Liberia is taking a major step in the fight against sickle cell disease, a condition that affects an estimated 1,600 newborns each year and claims many lives before age five. Through a new government-led initiative, health authorities are working to improve early diagnosis, treatment, and public awareness, offering hope to families and aiming to reduce…
Journalism
Rural Women Wait as Corruption Case Over Money Meant for Them Stalls in Court
By Joyclyn Wea and Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon with New Narratives Summary TARKUN TOWN, River Cess County – Before daylight, MissionMai Sam heads for her coconut and palm farm. The mother of eight and her husband who cuts palm for a living, have spent years growing and selling what she can, hoping to make the farm…
As Many as 1,600 Babies Are Born With Sickle Cell Disease Each Year and Up to Half Die Needlessly Before 5. Finally the Government is Doing Something About it
By Gloria Wleh, senior reporter with New Narratives Summary: 72ND COMMUNITY, Montserrado County — Suitcases are being packed here for yet another flight. For 19-year-old Tilnette Woods and her mother, Johnetta Harris-Kamara, plane journeys have become part of their lives. Tilnette has sickle cell disease, an inherited condition that changes the shape of red blood…
Breathing Poison: Toxic smoke from Agbogbloshie e-waste burning still making workers sick
By Prince Owusu Asiedu Smoke from burning electronic waste at Agbogbloshie in Accra is filling the air with toxic chemicals, and researchers have long said the harmful effects are already getting into people’s bodies — making them sick and, in some cases, killing them. It has been nearly two decades since clear evidence of direct…
Liberia’s Science Conference Opens With Calls to Turn Research Into Action
Liberia’s Science Conference Opens With Calls to Turn Research Into Action highlights the opening of the 5th Emmet A. Dennis National Scientific Conference in Monrovia, where researchers, health professionals and government officials gathered to discuss how scientific evidence can improve healthcare and disease prevention in Liberia. Speakers emphasized that research should not stop at presentations…
War Victims, Survivors Protest at Court Office, Capitol as House Chairman Pledges to Put Court Bill Before Plenary Tuesday
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Hundreds of victims and survivors of Liberia’s civil wars, joined by justice advocates, protested Thursday outside the government office overseeing the establishment of a war crimes court, temporarily disrupting operations, before moving to the Capitol Building, where a senior lawmaker pledged to place the long-delayed legislation before…
U.S. Embassy Officials Visit Leading War Crimes Investigators in Show of Support, Investigators Say
U.S. Embassy Officials Visit Leading War Crimes Investigators in Show of Support, Investigators Say reports that two U.S. Embassy officials visited the Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP), Liberia’s leading war crimes investigation organization, following death threats against one of its senior investigators. According to Hassan Bility, the group’s director, the visit was a show…
Blinded by the Smoke: The price Ghana’s fish smokers are paying
By Wonder Ami Hagan In the doorway of her small roadside shop in James Town, Accra, Naomi Dowuo rests her chin in her hand, the blue sea sparkling in the sun behind her. The 70-year-old wears a purple tie-dye kaba, a colourful headwrap and thick-lensed eyeglasses, the kind a doctor prescribes. Only one of her…
Blinded by the Smoke: The price Ghana’s fish smokers are paying
In Ghana’s coastal communities, fish smoking provides a livelihood for thousands of women but exposes them to harmful smoke that can damage their eyesight. This report tells the story of 70-year-old Naomi Dowuo, who lost vision in one eye after decades of fish smoking, and examines the health risks, challenges, and efforts to promote safer…
More Than 23 Years After Civil Wars, Survivors Begin Receiving Reparations Through Civil Society Initiative
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Summary: JOHN F. KENNEDY HOSPITAL, Monrovia— For 36 years, Rufus Kartee has lived with a bullet wound he says he suffered at the hands of troops of the Armed Forces of Liberia at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in 1990, where one of Liberia’s deadliest wartime massacres took…
U.S. Embassy Officials Visit Leading War Crimes Investigators in Show of Support, Investigators Say
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Summary: Two officials from the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia visited the Global Justice and Research Project, Liberia’s leading war crimes investigation group, two weeks after it relocated its director of investigations following repeated death threats. The group’s director said the visit was an expression of American solidarity…
