Feature

By Joseph Lamin Kamara

The rainy season is upon Sierra Leone again. It is the period many roads become unmotorable and the period many communities are deprived of basic cooking utensils. It is the period of flooding and a moment for armed robbers. Even worse, Ebola is still here, and cholera normally breaks out in this season.

The French charity, Medecins Sans Frontiers says it will be long before Sierra Leone is declared Ebola-free. The head of MSF Spain, Marcus Bachmann would not put a precise time to when he thinks the country will achieve that feat saying “It is going to be a very painful work I fear. It’s gonna test, it’s going to challenge the patience of all of us”.

By Kemo Cham

Mary (not her real name) is in pains. She has just given birth, about a week ago, by caesarean section. Unfortunately she lost the baby. The young nurse`s concern though is less about her baby than her chance of survival.

“I don’t know if I will live longer. I am only surviving by the grace of God,” she says, explaining that after surgery doctors found that her bladder had ruptured and she complains of constant pain from two stitches says were done on her.

By Joseph Lamin Kamara

The outbreak of the Ebola virus disease has had enormous impacts on Sierra Leone’s education. Whether one views the country’s immediate pre-Ebola educational system as a failure or as a success, the outbreak has exacerbated that failure or posed a setback to the success. Nevertheless, education in the country has seen more challenges than successes.

By Zainab Joaque

As sports journalists across the country meet in Bo this weekend to plan the next two years in the life of their association, including electing new executives for both the national and regional chapters of the oldest professional sport reporters' body, Sports Writers Association of Sierra Leone (SWASAL), they have no alternative but to put the interest of the association above all personal pre-dispositions.

By Zainab Joaque

The past year has not been a year of sports prowess in our country, for many reasons, but notably due to the Ebola outbreak. Most disciplines were denied the opportunity of participating in international competitions due to the epidemic.

By Joseph Lamin Kamara

If the only reason for the health emergency was to stem the transmission of the Ebola virus, restriction on freedoms of opinions and assembly should have now been lifted.

According to President Ernest Bai Koroma, he proclaimed the “State of Public Emergency to enable us take more robust approach to deal with the Ebola outbreak.”