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How Child Trafficking Affects the Health of Children
by Zainab Sheriff Human trafficking is a very serious and growing problem in Sierra Leone, particularly for children. The government and other likeminded organizations have made substantial efforts to tackle the problem but much more needs to be done. ( Description is : How child trafficking affect the health of children.)
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MMW Newsletter May 2022
Media Matters for Women’s Senior Reporter Alinah Kallon, left, and Executive Director Florence Sesay stand in front of the world flags display at the United Nations headquarters in March. They were in New York City to lead an event in connection with the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, which was holding its annual conference. MMW celebrates 10 years of supporting rural communities in Sierra Leone We continue to campaign for the rights of women and girls Florence Sesay […]
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Fish Farm Project Takes off, Thanks to MMW’s Assistance
By MMW Team Media Matters for Women (MMW) is helping to build a women-owned fish farming project in Kamakwie, a remote and impoverished area in the Kareme District in northwest Sierra Leone. The goal is to empower women to pursue their own business opportunities. Since 2010, MMW has produced and distributed podcasts designed to inform rural women and girls about health, human rights and other important issues. MMW recently expanded its reach into Kamakwie, which has no medical clinics, no […]
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MMW with Consortium of Communities of Practice Demand Justice for Rape of Young Girl
By Alinah Kallon, Senior MMW Journalist In May 2022, Jane Kamara (not her real name), an 8-year-old child, and her friends accepted a ride home from school with a driver for one of the banks in Makeni. The man, Unisa Kabba, known as J-one, was Jane’s neighbor. J-one tricked Jane into going to his house where he sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the assault. The trauma changed Jane’s life. The girl’s aunt […]
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MMW Presents its Work During UN Events in New York City in March
By Madeline MacKenzie Media Matters for Women hosted an event in connection with the United Nations’ 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York City on March 10. Part of our team from Sierra Leone shared their knowledge from a collective 30+ years of experience championing the rights of women and girls among rural communities in Western Africa. MMW Executive Director Florence Sesay hosted the panel discussion, “Addressing the Unmet Information Needs of Africa’s Hardest-To-Reach […]
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Journalists Travel from Sierra Leone to Telluride Raising Awareness
Telluride Daily Planet March 14, 2023 On the backside of their recent trip to New York City to host a panel discussion connected with the 67th session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, Florence Sesay and Alinah Kallon visited MMW’s U.S. headquarters in Denver before traveling to Telluride in southwestern Colorado, where they spoke with a local reporter. Sesay and Kallon emphasized the importance of sharing stories of the last-mile women and girls they work with to […]
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In Sierra Leone, Local Journalism is a Lifeboat for Women in Rural Communities
Arvada Press March 13, 2023 MMW Executive Director Florence Sesay and Senior Journalist Alinah Kallon spoke with the Arvada Press about their work advocating for women and girls in Sierra Leone. As MMW approaches its 10-year anniversary, Sesay and Kallon shared personal stories from their experience fighting for women’s rights in last-mile communities. They also spoke about their experience in New York City, joining together with women from across the world in this movement for female empowerment. Please follow the […]
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MMW Mourns Loss of Hannah Grace Lahai
By Zainab Sheriff, Senior Journalist We are greatly saddened about the passing of Hannah Grace Lahai, a tireless advocate for women’s health and wellbeing, and a beloved and highly respected focal point for MMW in the Kenema district. In addition to being a longtime nurse, Lahai worked for MMW for six years, taking our podcasts to listeners in different communities, engaging in discussions, and giving referrals for needed services. Known as “Auntie Hannah,” she was beloved as a wonderful person, […]
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Sierra Leone Passes ‘Ground Breaking’ Gender Equality Law
By Alinah O. Kallon, MMW senior journalist “As a woman and an activist, I feel fulfilled that all our efforts have not gone in vain. We now have a law to protect women in this country,” declared Emelia Kamara Jengo of Makeni in northern Sierra Leone. She was expressing satisfaction about the landmark Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) law enacted by the government of Sierra Leone in January. The law mandates a 30 percent quota for women in appointed […]
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MMW Journalist Awarded Fellowship to Tackle Human Trafficking Crisis in Sierra Leone
For media requests, please contact info@mediamattersforwomen.org. NEWS RELEASE – Freetown, Sierra Leone, Feb. 17, 2023 – Human trafficking of women and children has reached crisis levels in Sierra Leone, and MMW reporter Zainab Sheriff is determined to use her power as a journalist to join efforts to control it, particularly the trafficking of children for forced labor and sex work. “In my country, traffickers recruit victims from rural provinces and urban areas for sex work and forced domestic, mining, and agricultural […]
