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…
Journalism
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…