Dubai Cares chief executive Tariq Al Gurg in Sierra Leone.

Despite recent progress in development and education, Sierra Leone remains one of the poorest countries in the world, according to the UN Human Development Index. The Ebola virus wreaked havoc in this environment and claimed thousands of lives in just two years.

The social and economic consequences of the Ebola outbreak extended beyond the immediate tragedy as the country’s economy suffered enormously. Daily life for the ordinary Sierra Leonean came to a halt, trade slowed dramatically and goods and services became scarce.

The tragedy also moved beyond city dwellers, as the UNDP estimates the percentage of farmers impacted to be 63.6 per cent. The negative impact on farmers was then translated to food insecurity for the nation as a whole.

Many schools were closed all over Sierra Leone to mitigate the risk of transmission.

Closure periods were approximately nine months during the crisis, leaving nearly 1.8 million children without access to comprehensive education, stalling their learning, and threatening the future growth and potential of Sierra Leone’s future generations. According to Unicef, Ebola claimed the lives of 181 teachers and 945 students.

Additionally, the Ebola crisis swiftly and dramatically reversed the improvements made in education services since the country’s 1991-2002 Civil War.

The improvements mainly addressed expansion in education services and eliminating education access barriers. To compensate for the missed learning opportunities, Sierra Leone schools opened in 2015 with an accelerated curriculum to shorten the duration of academic years.

To address this pressing issue, Dubai Cares launched Education in Emergencies: Evidence for Action (3EA), a programme in partnership with the International Rescue Committee.

The programme aims to strengthen the quality of education by improving teaching methodologies, ways to monitor and mentor staff, and reinforcing teaching styles that improve classroom performance. It includes a set of eight core competencies such as varying instruction methods to suit the learner, creating an intellectually stimulating classroom environment, using positive communication techniques (encouraging students, creating a sense of belonging, and promoting positive social relationships), along with effective collaboration with parents, community and other stakeholders.

Barnadetta Sheriff, a head teacher in Gerihun, notes: "This programme is very necessary. I now feel I am able to handle a lot of management issues in a much more professional way. Also, as the head teacher, core competencies will really help me in assessing myself and my teachers. My collaboration with the community will also become more solid and I hope this programme will grow from strength to strength with our full involvement."

This programme reinforces the concepts of reflection and accountability to make learning more effective in schools. It helped set in place a steady course of recovery from the Ebola crisis as it allowed children to return to their education in an improved learning environment.

Andrew Christian Gbao, a head teacher in Yamandu, describes the ways in which increased school management has led to greater student success: "We now have the skills to manage our schools well, and are able to collaborate better with the community. This will make our work easier. The Dubai Cares programme has arrived at the right time, as an efficient and improved learning environment will help children continue their education after the Ebola crisis".

International Rescue Committee is a humanitarian aid and development organisation

Miss Independence Sierra Leone 2017: Contestant Augusta Fraser

Augusta Fraser is a daughter, sister, friend, student, and volunteer. She was born to Michael Fraser of the Krio Tribe and Rosaline Fraser of the Krio and Temne Tribe in Silver Spring, Maryland on August 6th. She was raised and currently lives in Bowie, Maryland. Augusta is the youngest of four siblings. She has two older brothers and one older sister who all inspire her.

Augusta is a rising sophomore at Howard University where she is studying Legal Communications with a minor in Biology. After graduation she plans to attend Law School and pursue a career in Foreign Policy and International Development. In the coming future Augusta desires to impact different nations by bringing forth justice and equal treatment. One of her aspirations is to work in diplomatic relations concerning Sierra Leone to uplift the country, rebuild the infrastructure, and enhance the economy so that Sierra Leone may be recognized positively among the nations.

Augusta wants to become the next Miss Independence Sierra Leone USA because she not only desires to help our country but most importantly our people, alongside them. Some don’t see the hope and potential Sierra Leone holds, but Augusta does. Sierra Leone has some of the most intelligent and resilient people who have overcome everything from Ebola, to a war torn country. With her organization, Fountains For Life Augusta Fraser wants to act on multiple projects (i.e. academic scholarships, and food drives) in Sierra Leone starting with building a water well. One of the key issues affecting the livelihood and health of our people is sanitation and she will bring change to uphold sanitation standards. This is only one of Augusta’s goals to impact our beloved Sierra Leone if chosen to become Miss Independence Sierra Leone 2017.