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MMW Journalist Collaborates with Regional Journalists and Democracy Activists to Address Election Coverage Challenges
For media requests, please contact info@mediamattersforwomen.org. NEWS RELEASE – Freetown, Sierra Leone, Feb. 16, 2023 – With the political tensions surrounding the upcoming elections in June 2023, Ndeamoh Mansaray’s participation in an international conference for networking and training for journalists and democracy activists was timely and valuable for her work. The conference, “Building a Democracy Network to Support Civic Education in Electoral Processes in Africa,” was designed to share strategies and best practices to improve election integrity and transparency, to strengthen […]
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MMW Newsletter January 2022
A Message from Executive Director Florence Sesay We continue to campaign against sexual and gender-based violence by Florence Sesay I am pleased to welcome you to our new quarterly Media Matters for Women-Sierra Leonne (MMW) newsletter with updates and stories about our work. Foremost in mind for myself and MMW has been the 16 Days of Activism Campaign against Gender-Based Violence, a global human rights day that we participated in this month. MMW has been a leader in organizing Sierra Leone activities […]
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MMW-SL STAFF RECEIVES CHRISTMAS BONUS
Staff and field workers across MMWSL’s three regions of operation have received their Christmas bonuses as the festive celebrations commences. The Christmas bonus initiative is a yearly event that has been going on since the organization’s establishment. Over eighty staff which includes field workers received the bonus in the form of cash in appreciation of their contribution to making the organization achieve its yearly sets goals and to motivate them to continue to work harder in the New Year. Before […]
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MMW Celebrates Inter-generational Dialogue During 16 Days of Activism
by MMW Senior Journalist Alinah Kallon Media Matters for Women in collaboration with Rainbo Initiative, Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs launches 16 Days of Activism Campaign in Makeni, Bombali District. The 16 Days of Activism against all forms of violence against women and girls is an annual event from 25th November to 10 December. This campaign is celebrated every year by the government and gender partners to raise awareness of sexual and gender-based violence and engage key stakeholders and […]
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WESTERN RURAL DISTRICT’S SUCCESSFUL PERIOD POWER PROJECT
by MMW Senior Journalist Ndeamoh Mansaray Media Matters for Women’s second Period Power Project commenced at the end of October. Ten schools participated as part of a three-district partnership. The project supplied equipment and materials included two rolls of materials, scissors, boxes of threads, needles, buttons etc and detailed handouts on menstruation and sanitary hygiene for each school. A total of 573 pupils participated in the training, with 487 girls and 86 boys for all ten schools in the region. Both […]
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Media Matters for Women Concludes its Period Power Project with a Grand Finale
By Alinah Kallon In 2020-21 Media Matters for Women launched our Period Power Project, first in the pilot phase. The initial project yielded a huge success. We taught our listeners (Adolescent Girls) to create and sew their own menstrual pads as they listened and conversed about the information provided by district midwives concerning all aspects of sanitary hygiene. Our journalists also produced podcasts on menstrual health and hygiene and played them in schools where the girls were able to listen […]
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Florence Sesay Named to Estée Lauder Leadership Program
For media requests, please contact info@mediamattersforwomen.org NEWS RELEASE – Freetown, Sierra Leone, Nov. 14, 2022 – Florence Sesay, the executive director of the non-profit Media Matters for Women based in Freetown, Sierra Leone, has been selected as a visionary leader by the Estée Lauder Emerging Leaders Fund and Vital Voices GlobalPartnership.Sesay joins a group of 50 distinguished women from around the globe who are shaping the future to improve the lives and livelihood of women and men. For Sesay and Media […]
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MMW’s Moment of “Lift”
Our recent AmplifyChange grant allowed us to explore what would happen if we expanded beyond Listening Centres to include training young women to become Youth Advocates. That resulted in a massive increase in listeners–over 28,000 during the grant period. We are now very fortunate to be operating under a grant from the Oak Foundation (which ends in February 2021), and we have taken that concept farther due to COVID-19 restrictions that prevent us from having Listening Centres. We are now […]
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MMW-SL Project Director Florence Sesay Selected for 2020 B-PEACE Award
Florence Njai-Sesay, our Project Director in Sierra Leone, received the prestigious “2020 Women Forward Award: Mentor of Distinction” from Bpeace (The Business Council for Peace International – www.bpeace.org). The globally attended on-line award ceremony was followed by a surprise celebration event held for Florence in Freetown by the MMW-SL Board Chair Mariama Khai Fournah and many from the MMW-SL team. Florence Sesay is a media development practitioner specializing in women’s rights in development and is a Founder of MMW in Sierra Leone. She has extensive […]
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Farewell to MMW-SL Board Chair Fatmata Dainkeh-Katta
MMW-SL Board 2019, (left to right) Fatmata Dainkeh-Katta (Chair), Millicent Massaquoi, Mariama Khai Fournah, Zainab Kamara, Florence Sesay, Mariama Sesay
