rage. “I just heard last night that some teenage boys had been tampering with her,” the father says to the clinician…
‘BLEEDING PLENTY’: Unsafe Abortions Kill Liberian Women
For every three women who give birth at the James N. Davies Memorial Hospital in Monrovia, another woman is treated for complications after an unsafe abortion. Since January, the maternity hospital in Jacob Town has treated 281 women who have either tried to abort the baby themselves or paid someone else to do it. “They…
Birth Injury Maims Liberian Mothers
Across Liberia tens of thousands of women are quietly suffering from an injury that leaves them outcasts from friends and family. Fistula is an injury that occurs most often in childbirth when the woman does not have medical assistance. It is entirely preventable. It almost never happens in rich countries where all women have access…