MONROVIA, Liberia — With President Charles Taylor’s war crimes trial in The Hague nearing an end after three years, many Liberians hope he will be brought home — to a hero’s welcome. Take Fasu Donzo, a lanky motorbike taxi driver. Now 31, he fought as a child soldier in Taylor’s army and was known as…
Journalism
‘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…
UN’s Female Role Models
Teachers and parents in Congo Town in Monrovia say since the arrival of the female Indian peacekeepers in Liberia, children’s views of women are gradually beginning to change. The female peacekeepers came to the country in 2007. Their job is to guard the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the President’s residence. But, the UN Gender Advisor…
Anti-Rape Activists Say Only Prosecutions Will End Violence
At least four rape cases are reported at health clinics in Monrovia every day, according to rape counselors. This rape epidemic means many girls are suffering physical and emotional trauma that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. But, one local organization called Touching Humanity in Need of Kindness, or THINK, is giving…
Is it time for a Liberian War Crimes Trial?
It has been more than a year since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report. Among the recommendations was the setting up of a war crimes court. Thousands of people died in the country’s 14 year civil war while human rights abuses were committed across Liberia. But is our country really ready for…
Children Having Sex for 3US cents
Children as young as ten are selling sex for as little as 5 Liberian Dollars, the equivalent of 3 US cents. They are using their bodies to pay for food, clothes and school fees – according to the NGO, Women’s Aid Incorporated. It says poverty is driving children onto the streets. Prostitution is illegal in…
Children Rented to Beg
Children are being rented to beg for blind people on the streets of Monrovia. That’s according to the Montserrado Super Intendent. Grace Kpan says although some of the kids may be related to the blind person, she fears in some cases the children may be rented. She says she is concerned about the number of…
War Is Over But Rape Goes on: Many Victims are Children
The fourteen years civil war in Liberia may be over. But the nation has yet another war to overcome – sexual violence against children. The most recent survey of rape survivors in Monrovia shows 3 out of every 8 are under 12. One in 10 is under 5. TC Boley reports from Duport Road. Click…
Unsafe Abortions add to Liberia’s Maternal Mortality toll
Unsafe abortion is one of the major contributing factors to maternal mortality in Liberia. That’s from the Director of the family health at the Ministry of Health. Dr Saye Baawo says unsafe abortions not only make many women infertile, they also result in death. In the first study of its kind in Liberia, the government…
A Decade Since UN Law on Women
Liberia is leading the way on the UN’s first ever law on women peace and security. The law, UN security council resolution 1325, was passed a decade ago and Liberia is the first country in Africa to complete a national action plan to implement the law. 1325 seeks to have women participate in every security…
Seven Years After War, is Liberia Ready for a War Crimes Trial?
Click to hear the whole story. [audio:http://newnarratives.podbean.com/mf/web/atxwwr/TeceeTRCFinalpackageNov2010.mp3] A symposium on Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in New York this month has once again stirred debate about recommendations in the TRC’s final report. The government has failed to implement most of them, chief among them the establishment of a war crimes tribunal to try more than…
UN’s First Female Police Unit Inspires Liberian Schoolgirls
Click to hear the whole story. [audio:http://newnarratives.podbean.com/mf/web/nxq42y/LadyMai1325IPKfinalpkgeOct2010.mp3] Students play outside the small, rectangular, building in Congo Town. It’s recess at the victory chapel school in Monrovia. Children are neatly dressed in their blue uniforms with orange and white stripes on their collars. It would be like any other school in the country if it wasn’t…
Is Liberia Ready for War Crime Tribunal? Liberian people are divided
A conference in New York earlier this month has renewed debate about one key recommendation of Liberia’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Delegates, including TRC Chairman Jerome J. Verdier, said the time has come to prosecute 182 Liberians accused in the report of war crimes. But Front Page Africa interviews with Liberians in Monrovia found ordinary…
A Lack of Safe Homes Leaves Rape Victims with Perpetrators
Tears roll down 16-year-old Tete’s full cheeks as she retells her painful ordeal. When she was 11, Tete and three of her sisters, were raped by three uncles over and over again. Tete’s family was part of the Never Die cult that claimed every body in the family was free to have sex with anyone…
India’s Female Peacekeepers Inspire Liberian Girls
It is break time at the Victory Chapel School in Congo Town. Children dressed in their royal blue uniforms with bright yellow and white trim fight to get under the shade of the only mango tree in the yard. It is the start of the dry season and the scorching sun will soon be almost…
Chronic Malnutrition Blamed on Mothers
Mercy Freeman sits on a small hospital cot in one of Liberia’s emergency hospitals, looking down at her frail son, whose dark eye sockets have sunk into his bony face. “He just started getting thin and thin[ner]. I do not know what is happening, that is why I brought him to the hospital,” the 18-year-old…
Abandoned Wives: Men Reject Circumcised Women
A bitter and lonely woman, 42-year-old Kebbeh weeps as she relives the event that destroyed her life. “I was circumcised against my will,” says Kebbeh, sitting in front of her little hut in a remote area of Mount Barclay. “I used to live in Monrovia with my husband and two beautiful daughters. (But then) I…
“Pregnant Again” Children Raise Children, Innocents Suffer
An 18-year-old girl sits on a small bed at the Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town, looking down at her tiny son, Max, who is so skinny that his big eyes pop out of his face and he seems like an elderly man. “He just started getting dry, and dry. I do not know what…
ONE LIMB AT A TIME: Begging Only Way of Life for Liberia’s Disabled
Armah Konneh is a war affected victim with one limb; he is one of the many disables who have created jobs for themselves. Konneh directs drivers who search for parking spaces for their cars on Randall Street. Says Konneh: “I have to come and hustle for my daily bread because I have three children in…