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MMW Invited to Lead on Global Domestic Violence Prevention Initiative
COVID-19 has unleashed many”shadow” effects and one is a surge in domestic violence. Madre, a women’s rights organization, has invited Media Matters for Women to join its Consortium on Domestic Violence Prevention During COVID-19 MADRE. In addition to Madre and Media Matters for Women, the other organizations include WILPF, Nobel Women’s Initiative, OutRight Action International, Women Enabled, Men Engage, and World Pulse. Together we have analyzed successful interventions to make key programmatic recommendations for grassroots organizations working on the frontlines of […]
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CATCHAFIRE Offers Volunteer Expertise on Key Issues
CATCHAFIRE is an organization that matches professionals who want to donate their time and talent with nonprofits who need those skills. It is a for-purpose social enterprise, Public-Benefit Corporation1, and certified B-Corp – a new type of business model that demonstrates that a focus on a social mission and a goal to build a successful business can both be achieved at the same time. Catchafire enables skilled volunteers donate their time and expertise through 1-hour phone calls and/or fully fledged […]
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INTERNEWS Provides a Covid-19 Rapid Response Grant
Our team in Sierra Leone has been selected to be an Internews local media partner and for emergency funding through its Rapid Response Fund, launched to support community media during the COVID-19 crisis. We were chosen out of hundreds of media outlets applying from more than 80 countries. The emergency funds have already been put to excellent use supporting our journalists as they provide essential information on the status of the virus in the rural communities we have been working […]
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OAK FOUNDATION Chooses MMW in Sierra Leone for Emergency Covid-19 Grant
The team leading the Issues Affecting Women Programme at the Oak Foundation have made an emergency Covid-19 grant to MMW with a focus on domestic violence, the “epidemic within the epidemic.” With this funding our MMW-SL team is mobilizing quickly to be able to reach the most vulnerable populations during this crisis. MMW is uniquely positioned to save lives in Sierra Leone during the global COVID-19 pandemic because we have built a trusted communications network in vulnerable rural areas. Sierra Leone […]
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Youth Advocates At Work in Yeali Sanda
Listeners at Yeali Sanda, a small community outside of Makeni, gather with Zainab Mummy Tholley, one of our Youth Advocates, at a MMW-SL Listening Centre. Zainab took the lead in playing and discussing our latest podcast on sexual and reproductive health as well as an episode of our popular drama series “Mamie & Omo” on human trafficking. The listeners were excited to learn from MMW-SL and those with mobile phones transferred the podcast and drama episodes via Bluetooth to play later and […]
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MMW-SL Revival of “Mamie & Omo” Draws Large Audiences
“Mamie & Omo,” is back! The original series that aired on Cotton Tree News in post-conflict Sierra Leone has been revived by Media Matters for Women – Sierra Leone and is now playing to huge audiences nationwide. The two key fictional characters of the show were played by CTN journalists who are now part of our MMW-SL team and are responsible for the success of the revival. Our partner, AfriRadio, has seen an uptick in listenership since airing the program and now plays […]
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MMW Initiative with Financial Development Institutions
The MMW International Advisory Board recently agreed to begin partnering with privately held companies operating in the least developed countries, helping companies in the private sector to achieve their social and economic goals in the countries where they work, especially meeting IFC Standard 7 on indigenous peoples and SDG 5 on gender equality, particularly SDG 5(B) to enhance the use of enabling technology to promote the empowerment of women and girls. Global companies who aspire to provide net positive outcomes for women […]
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Second MMW Summer Volunteer in Sierra Leone
by Nate Sebree Senior at University of Washington Seattle, Washington The work done by NGOs in developing countries has always fascinated and inspired me, and I have a keen interest in working in this field when I graduate. This summer I had the privilege of working alongside some of Sierra Leone’s hard-working and dedicated female journalists – the team which created and runs Media Matters for Women – Sierra Leone (MMW-SL). After discovering the organization last spring, I became very […]
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30 New Youth Advocates Significantly Extend Our Broadcast Reach in Sierra Leone
MMW-SL has strengthened our fifteen Listening Centers by hiring and training 30 Youth Advocates, young women and men beween the ages of 18 to 24 who are now active participants in extending our programming to “last mile” women and girls. Traveling by foot or by motorbike, they increased engagement among our target populations on SRHR advocacy by taking the message to the most remote areas and recreating the Listening Centre environment for women and girls who are not able to travel […]
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New “Amplify Change” Grant Funding for 2019-20
We are thrilled to announce that Amplify Change has awarded Media Matters for Women – Sierra Leone their € 89,000 Strengthening grant! Our project will begin March 11, 2019. Florence Njai-Sesay will serve as our Project Coordinator and Abibatu Kamara as our Finance Officer. Our Senior Journalists are Alinah Kallon, Ndeamoh Mansaray, and Zainab Sheriff. The new project will allow us to expand beyond our core work of producing and distributing original podcasts using mobile phones. We will now be able to include […]
