Dr. Angela Weaver, Vice President for Neglected Tropical Diseases, spoke to us about the impact of these debilitating illnesses and how Helen Keller Intl is working to combat[...]
Every day, members of the Helen Keller Intl community are choosing to be forces for good. Community health heroes, entrepreneurs, parents, youth, and Helen Keller staff work tirelessly to help improve health, nutrition, and vision for people in their[...]
Five years ago, a difficult economic situation forced Thaimu Banugura to leave his hometown, Jaiama Nimikoro Kono, in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Despite having completed his West African Certificate Exams to graduate from secondary school, Thaimu[...]
In rural communities across Sierra Leone, limited access to nutritious and diverse food has been a constant concern. 33-year-old Mariama Koroma knows this reality all too well. A farmer and single mother of three children, Mariama lives in Rogbere village in[...]
We recently spoke with Anita Agartha Kargbo, a program officer for nutrition in Sierra Leone. Anita has been part of the nutrition and research team at Helen Keller — which she calls her “dream organization” — since joining as an intern in 2010. With[...]
In a small community health clinic in Matotoka township in the northern provinces of Sierra Leone, 25-year-old Kadiatu Bangura cradles her six-month-old baby, Gabriel, with pride. Nurse Aminata Conteh gives Gabriel four droplets of vitamin A, a crucial[...]
Once upon a time, lymphatic filariasis plagued the entire country of Sierra Leone. The parasite-borne neglected tropical disease, transmitted through mosquitos, causes severe swelling and painful enlargement of body parts. In Sierra Leone’s Krio language,[...]
As part of his annual win-a-trip series, New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof traveled to Sierra Leone with recent graduate Maddie Bender to “boosting interest among young people in global issues that don’t always get the attention they[...]
On a frosty Sunday morning, a group of farmers wearing brightly colored African waist scarves, called lappas, gather together in front of Haja Conteh’s house in the Koinadugu district of Sierra Leone. The all-women farmers group, called “Denkola Two[...]