Ebola A Special Report from Sierra Leone

Summer of Peace 2014 > International Peacebuilding & Global Citizenship > 11 Days of Global Unity
Broadcast on September 15, 2014
With Andrew Kromah & Foday Sajuma & Topher Hamblett

The Ebola outbreak has claimed over 2,400 lives in West Africa. Sierra Leone is in the heart of the crisis - a country which is still recovering from its bloody civil war and that it is routinely listed near the bottom of the UN Human Development Index. We will hear front-line reports from Foday Sajuma of Radio Mao in Kailahun District -- an area on the border of Guinea and Liberia. We also will talk with Andrew Kromah, one of the founders of an Independent Radio Network in Sierra Leone. Foday and Andrew are using radio to provide life-saving information to a population that has a 73% illiteracy rate. We also will hear from Topher Hamblett, a former Peace Corps Volunteer, who is supporting radio stations in Sierra Leone and Liberia through The Foundation for West Africa.   

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Andrew Kromah

Chairman of Sierra Leone's Independent Radio Network (IRN)
Andrew Kromah is Chairman of Sierra Leone's Independent Radio Network (IRN). Modeled on National Public Radio, the IRN has 28 member stations that, collectively, reach most of Sierra Leone's 6 million people. IRN broadcasts programs on governance, education, health care, and wide range of issues that impact Sierra Leoneans.   Andrew pioneered independent radio during Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war by starting up 2 radio stations, one in the capital Freetown and the other in Bo, Sierra Leone's second largest city. He is a self-taught radio technician who risked his life by broadcasting programs during the war. Andrew has been a guest on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. 
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