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TED Audacious Prize 2019 – MMW Advances to the Second Round
Media Matters for Women applied for and was selected for the second round of competition of the TED Audacious Prize 2019! This is a relatively new global initiative for launching big, audacious ideas like ours. Our first submission was a superb team effort, including a video created by our team in Sierra Leone. We were one of 1,500 submissions and were thrilled to be asked to make a second-round application. Although we were not selected for the prize this year, […]
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DRC Partner Project Update
Thanks to the success of our first two pilot phases focused on distribution, and to a new grant from the Oak Foundation, we are now training our journalists in the production of our podcast format in the Congo. Earlier this year, MMW and its Congolese partner SOFEPADI completed two highly successful pilot projects focused on Wamama Tujenge’s podcast distributionusing Listening Centers and Bluetooth transfers on mobile phones. Working together, we reached 8,000 women in Kinshasa and in the Eastern Provinces […]
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Congolese Journalists Ready for Next Phase
Democratic Republic of Congo Thanks to the success of our first two pilot phases focused on distribution, and to a new grant from the Oak Foundation, we are now training our journalists in the production of our podcast format in the Congo. Earlier this year, MMW and its Congolese partner SOFEPADI completed two highly successful pilot projects focused on Wamama Tujenge’s podcast distributionusing Listening Centers and Bluetooth transfers on mobile phones. Working together, we reached 8,000 women in Kinshasa and […]
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Congolese Journalists Ready for Next Phase
Thanks to the success of our first two pilot phases focused on distribution, and to a new grant from the Oak Foundation, we are now training our journalists in the production of our podcast format in the Congo. Earlier this year, MMW and its Congolese partner SOFEPADI completed two highly successful pilot projects focused on Wamama Tujenge’s podcast distribution using Listening Centers and Bluetooth transfers on mobile phones. Working together, we reached 8,000 women in Kinshasa and in the Eastern […]
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Media Matters for Women Mourns Loss of Bintu Conteh
We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Bintu Conteh, Senior Journalist for Media Matters for Women in Sierra Leone. Bintu was one of the founding journalists for Media Matters for Women and was highly regarded by all who worked with her. Her work touched the lives of thousands of women and girls in the poorest communities who were able to learn about their rights and improve their lives as a result of her […]
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New Project Proposal for MMW in Sierra Leone
Media Matters for Women Sierra Leone is now ready to roll out our concept into additional regions of the country. Our plan is to expand beyond our core work of producing and distributing original podcasts using mobile phones, and to also include leadership and advocacy training as well as communication and network building with local youth and women’s community associations (CSOs). The aim of the training we envision is to build local women’s capacity to advocate for their rights in […]
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Insights from MMW’s First Summer Intern in Sierra Leone
By Jane ThurowSenior in Communications at Carthage CollegeWisconsin, USA This summer I was fortunate to be Media Matters for Women’s first volunteer intern. It gave me an extraordinary opportunity to learn first-hand about Media Matters for Women’s innovative concept for delivering information to underserved women and girls in Africa. The highlight was working with their excellent team. I stayed in three places: the capital city of Freetown and the regional towns of Kenema and Makeni. The highlight of my summer […]
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Local Partner Activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Women who come for medical care at the Karibuni Wamama Hospital in Bunia in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) find that it is also a Media Matters for Women Listening Center. SOFEPADI, our local partner in the DRC, runs the Karibuni Wamama Hospital in addition to many other key services for women and girls. Together with SOFEPADI we have have created the “Wamama Tujenge” podcast series featuring lively, professional radio-style programs led by internationally recognized women’’s rights advocate Julienne […]
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Promoting the Rights of Women and Girls to Vote in Sierra Leone’s National Elections
In the lead up to the 2018 presidential elections in Sierra Leone, our female journalists were engaging women from local communities on their right to equal participation and representation in democratic processes. Our senior journalists produced weekly podcasts for distribution through fifteen community-based listening centres and peer-to-peer phone transfers that encouraged women to exercise their right to vote and be informed. Women’s rights activists raised concern about the lack of female candidates and were disappointed with the fifteen political parties […]
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Media Matters for Women mourns loss of Bintu Conteh
