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[...]
Women are the cornerstones of many families. They oversee home life — raising the children, preparing meals, even fetching water — and they bear responsibility for part, if not all, of their families’ livelihoods. In times of struggle, women often put[...]
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[...]
Nothing can stop rising star Mollika Biswas, an award-winning farmer. The 17-year-old lives with her parents and her older brother in a small village in the Satkhira region of Bangladesh. Two years ago, Mollika embarked on a health and nutrition journey with[...]
Hawa Sissoko is a housewife in Kéréko, a small village in Mali. She, like many of her neighbors, would have to walk more than 10 miles each way to have access to clean water. Without clean water, diseases like trachoma can run rampant, and serious illness[...]
52-year-old Bishwo Nepal and his wife Gayatri Nepal remember almost losing their whole harvest the first year they farmed. Only one crop survived: orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. Bishwo was able to sell his sweet potato harvest earning enough money to save the[...]
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[...]
The World Health Organization announced the elimination of trachoma as a public health problem in Mali. Though not the first country to eliminate trachoma, this milestone is particularly extraordinary due to the scale of the disease. A 1996 survey found[...]
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[...]