Feature

By Isaac Massaquoi

We are closing the year 2022 on the theme of Media Poverty. It’s not a poverty of ideas, professionalism and ambition but a near complete lack of money and other resources needed to deliver high quality journalism. The kind of journalism that would conform to what all journalists acknowledge as the cardinal principles of the trade – Public Service, Objectivity, Autonomy and Ethics.

By Alpha Abu

2022 is far spent and drawing to a close, with 2023 already around, about to be ushered in. As we look forward to the New Year, there were some moments of Sports worth mentioning, or should I say reliving, in 2022, depending on the spectacle that was played out!

Undoubtedly the most popular sporting discipline in Sierra Leone and the world over, football continues its slow rebirth after torturous years of unprecedented intrigue, infighting and shenanigans that got played out by those considered administrators of the game.

By Mabinty M. Kamara & Alpha Abu

Health authorities in Sierra Leone have been engaged in tackling Lassa fever, a disease that is prevalent in the Eastern Region and notably Kenema district, considered the epicentre.

Despite years of relentless efforts by medics to control the spread of the virus, challenges remain, exacerbated by the apparent ignorance of a reasonable part of the population on the real dangers associated with the zoonotic disease, caused by the Multimammate rat.

By Emma Black

Sixty-five-year-old, Mariatu Koroma, recalls May 2014 like it was yesterday. She was selling bush meat including monkeys, bats, deer, bush rats and wild boar, at the Kingsway Corner Market in Kenema, in the east of Sierra Leone. May 2014 also marked the first recorded case of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Sierra Leone, in the Kenema District, which is why that month and year are so memorable to Koroma.

By Mabinty M.  Kamara

Skepticism, even fear gripped me as hospital workers carefully wheeled me to the labour ward to deliver my child at about 11:30 am on a normal Friday.  Thinking of the many women who had been in a similar situation but couldn’t make it alive, my labour experience was indeed less of a pain and more of fear that I may die in the process. At that point all I could do was to seek the face of God Almighty and it could have been my last prayer on this beautiful planet.

By Mabinty M. Kamara

Since the Covid19 pandemic began, zoonotic diseases, especially those caused by viral pathogens with the ability to spread and infect a large number of people very quickly, have grabbed public attention like never before. One of these diseases is Lassa fever which is highly contagious and can be passed on from mother to child during pregnancy or through breastfeeding or other contacts between the mother and child. It has been around for over 40 years ravaging countries around the West Africa belt.

By Franklin Sisabu Bendu

The performance of any country’s currency is a strong indicator about the performance of its economy. Since the start of the year, the Leone has been gradually depreciating against major currencies.

The exchange rate is an important variable in a country’s terms of trade, and for a country like Sierra Leone that relies on imports for its essential products, movements in the exchange rate has consequences for economic activities and livelihood.