Liberia’s Science Conference Opens With Calls to Turn Research Into Action
By Joyclyn Wea, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives Summary: CONGO TOWN, Monrovia — Scientists, health workers and government officials gathered for the Emmet A. Dennis National Scientific Conference, a national gathering of Liberian researchers presenting evidence they hope will shape how the country prevents disease and cares for patients. This is the fifth…
Global Study Shows Most African Workers ‘Struggling’; the Cost is Paid by Teachers, Healthcare Workers Who Hold the Economy Together
A global workplace study found that many workers across Sub-Saharan Africa are struggling economically, a reality reflected in Liberia’s schools and health facilities. Teachers and healthcare workers described challenges including low salaries, payroll delays, heavy workloads, and difficult working conditions. Experts warn that these problems can weaken education, healthcare delivery, and the country’s long-term economic…
Called a ‘Dragon’: A Mother’s Struggle Exposes Failure to Provide Help for People with Disabilities
A Liberian mother is struggling to care for her daughter, who lives with a disability, while facing stigma and discrimination from members of her community. The family’s experience highlights the challenges many people with disabilities encounter, including limited access to support services, social exclusion, and inadequate government assistance. The story draws attention to the need…
Called a ‘Dragon’: A Mother’s Struggle Exposes Failure to Provide Help for People with Disabilities
By Tetee Gebro, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives Summary: • A family in Monrovia was forced from their home because the landlord believed her five-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy, a disability caused by damage to the developing brain, was cursed. • Liberia has laws and a government agency to protect people with disabilities, but…
U.S. Trial of Former Army Commander Moses Wright, Linked to Lutheran Church Massacre, Postponed Until February
By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives Summary: The U.S. trial of Moses Wright, a former senior Liberian army commander accused of ordering and overseeing the 1990 St. Peter’s Lutheran Church massacre in which an estimated 600 men, women and children were killed, has been postponed again. Wright’s trial, previously scheduled for November in…
Beyond Heart Health: The Surprising Power of Fresh Produce Against Air Pollution
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH KANESHIE, Accra – Gyamfua arrives at the footbridge here by 5:00 a.m. every day. Long rows of passenger’s board buses spewing black exhaust fumes into the air as she prepares her fruit stand. Throughout the day vehicles stream through the busy route. By sunset, thick layers of dust have settled on her…
‘Jaw Dropping’ El Niño” Could Test Liberia’s Weak Weather Warning System and Put Thousands of Lives at Risk, Experts Warn
A powerful El Niño weather pattern is expected to bring extreme heat, erratic rainfall, flooding, and other climate-related risks across West Africa. In Liberia, experts warn that farmers, fishers, and vulnerable communities could face serious impacts, while gaps in the country’s weather monitoring and early warning systems leave many people unprepared. In this report, Nemenlah…
Experts Raise an Alarm as Aid Cuts and Price Rise Lead to Acute Childhood Malnutrition Tripling as More Babies Die
Acute malnutrition among Liberian children under five has nearly tripled since 2020, driven by food insecurity, rising costs, climate impacts, and cuts to critical aid programs. In Grand Bassa County, reporter Nemenlah Cyrus Harmon meets families struggling to keep their children alive as clinics run out of life-saving nutrition treatments, with health workers warning that…
As Liberia Pushes for War Crimes Court, Witness Protection Agency Seeks Safe Houses, Stronger Safeguards for Victims and Witnesses in US$20 Million Plan
As Liberia moves closer to establishing a War and Economic Crimes Court, the country’s Witness Protection Agency is seeking more than US$20 million to build safe houses, strengthen security measures, and protect victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers. The initiative aims to ensure that those who come forward with critical testimony can do so safely and confidently…
Leading War Crimes Group Relocates Senior Investigator After Death Threats Ahead of U.S. Trial
Liberia’s leading war crimes investigation group has relocated a senior investigator abroad after receiving repeated death threats linked to his work on the case of former army commander Moses Wright, who is scheduled to face trial in the United States. The move has renewed concerns about the safety of investigators and witnesses as Liberia advances…