By Tetee Gebro, New Narratives health correspondent Summary : PENSON TOWN, Montserrado – It was the end of another long Sunday morning for this grandmother, panning through mud in a stream here trying to find enough specks of gold to feed her eight grandchildren. As she walked into the bush on her way to the…
A 57‑year‑old grandmother from rural Montserrado is fighting for justice after surviving rape, but the system meant to protect her has instead demanded illegal fees and placed heavy burdens on her. Her experience highlights how corruption and poverty continue to block many rural women from accessing justice in Liberia, turning an already painful situation into…
By Tetee Gebro, gender reporter with New Narratives Summary: The Liberian government has approved an emergency relocation for the family of an eight-year-old rape survivor after her mother reported intimidation, unauthorized filming, and repeated visits by strangers following media coverage of the case. Officials say the intervention was driven by safety concerns, underscoring both the real risks…
The lawyer for a 14-year-old rape survivor challenges the credibility of police conclusions that cleared former government official Bryant McGill, calling for full transparency in an investigation that many fear undermines trust in Liberia’s justice system. Tetee Gebro reports in this social media Video. To read more about this story click this link: https://frontpageafricaonline.com/news/liberian-government-relocates-rape-survivor-family-over-safety-threats/ This story…
A new global report ranks Liberia among the top ten countries where people experience the most sadness and worry. Experts say women make up most of the number. As reporter Tetee Gebro tells us in this collaboration with Okay FM, women are carrying the heaviest burden caught between survival and stress in a country still…
By Joyclyn Wea and Tetee Gebro with New Narratives Summary: MOUNT BARCLAY, Montserrado County- Each morning, as the sun climbs over here, Kebbeh Kollie grips a sledgehammer and strikes stone. The sharp clang echoes through the quarry near Mount Barclay, a rhythm of survival. For three years, the 40-year-old single mother has crushed rocks to…
Liberia’s new public health law, which was passed by the House of Representatives in 2022, is currently being debated in a special session by the Senate where it is facing a barrage of opposition from abortion opponents. A provision in the bill, which contains a range of other public health elements, would make abortion legal up to 18 weeks of pregnancy as long as it is done by a doctor, the most liberal in Africa….
Esi Ashun knew a time would surely come that she would have severe vision problems. She had seen it happen to her mother, who is now bedridden and blind, and her late neighbour. Both women had made their livings from fish smoking here on Ghana’s coast. But Esi didn’t expect to lose her sight so…
Blindness is one of the many tragedies that Liberians suffer at higher rates than people in other countries because of limited medical care. As many 22,000 Liberians suffer from impaired vision….
MONROVIA, Liberia—With less than three months until vital presidential and legislative elections, Liberia’s political parties have defied their own commitments to fill 30 percent of their candidate ranks with women….
When he took office in 2018 President George Weah promised his government would lift one million Liberians out of poverty by the end of his six year term. Half Liberia’s five million people live below in the poverty line. In January the Weah government declared a victory that surprised many people: it claimed to have…
Esther thought she was boarding a flight that would take her to a lucrative job in Dubai. Instead, she landed in Muscat, Oman, where she was beaten and sold into modern-day slavery. This is the incredible story of how Esther, and hundreds of other Liberian women, worked together to free themselves from human trafficking syndicates. …
President Weah promised to set up a special committee to look into sexual and gender-based crimes. He promised a special prosecutor to handle rape cases, a national sex offender registry, and a national security task force to handle sexual and gender-based violence. The president said he had allocated $US2m in emergency funding to the problem.
But a year on, nothing has been heard of the committee or government plans to address the problem. Activists are bitterly disappointed….
One of the most high-profile Liberians in the United States has lost his job after being caught up in the sexual harassment scandal that took down New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Alphonso David, 50, was the head of the Human Rights Campaign, the most powerful group lobbying for the rights of LGBTQ Americans, until last…
Listen here: Liberia is one of just three West African nations where female genital cutting is legal. New Narratives’ Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh finds strong resistance to the bill from traditional leaders and little political will to challenge them. At the same time membership of traditional societies is plummeting.This story was a collaboration with Ok FM…
In part two of this two-part series with New Narratives, Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh finds Liberians are abandoning the Sande traditional society leading some leaders to resort to kidnapping and forced cutting. MOUNT BARCLAY, Montserrado – Deborah Parker was 15 when she was sent to a “Bush school” run by the Sande traditional society in her home…
Liberia is one of just three West African nations where female genital cutting is legal. In this two-part series with New Narratives Evelyn Kpadeh Seagbeh finds strong resistance to the bill from traditional leaders and little political will to challenge them. At the same time Sande’s membership is plummeting. MOUNT BARCLAY, Montserrado – 18-year-old Dearest is one…
GARPUE TOWN, Grand Bassa County – Schools are now open in Liberia, but 14-year-old Tutugirl has not joined her classmates. Tutugirl says it has been impossible since she returned injured and traumatized from the “bush school” where she and her friends were forcefully taken after they were kidnapped from this town in September. While she…
In part three of this three-part series Anthony Stephens looks at the Liberian government’s efforts to get tough on human trafficking. In September 2021 the Liberian government sent a signal it was getting tough on human trafficking. The Legislature passed a revision to a 2005 law increasing the prison sentence for anyone found guilty of…
MONROVIA – A disgraced agent of the National Security Agency has gone on trial with his brother for allegedly taking payments from international trafficking agents to mislead young Liberian women into traveling to the Middle Eastern country of Oman where they were to work as domestic servants. The indictment alleges Arthur Chan-Chan, and his brother…
Massa Kandakai, the head of over three hundred FGM practitioners in Montserrado County, says she along with her women have fulfilled their part of the bargain with UN Women by closing all bush schools in Sonkay Town and Todee in Montserrado. Kandakai says UN Women should uphold the agreement by continually supporting them – with monthly salaries, access to cell phone networks, fishponds and processors for making Farina or flour from cassava and potatoes. The women say they will revert to the practice if their requests are not met….
