Written by Josephine Kamara
At six in the morning, my phone buzzes. It is prayer time, my day has begun. My mother rises for her prayers and my niece and nephews get ready for school. By 7 a.m., I am getting ready for MMW work. I take a bath, put on my jeans, sneakers, and MMW T-shirt, and board a poda poda (public mini-bus) to my interview location.
Every month, MMW journalists meet online to discuss trending issues across the three regions where the organisation operates. Together, we agree on podcast topics, identify potential interviewees, and map out storytelling angles. I then researched the selected topics, scheduled interviews, and prepared her questions. I decided to focus my first podcast on the Kush epidemic.
On this particular Tuesday morning in August, I rode a motorbike to Massantigie, where I was conducting a roundtable interview on the dangers of Kush among young people, and amazing efforts by the community to curb abuse and treat addiction. My interview features the community’s Youth Leader, a nurse, and a Kush survivor, all of whom played pivotal roles in curbing drug abuse. I learn that they created the Benghazi Rehab Center and with mobilization of the community have had great success in curbing and treating Kush addiction.
Benghazi conducted a ‘Stop Kush’ street campaign with the first set of 70 kush survivors, which attracted the rehab center to more kush victims, male and female, from communities in the western rural district and beyond. The Massantigie Youth Leader explained about their community mobilization strategy to fight the drug epidemic in their community and calls out to other communities to use the same method to chase drug dealers and save their youths from the kush addiction.
Each podcast production takes about three hours, from field interviews, editing, scriptwriting, and voice-over recording, to final packaging. Listeners found the podcast highly engaging and educational. Several communities have already requested collaborations with Massantigie to help rescue their own youths from the drug crisis.
Media Matters for Women has shaped my journalistic journey, shifting my career from traditional mainstream reporting to advocacy journalism. Today I produce podcasts that bridge the information gap for rural communities, influence behaviour change, help women and girls make informed decisions and amplify their rights.
Through MMW, I have been able to transform lives by simplifying communication and breaking language barriers, especially within the Limba-speaking communities in my region of operation.
Although all journalists face challenges, many of mine are more extreme, given the situation in Sierra Leone. Gaining access to government or ministry officials for interviews is often difficult. Frequent blackouts, especially during podcast production and monthly report writing, is another major obstacle, making it difficult to charge my phone or computer. Fieldwork during the rainy season is extremely difficult when many roads wash out with massive flooding. On one heavy rainy day in July, I visited a maternal clinic for interviews, monitored Digitruck activities in schools, and travelled to Matainkay Village to oversee borehole drilling.
Yet despite these challenges, I remain dedicated, passionate about telling the stories that matter and committed to serving the communities that rely on my role as a journalist.