Zainab Sheriff Bangura's political approach

"Women will soon have political power. Woman suffrage and permanent peace will go together. When a country is in a state of mind to grant the vote to its women, it is a sign that that country is ripe for permanent peace. Women don’t feel as men do about war. They are the mothers of the race. Men think of the economic results, women think of the grief and pain."__Dr. Aletta Jacobs,(1851-1929) Holland.

Zainab Sheriff Bangura’s political approach combines both a woman’s aptitude to factor in grief and pain that could stem from a policy deficit and an unparalleled commitment to economic empowerment which focuses on lifting the masses out of poverty. This is clearly evidenced by her continuing self-help community projects in Lunsar, Port Loko district, District. The 21st Century woman’s touch, look no further!

In line with her beliefs and commitment to help her people, Zainab Sheriff Bangura wishes to dedicate her wealth of work experience and qualifications, including years of continuing self-help projects, to the service of her people. For this reason, she is still vying to be the vibrant female voice of the same Consistency 050 that was once held by another vibrant woman.

Throughout his almost ten year reign, President Koroma has done tremendously well in empowering women to take on leadership roles in our nation, Sierra Leone. From having the highest number of female cabinet ministers in the history of Sierra Leone, to scoring a 30% quota for female Parliamentarian representation in Tonkolili District, the resilience of President Koroma to empower women is unrivalled in Sierra Leone. Women empowerment is a tenet carefully woven into our President’s Agenda for Change and it is thus ongoing.

President Koroma, as Leader and Chairman of the most popular political party in Sierra Leone, the indomitable All Peoples Congress (APC), ends his journey of long dedicated service to the people of Sierra Leone in March next year. In cementing his unrivalled strides in empowering women, many do wish that indeed his signoff legacy should be to increase the number of women policy-makers in our House of Parliament. Zainab Sheriff Bangura will prove both credible and influential in following through on policy forging and implementation where afforded the opportunity.

Zainab Sheriff Bangura has also remained true to the core values that bind the APC Party, and by extension her native Lunsar; values which she has engaged in her community projects in Lunsar. She has for the past years now showed her commitment in protecting the legacy of President Koroma amongst indigenes of Lunsar and its environ communities.

Born and raised in Lunsar, she attended the Our Lady of Guadalupe from primary through to secondary education, starting from class one to form five. Zainab Sheriff Bangura holds a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice, and a Master’s degree in Refugee and Development Studies, having furthered her education in the United Kingdom. She also has post graduate qualifications in Community Development, Social Housing, Counselling, Mentoring. In the UK, she was into Advocacy, Human Rights, Women’s Rights, and Social Housing, wherein she held various senior administrative positions both in the local authority and private sectors.

Since her relocation back to Sierra Leone in 2008, she has been very much involved in her community in Lunsar and its periphery, especially in youth activities and women’s empowerment initiatives.

Zainab Sheriff Bangura’s qualifications and ensuing experience together with her winsome personable disposition have enabled her to work assiduously with others on various synergies delivering on the President’s Agenda for Prosperity, particularly so during the Ebola outbreak which ravaged our nation - with Port Loko District being her area of focus at the time. Her passion for humanity and commitment to economic progression puts her in good stead for a strategic position in leadership.

Just a quick recap, Zainab Sheriff Bangura contested for the APC ticket in the recent Parliamentary bye-election that was held in Lunsar, Constituency 050, but was denied the APC symbol. However, due to her passion to serve her people in Lunsar and by extension the APC Party, she still believes she has a role to play in her community’s history as policy-maker imminently.

Why Sierra Leoneans hate peace and development in their country - TONY-BEE

Honestly speaking Sierra Leoneans are well known for their hospitality all over the world, especially in Africa.

But ironically many of them hate each other. But they love foreigners. They have high respect for strangers; unfortunately they do not have respect among themselves. You can attest this to what is happening in the social media. Where they are currently showing their pull him down (PhD) syndrome. By castigating their compatriots unnecessarily. Some of them just because of jealousy and envious evil spirit they possess. They prefer to promote foreigners than their own brothers and sisters both in and out of the country.

