Commentary By Dr. Nanah Sheriff Fofanah-Sesay
Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises of all procedures involving partial or total removal of the female external genitalia such as the labia majora, labia minora, clitoris and other injuries to the female genitalia for non-medical reasons as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Proponents of this act often engage in these behaviors to adhere to and preserve an ongoing cultural tradition that failed to take into consideration the dignity, physical trauma, emotional trauma, and human rights of young girls and women.
In a recent article titled SALWACE’s “imitated not mutilated” Campaign, the author/s referred to Bondo (a society for the performance of FGM) as “the recognition of adult women to choose what they want to do with their own bodies.” The author/s further describes the act of FGM as “labiaplasty” and “clitoroplexy” and other forms of “so-called female genital cosmetic surgeries.”
The Patriotic Vangaurd
by Our National Correspondent
July 30 marked the 11th anniversary of the Patriotic Vanguard newspaper published from Vancouver. In our continuing effort to profile and work with ethnic media across Canada, New Canadian Media conducted an interview by e-mail with the paper's founder and chief executive officer, Gibril Gbanabome Koroma, a Sierra Leonean journalist in exile. Koroma is pictured at right, in front of the Vancouver Public Library.
This content was developed exclusively for New Canadian Media and can be re-published with appropriate attribution. For syndication rights, please write to publisher@newcanadianmedia.ca |
By PV Staff.
People often wonder what we have as Sierra Leonean newspapers, magazines and online radio and television stations abroad.
Today we will try to bring some of the well known ones (it's difficult to know all of them because of the age and relative obscurity of some of them). We will categorize by country and prominent characteristics. This is not an exhaustive list; we will bring you more Sierra Leonean diaspora media organizations as and when we discover them. As the say, (...)
The Patriotic Vangaurd
Tribute to the late Ernest Cummings
From the Sierra Leone Community in Ottawa
Sierra Leoneans in Ottawa, Canada, are proud to be a community today because of what Ernest who was commonly as “Mr. Cummings” brought to the table.
Early 2000 when he migrated to Canada with his family, he realized that there was no functional community that brought Sierra Leoneans together. Between him and few others, they put the frame work together to have a community organization started.
His (...)
The Patriotic Vangaurd
PV Staff.
Sierra Leone's president Ernest Bai Koroma (pictured) on Tuesday spoke on a number of issues affecting women in the country.
The president, who was speaking at an even marking International Women's day dwelled at length on the issue of gender parity, the controversial safe abortion bill, pregnant school girls and related topics.
A huge number of Sierra Leone's women and girls cannot read and write and the educated ones face many challenges in both traditional (...)
The Patriotic Vangaurd
A Commonwealth initiative to boost Sierra Leone's health protection policy is designed to strengthen national health systems and help prevent and manage the impacts of future disease outbreaks, says Dr Joanna Nurse, Head of Health at the Commonwealth Secretariat.
The project with Sierra Leone's Government and other development partners comes amid national and international efforts to recover from the Ebola outbreak. The pandemic cost Sierra Leone nearly 4,000 lives - more than (...)
The Patriotic Vangaurd
The Director General of Cultural, Social and Family Affairs at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has said that Sierra Leone could be the best model with regards to religious tolerance, peaceful coexistence and bonds of unity.
Mehla Ahmed Talebna who is also a former Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in Mauritania made the remarks to Sierra Leone's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Representative to the OIC, Alhaji M.S. Kargbo during a familiarization visit (...)
The Patriotic Vangaurd
PV Staff
A state House Communications Unit report states that various projects have been designed by the government to provide job opportunities for young people as well as improve their livelihoods in riverine and coastal fishing communities.
The report, dated Thursday February 25 ,added that President Ernest Bai Koroma officially launched the Youth in Fishing project and the Revised National Youth Policy 2014 at the Tambercular Wharf in Aberdeen, west of Freetown the capital on (...)
The Patriotic Vangaurd
The Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces has had its ups and downs over the years, like all state institutions in the country, but it went through the most turbulent time in its history during the brutal civil war (1991-2002) that caused a lot of havoc to its human and material resources.
The war took many brave and talented army personnel, both officers and men and many barracks suffered devastating damage and others were completed wiped out and had to be rebuilt after the war. The (...)
The Patriotic Vangaurd
By PV Staff.
A surprise announcement from State House in Freetown on Monday December 28th revealed partial changes in the current cabinet with the promise that more are in the pipeline.
Two big changes in the current political configuration are the appointment of Anti-Corruption Commission boss Joseph Kamara as Attorney General and Minister of Justice. Kamara is replacing Franklyn Bai Kargbo.The other one is the appointment of political new comer Professor Monty Jones (pictured-World Food (...)
The Patriotic Vangaurd
-- Canada's economic development minister Navdeep Bains at a Public Policy Forum economic summit