Media Matters for Women works across Sierra Leone, focusing on regions where women and girls experience significant barriers to accessing education, health and employment. We focus on rural communities beyond the reach of roads, electricity and the internet.
Our Reach Across Sierra Leone
Women in Sierra Leone have long faced land ownership discrimination. Despite a new land rights law enacted in the summer of 2022 that promoted gender equality, many women remain deprived of the right to own inherited land. In response to a podcast about women’s rights, Hawa, a widow who lives in a Kenema district village, approached Zainab Sheriff, MMW Makeni Senior Journalist, about her struggle to take possession of inherited land. It had been confiscated by her uncle, pa Bockarie. The dispute had been stuck in the court system for nearly three years. Sheriff’s extensive research and reporting led to a podcast that included this and several other examples of land rights disputes affecting women in rural Sierra Leone. Sheriff’s investigation resulted in the local village chief inviting three chiefs from nearby villages to discuss the case. They resolved it, awarding the land to Hawa.
Women in Sierra Leone have long faced land ownership discrimination. Despite a new land rights law enacted in the summer of 2022 that promoted gender equality, many women remain deprived of the right to own inherited land. In response to a podcast about women’s rights, Hawa, a widow who lives in a Kenema district village, approached Zainab Sheriff, MMW Makeni Senior Journalist, about her struggle to take possession of inherited land. It had been confiscated by her uncle, pa Bockarie. The dispute had been stuck in the court system for nearly three years. Sheriff’s extensive research and reporting led to a podcast that included this and several other examples of land rights disputes affecting women in rural Sierra Leone. Sheriff’s investigation resulted in the local village chief inviting three chiefs from nearby villages to discuss the case. They resolved it, awarding the land to Hawa.