Day in day out they are insulting each other.They are using all sorts of vulgar languages against each other. And even their own highly respected president in the world, President Ernest Bai Koroma they are insulting him openly. Therefore, it is an open secret that many Sierra Leoneans are not well cultured.

Regardless of their level of education they still have their village crude way of life. Such unpatriotic attitudes and behaviours are very hard to find among other countries' citizens. Of course other countries’ citizens love themselves more than foreigners. Some of them have little respect for foreigners in their countries.

But what really wrong with some fellow Sierra Leoneans? Some of them how they hate each other so they hate to see peace and development in their country. It is really becoming a very serious burning issue among Sierra Leoneans at this atomic Age. Especially for peace, unity, progress and development loving patriotic Sierra Leoneans who are pondering about the behaviour of their compatriot, an age that some Sierra Leoneans should give away their crude way of thinking, particularly for the sake of progress and development of their nation, Although sometimes it is not easy for all of us to think alike. 

But sometimes it is good to have some similarities in common, that will make life goes on smoothly as Sierra Leoneans. But everything negative in the minds of some Sierra Leoneans about their country. Why? Is it because of unpatriotic and unnationalistic selfish interest, political hatred, tribal hatred or regional sentiments? If those are the issues, what will you have to benefit when you destroy your country because of such inhumane caustic crude way of doing things?

Even some of the so-called elites both home and abroad many people are expecting much from them. But unfortunately they are worse than the ordinary Sierra Leoneans in the street. They hate to see peace and development in their country. If you listen to radios, you watch TVs, you read their writings, commentaries and some of the photos they show to the entire world about their country that will tell you who they are.

It's like their country is the most poor, poor and poorest in the universe. They deliberately turned blind eyes to what is happening to some of the Western World that some of them live. Despite those countries are far ahead of us in terms of development. But they still have lots of areas or places to development or to improve, including health sector, housing, education, and unemployment rate. Come to Australia, there are many places that still need development. 

If you come to Australia one of the richest countries in the world, when you see some houses you will not believe if it is the Australia that has the name. We still have rotten board houses (boad hose) and people are still sleeping in them. Please do not think I am talking about houses in the interior parts of the country.

I mean some of the main cities, including Sydney NSW. Still there are lots of “rotten boad hose”, old board houses. But that did not prevent the Australian government to embark on other new project programs that will bring more revenue in the country. They never say because they have housing problem, health problem or education issue therefore, they should not welcome or undertake other beneficial project for the development of their country.

But with Sierra Leoneans, especially those that sleep in the web of negativity, nothing is good for them in the country. Because we have health problem, housing and educational problems as such, we should not undertake any other project that will generate more income that will assist in solving some of the long outstanding issues in the country.

Sacked Sierra Leone VP asks for $ 210 million and reinstatement

 

By Umaru Fofana

Lawyers for Samuel Sam-Sumana have completed filing their case at the ECOWAS Court in Abuja challenging his sacking in March 2015 as Vice President of Sierra Leone.  They are led by Ghanaian lawyer Dr. Raymond Akongburo ATUGUBA and prominent Nigerian lawyer Femi Falana

In a 25-page application, the lawyers are asking the Ecowas Court to order Sierra Leone to pay their client $ 210 million in damages and legal cost. They also want him reinstated as Vice President of Sierra Leone. 

They say his removal from office, the appointment of current Vice President Victor Bockarie Foh and the ruling by the Supreme Court upholding his dismissal should be declared “illegal, null and void”. 

In the detailed submission which catalogues the events leading to those dramatic events in March 2015 when he was first expelled from his ruling APC party and then sacked as VP, they argue that due process was not respected. 

 

The application says Sam-Sumana’s rights were violated including his personal safety and security, participation in government, and even his dignity. They also say Sierra Leone failed to provide an effective remedy accusing the country's Supreme Court, which justified the president's action to sack him, of denying him to "exhaustively present his case". 

Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Joseph Kamara says they've been notified about the matter by the registry of the Ecowas Court but that they are yet to receive the document hence cannot comment on it the substance of the matter. He however says that they are "willing and ready" to defend the action of the President any time, anywhere. 

Sam-Sumana was expelled from the ruling All People’s Congress party in March 2015 and accused of lying about his faith and educational qualification. he was also accused of anti-party activities.