We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend and colleague, Bintu Conteh, Senior Journalist for Media Matters for Women in Sierra Leone. Bintu was one of the founding journalists for Media Matters for Women and was highly regarded by all who worked with her. Her work touched the lives of thousands of women and girls in the poorest communities who were able to learn about their rights and improve their lives as a result of her […]
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Director of MMW Partner in DRC Receives Global Award
Julienne Lusenge honoured with International Women’s Rights Award A cross-regional alliance of 25 human rights organisations in Geneva, Switzerland has chosen Julienne Lusenge, Country Director of Media Matters for Women’s Wamama Tujenge podcast programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to receive the 2018 International Women’s Rights Award from the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. Julienne is a grassroots activist in DRC who also leads the fight against rape as President of Female Solidarity for Integrated Peace and Development (SOFEPADI). She […]
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MMW Partnership Begins in Democratic Republic of Congo
Media Matters for Women and our two partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — Female Solidarity for Integrated Peace and Development (SOFEPADI) and Women@TheTable — received a grant from Millicom Foundation to create a pilot podcast called Wamama Tujenge (“Women Building Peace”). It was first broadcast across the DRC on 25 November, 2017 as part of the global “16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women” campaign. It reached over 700,000 listeners on a network of community radio stations organised by […]
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Replicating Our Success in DRC
Media Matters for Women is rolling out our concept to rural areas of Central and East Africa following four years of successful programming in Sierra Leone. Jeanne Kibuo Mbweki, an experienced broadcast journalist working with the Fund For Congolese Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was flown by Media Matters for Women to Sierra Leone to work for one month with our team and observe an international team of evaluators and leadership who visited at the same time. […]
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Latest News on DRC Project
Media Matters for Women and our two partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — Female Solidarity for Integrated Peace and Development (SOFEPADI) and Women@TheTable — received a grant from Millicom Foundation to create a pilot podcast called Wamama Tujenge (“Women Building Peace”). It was first broadcast across the DRC on 25 November, 2017 as part of the global “16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women” campaign. It reached over 700,000 listeners on a network of community radio stations organised by […]
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New Leadership in Sierra Leone
A new Board of Directors for Media Matters for Women in Sierra Leone has been formed to provide strategic advice and support to our excellent team of journalists in Sierra Leone. The Board Chair is Fatmata Dainkeh Katta who, like many of the other new board members, began her radio career at Cotton Tree News (CTN), the largest public service media project in post-war Sierra Leone, where she worked as a journalist, presenter, and producer. Other board members include Millicent Kargbo, Florence Katta […]
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Measuring Impact in Sierra Leone
Sarah Bomkapre Kamara, a Sierra Leonian currently earning her PhD in journalism in Germany, completed a comprehensive evaluation of Media Matters for Women’s work in Sierra Leone in June 2017. Sarah’s task was to determine how our pilot projects had performed in effectively communicating with “last mile” populations and to understand whether our programs had positively impacted people’s lives. Sarah worked with all of our local staff and traveled to all 15 of our Listening Centres to study our innovative […]
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Replicating our success in DRC
Media Matters for Women is rolling out our concept to rural areas of Central and East Africa following four years of successful programming in Sierra Leone. Jeanne Kibuo Mbweki, an experienced broadcast journalist working with the Fund For Congolese Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was flown by Media Matters for Women to Sierra Leone to work for one month with our team and observe an international team of evaluators and leadership who visited at the same time. […]
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Update on DRC Project
Media Matters for Women and our two partners in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — Female Solidarity for Integrated Peace and Development (SOFEPADI) and Women@TheTable — received a grant from Millicom Foundation to create a pilot podcast called Wamama Tujenge (“Women Building Peace”). It was first broadcast across the DRC on 25 November, 2017 as part of the global “16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women” campaign. It reached over 700,000 listeners on a network of community radio stations organised by […]
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Latest MMW Podcasts All Online
We have archived all 160+ Media Matters for Women original content programmes to SoundCloud and crowdCaster. The most recent programme from Sierra Leone was by Alinah Kallon, Senior Journalist in Makeni, titled Protecting the Environment, a subject of particular importance to Sierra Leonian rural women and girls following the recent mudslide disaster near Freetown. Alinah’s programme includes interviews with: Bintu Kelfala, Regional Director of the Environment Protection Agency; Alice Neneh James, Regional Manager for Action Aid in Sierra Leone; Suad Koroma, Counselor in Makeni; Mary Hallowel, Chiefdom Chairwoman from […]
