Sewa News Stream

" While it is possible to find a place to rent in Sierra Leone, what makes sense price-wise doesn't come with the amenities ," writes Vickie Remoe in a recent checklist she published for Millennials and Gen Z planning to live and work in Sierra Leone. Rental properties that include amenities are priced for expatriates, Vickie cautioned. Additionally, renting in Sierra Leone comes with the financial burden of paying rent a year or two in advance. "You may be able to afford it the first time around, but depending on the kind of salary or income, continuing to do so after a year might stretch you," she said.  Reading Vickie's tips left me with more questions than answers: 1. What does she consider as amenities? Do they include, say, running water, a rain garden, a well pump in the backyard, and a solar-powered electric generator? 2. What does Vickie mean by rentals are priced for ex-pats? 3. What are the comparative rent prices across Sierra Leone? Is she talk...

This weekend on Twitter, Ambrose James, director of Sierra Leone's National Authorising Office, tweeted  that the first phase of a 163-meter long steel beam was launched across the Mabang river for a new bridge. According to the tweet , 71% of the total 231meter bridge has been put in place. The new bridge is being funded by the government of Sierra Leone and the European Union (EU).  The National Authorising Office-Sierra Leone (NAO), is the principal management and executing agency of the EU-Government of Sierra Leone development cooperation. (See more on the NAO's Facebook page).  T he old Mabang bridge collapsed on February 22nd, 2013. Shortly after,  a group of concerned Sierra Leoneans in America hired civil and structural engineers to inspect the collapsed bridge. Based on the 2013 findings, the collapse of the Mabang Bridge was due to extensive scour on the piers of the bridge. "The foundation of the pillars was also destroyed by impact from eroded soil...

World Health Day was first celebrated on April 7, 1950. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), since then, the WHO has aimed to create awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern. Past themes include protecting health from climate change, road safety, and healthy environments for children. World Health Day 2009 focused on the safety of health facilities and the readiness of health workers who treat those affected by emergencies. I chose to focus on Sierra Leone's need for a national alliance for mental health. My op-ed was first published in The Patriotic Vanguard , 7 April 2009.  This weekend, the All Peoples Congress Party of North America held a fundraiser in Maryland. In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a member of APC North America, but I planned to buy a ticket and support the event. Unfortunately, something came up at the last minute, and I did not make it. Still, I am rather curious to know which Sierra Leonean cause...

Few weeks after President Julius Maada Bio was forced to deny the rumors that the Chinese were about to build a fish factory around the pristine Whale Bay and Black Johnson beach, the West African nation is making headlines again. On Tuesday,  a Sierra Leonean man employed by the China Kingho Mining Company, based in a northern district of Sierra Leone, had become a meme. The video of a fight between him and a Chinese ex-pat employed by the China Railway Seventh Group had been shared thousands of times on WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook. On Wednesday morning, a flurry of press releases began doing the rounds. First was a three-page statement from the China Railway Seventh Group (SL) Co., Ltd. or CRSG. "The conflict between a Chinese staff and local staff in the repair shop was an unexpected and isolated case which did not represent the behavior or attitude of the management of CRSG and Kingho. After the incident, the person in charge of CRSG has taken necessary measures against th...

Tracey Marke's grandfather was a prominent lawyer. He owned property in Hamilton, Freetown, and his son, Tracey's father, worked hard as a businessman to become the most prominent landholder in Hamilton in the 1960s.   There was a stretch of wetlands in Hamilton called " Portoh " that was used by the community. This area was eventually grabbed by local politicians, depriving Hamilton villagers of valuable food planting land. "After learning about how Prince Harding and his wife Anne Marie had been trespassing, I got a fence erected to protect the land," Tracey wrote in March 2020 . "When Prince Harding and his wife realised what was happening, they went to my caretakers with thugs. They threatened to break down Josephine Soya-Bongay's fence.  I wasn't too worried about this threat as it would be impossible to traverse land belonging to Josephine to get to mine without destroying her fence or gates. "In March 2020, I was told that Mrs. Anne ...

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have unveiled their 2021 World Press Freedom Index.  This year's survey of 180 countries shows that journalists are finding it hard to investigate and report sensitive stories, especially in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. (Newspapers of Sierra Leone photo courtesy of Calabash Newspaper) On Twitter, RSF (@RSF_inter) tweeted that the leading takeaway from the 2021 RSF Index is that the main vaccine against disinformation is completely or partially blocked in 73% of the countries ranked by RSF. Top 10 countries in the  2021 World Press Freedom Index  1 Norway 2 Finland 3 Sweden 4 Denmark 5 Costa Rica 6 Netherlands 7 Jamaica 8 New Zealand 9 Portugal 10 Switzerland How the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ranked 27 Cabo Verde 30 Ghana 37 Burkina Faso 49 Senegal 59 Niger 66 Côte d’Ivoire 74 Togo 75 Sierra Leone 85 The Gambia 95 Guinea Bissau 98 Liberia 99 Mali 109 Guinea 114 Benin 120 Nigeria Sierra Leone moved up 10 sp...

On April 27, 1961, Milton Margai led Sierra Leone to flag independence from Great Britain and became the country's first Prime Minister. Sierra Leone retained its membership of the Commonwealth of Nations. In the archive photo, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, are pictured with  Milton Margai at one of the nationwide events held during their visit to Sierra Leone in 1961.  The Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, visited Sierra Leone on the royal yacht Britannia from November 25 to December 1, 1961. Absent from the ceremonies was the leader of the main opposition All People's Congress (APC), Siaka Stevens, along with Isaac Wallace-Johnson, another outspoken critic of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) government. They were arrested and placed under house arrest in Freetown, along with sixteen others charged with disrupting the independence celebration.