He has been living out of Sierra Leone for exactly one year. 

This is the third time Sierra Leone has been brought before the ECOWAS Court under Ernest Bai Koroma’s presidency. 

Lebanese businessman, Mohamed Wanza sought redress over a questionable gunboat deal he went into with the NPRC junta. A former police officer Mohamed El-Tayyib Bah also challenged his dismissal from the force. Both men won by default after the government failed to represent itself. 

While the government obliged the outcome of Wanza’s ruling by paying for his gunboat, it is yet to do so in the case of the police officer for whom the court asked a financial compensation. 

Ebola-Affected Countries Receive NIH Support to Strengthen Research Capacity

 

The recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa highlighted the need for better global preparedness and response to disease outbreaks. To help address that need in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — the countries most affected by the epidemic — the National Institutes of Health has established a new program to strengthen the research capacity to study Ebola, Lassa fever, yellow fever and other emerging viral diseases. In the initiative’s first funding round, NIH’s Fogarty International Center is awarding grants to four U.S. institutions that will partner with West African academic centers to design training programs for their scientists and health researchers.

The collaborations aim to develop research training proposals that would strengthen the skills required to evaluate vaccines, develop new diagnostic tests and treatments, and identify the most effective intervention strategies for disease outbreaks. These planning grants, totaling $200,000, are intended to help institutions prepare to compete for larger, longer-term Fogarty grants to implement research training programs.

 

“We hope these awards will catalyze efforts to identify existing resources and plan to address development of sustainable research capacity in the countries that suffered so horribly from Ebola,” said Fogarty Director Roger I. Glass, MD, PhD. “By training local researchers in epidemiology and lab skills, and helping them form networks with U.S. scientists, we believe future disease outbreaks can be better contained.”

This new Fogarty training initiative was developed in response to a World Health Organization (WHO) assessment that noted weak health systems, poor disease surveillance and inadequate research and development resources were among the factors contributing to the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic. The program targets the neighboring countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where more than 28,000 Ebola cases and 11,000 deaths were reported, according to the WHO.  The three countries are recovering from conflicts and have fragile health systems. In the first funding round, awards are supporting one partnership in Liberia and three collaborations in Sierra Leone.

Yale University in Connecticut is partnering with the University of Liberia to design a research training program focused on epidemiology and predictive transmission modeling. Based in the capital city of Monrovia, the university is Liberia’s flagship institution for higher education and has a medical school with roughly 200 students. The lead investigators from both countries collaborated on research during the Ebola crisis.

Scientists from Duke University in North Carolina are building on existing relationships with colleagues at the University of Sierra Leone’s College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), located in the capital city of Freetown. Their joint training plan intends to focus on clinical research for local scientists so they can quickly implement trials for vaccines and therapeutics during a disease outbreak. COMAHS, founded in 1988, is the country’s first medical school and has 1,500 students. Nearby Connaught Hospital, a 120-bed facility, is a partner on the project.

COMAHS is also the collaborating institution on an award to Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee. This project aims to plan a research capacity building program in implementation science and clinical trial management to address Ebola, Lassa fever and other viral hemorrhagic fevers. The primary training site will be the Kenema Government Hospital, located in a region with the world’s highest incidence of Lassa fever. The hospital, which contains the country’s only Lassa fever laboratory, has a previously established research relationship with Tulane University in Louisiana. A Tulane scientist will also collaborate on the training project.

Another investigator at Tulane University is receiving funding to assess the research training needs of Sierra Leone’s Njala University, which graduates a substantial number of allied health workers. Its main campus is in Njala, about 125 miles east of the capital, and includes a 50-bed hospital and laboratories that serve the city and surrounding communities. A second campus, about 35 miles away in Bo, has two health centers. The project aims to develop a strategic plan for research training, which may include distance learning opportunities since Njala has already invested in computer labs and high-speed internet.

Fogarty has issued a second call for applications to support further awards under the program, with a deadline of Feb. 22, 2017.

