Sewa News Stream

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, a young, gifted, and award-winning cellist, has been appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE)  for his services to music . The New Year Honours list 2020 recognizes the outstanding achievements of people across the United Kingdom, a government statement said.  "The List celebrates a range of extraordinary young people across the UK. MBEs are awarded to 25-year-old Yusuf Patel for his work in tackling extremism in London; 21-year-old award-winning cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason ; and 27-year-old Mete Coban, the co-founder of My Life My Say, for his work transforming youth engagement in democracy." The MBE is the third highest-ranking Order of the British Empire award, behind the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) which is first and then Officer of the British Empire (OBE). According to a statement  on the Kanneh-Mason website, Sheku called the award “amazing" and said he "was so lucky to have the dedicated support of p...

Christmas came early for Liberians in the United States. According to the Voice of America (VOA), President Donald Trump has signed the defense spending bill, which included terms that Liberians may apply for permanent residency, if they have maintained a continuous presence in the U.S. since Nov. 20, 2014. Earlier this year, the U.S. President postponed a winding down of the Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) protections for Liberians, pushing back the end date until March 2020. In that announcement, Trump cited the "unique" history of Liberia, a nation founded in 1847 by freed American slaves, the VOA said. An estimated 4,000 Liberians were covered by Temporary Protected Status or TPS in 2014. U.S. senators Tina Smith of Minnesota and Jack Reed of Rhode Island are credited with pressing for the inclusion of the provision for Liberians in the $738 billion National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA. The state of Minnesota reportedly has the largest population of Liberi...

Over the past 12 months, 272 million people, representing 3.5% of the world's population, have been driven to seek a better future elsewhere. According to the UNESCO Director-General,  some are seeking new economic and employment opportunities, while others, such as refugees and asylum seekers, have been overwhelmed by their situation, and are fleeing war, persecution, hunger or disease. Click here to read the full message .

The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security released its second Global Women, Peace and Security Index at United Nations Headquarters this week. The 2019 list ranks 167 countries on their progress on equality, well being, and empowerment in homes, communities, and societies. We looked specifically at how West African nations ranked by their overall index score. Below are the rankings with the best countries for inclusion, representation of government, employment,   financial access, and education at the top. Countries lower down the list report higher levels of insecurity, intimate partner violence, and women experience more discrimination. Sierra Leone ranks among the worst countries for inclusion, justice, and security. Only one West African country features in the top 100. More than ten places below South Africa (66) and Zimbabwe (74) comes in  Ghana (78), tied with Laos. Togo follows at (113), with Senegal (114) tied with Turkey; and then Benin (...

The proportion of maternal deaths is decreasing, says a new report by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank, and the United Nations Population Division. But the lifetime risk of maternal mortality for a 15-year-old girl in Sierra Leone is 1 in 20.  The West African nation is one of three countries estimated to have had an extremely high maternal mortality ratio in 2017 (defined as over 1000 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births), with the highest maternal mortality ratio being in South Sudan. Sixteen other countries, all also in  Africa except for one, are estimated to have very high maternal mortality ratio in 2017, ranging between 500 and 999.  The 10 countries with the highest maternal mortality ratios in order from highest to lowest are: South Sudan Chad Sierra Leone Nigeria The Central African Republic Somalia Mauritania Guinea-Bissau Liberia Afghanistan Nigeria and India had the highest numbers of maternal deaths, and accounted for appro...

The Sports Writers Association of Sierra Leone issued a press statement late Sunday condemning the violent physical and hostile verbal assault suffered by two female reporters with the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC). The statement says Frances Barnard and Esther Marie Samura "were beaten" by close protection guards of the president of Sierra Leone. In addition, a male sports journalist Alimamy Kamara was assaulted by the same bodyguards, who have been named as Sweet and Kposowa. According to the Sports Writers Association of Sierra Leone, "this is the first time in the history of football in Sierra Leone to see security guards behave in such a violent and rude manner," the statement said. The close protection officers are accused of barging into the commentary booth at the football stadium during Sunday's match between the national teams of Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia. "The commentary booth is exclusively for the media and th...

“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.” ― Saint Francis of Assisi T ime marches on. It doesn’t stop for you or me. I figure the way we try to hold back constant change is by marking the fruits of our labor. My mother, Hannah Iyatunde Deen, seen left in both life stage photos,  will be buried Wednesday, September 4, under a kapok tree in a village cemetery. She was a hard-working 81-year-old woman. During her lifetime, she served her family, communities, and the world, in any which way she could. In the beginning, she wanted to be a hospital social worker. A dream probably spurred on by the humanitarian crisis of the Second World War in colonial  Sierra Leone, and glass-eyed British missionaries at the Annie Walsh Memorial School of the 1950s. When my mother’s childhood dream job didn't work out, she got married and started a...