Source: NIH

Maseray Zelda Swarray is the crowned Miss International Africa in the Miss International 2016

 

Congratulations to our beautiful sister Maseray Zelda Swarray is the crowned Miss International Africa in the Miss International 2016  held in Tokyo, Japan. 👸🏾👸🏾👸🏾 🇸🇱🇸🇱🇸🇱

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#InspiringWomen #saloneonline #sierraleone #missinternational2016 #maserayzeldasawarray #ilovesalone #teamsalone 

 

Keystone Bank At The Sierra-Leone Business Awards

 

 

L-r Omobolanle Osotule, Head Marketing And Corporate Communications, Yvonne Isichei, Executive Director, Operations & Technology, Ime Okon, Md, Keystone Bank Sierra-leone, Samir Hassanyeh, Chairman, Keystone Bank Sierra-leone At The Sierra-leone Business Awards on Friday

Should we focus on building a New airport or focus on building our economy, our health system and our education system?

 

The government of Sierra Leone is determined to build a new international airport in the north of the country, financed by a whopping $400 million loan from China. Opposition to this policy decision is strong, including the Word Bank who says that the government simply cannot afford to commit the nation to further debt, with an uncertain economic outlook.

After fifty-five years of gaining independence from British colonial rule, and in spite of huge natural resource revenue potential of over $2 billion a year – with a population of just over six million people, Sierra Leone is rated as one of the poorest nations in the world.

 

Less than half the country’s adult population would live to see their 51st birthday; it’s health service is a death trap, because of the lack of trained doctors, poorly equipped hospitals, and poor access to medicines; education is sub-standard, compared to other countries in Africa; fewer than 30% of the population have access to electricity and clean drinking water.

Sierra Leone is one of the most dangerous countries for a woman to give birth, with a survival rate of less than 80%. Survival rate for newly born children is even more appalling – with more than 30% unlikely to see their 5thbirthday.

Unemployment in Sierra Leone is disturbingly high. Over 70% of the economically active population are out of work, and more than 60% of youths unlikely to have ever worked. Less than 30% of the population can read and write.

The country’s economy has seen its fair share of bad political management, civil war and health epidemic – Ebola. The economy is struggling to survive due to lack of investments and competition from neighbouring countries in attracting foreign investors.

Sierra Leone is massively dependent on foreign aid and debt to make up its annual budget deficit. The country cannot feed itself. Millions of dollars are spent every month on importing its staple food – rice, which it can, not only grow on its doorstep for domestic consumption, but has the potential to feed the rest of West Africa.

President Koroma and senior ministers believe that to fix Sierra Leone’s economic and social problems, there is the urgent need for a new international airport costing $400 million – a decision that most analysts and the World Bank say is seriously misguided. The country simply cannot afford it, nor is the need real.

But what is the real story behind this airport project?

The country’s existing airport -the Lungi International Airport, has the capacity to receive thousands of passengers a day, but daily passenger arrivals is less than 200.

The airport which is now being partly managed by a British company, has received millions of dollars from the World Bank to pay for expansion, upgrading of the runway and facilities to bring it up to international standards. Still, passenger numbers are struggling to rise.

At a cost of $400 million, and with the competing priorities facing the government – health, access to clean water, provision of electricity, education, housing, road renewals and improvement, waste management and sanitation – why is the Koroma government determined to secure a loan package from China to pay Chinese workers to build a new international airport that will be managed by the Chinese for a  fee?

Writing in a three part series of articles for the Sierra Leone Telegraph, Saad Barrie discusses the pros and cons of building a new airport, as well as the political and economic factors that are driving this decision. This is part one of Saad Barrie’s analysis:

The Mamamah Airport and New City is the flagship infrastructure project in Sierra Leone’s current medium term development plan, the Agenda for Prosperity. The indicative cost of the Mamamah Project is US$481 million. The airport alone is estimated to cost at least US$300 million (about 6% of GDP in 2014).

The proposed new airport has been harshly criticised by some of its key stakeholders either for its location, huge cost, or method of financing and the lack of transparency in the negotiations with its financiers and contractors.

Many Sierra Leoneans believe the country does not need a second airport. Not with the perennially low number of flights in and out of the country; total arrivals by air is less than one hundred thousand yearly at its peak.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the country’s main economic advisers and lenders, have weighed in on the debate, saying “now is not the time for a new airport” and that the government “has misplaced priorities” – or words to that effect. The country’s economy has been in dire straits since mid-2014.

Read more 

Telegraph Newspaper