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The digitisation of South Africa’s social grant payment system was sold as promising to expand financial inclusion, but monopolisation by a single private company mutated it into a system of exploitation, according to the national director of the Black Sash, Lynette Maart. And the company, Net1, might not be done in the “social grant space” just yet, warned the Black Sash’s national advocacy manager, Hoodah Abrahams-Fayker. Maart and Abrahams-Fayker were speaking during a webinar titled...

Published February 4, 2021, 10:33 PM Not minding the distance and the coronavirus disease pandemic, a mother from Metro Manila flew all the way to this city upon learning that her daughter who joined the communist rebel movement has been sighted in the hinterlands of Davao de Oro and Davao Oriental. (photo from PNA) Luisa Espina, the mother of Louvaine Erika, who was recruited by the New People’s Army (NPA) in 2018, said she decided to personally come to the city after confirming from a forme...

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman Documents on the finances and expenditure details of the Office of the First Lady of Sierra Leone show clearly how Madam Fatima Jabbe Bio spent more than Le7.89 billion (over US$780,000) of public funds on personal shopping needs, and paying the travel costs and hotel accommodation expenses for foreign guests she invited to Sierra Leone to witness the launch of her flagship program, the  Hands Off Our Girls Campaign, launched in mid-...

Share Photo: (Photo : Michael Mims/ Unsplash ) The pandemic lockdown was called for to prevent spreading the coronavirus. But as jobs are lost in places already struggling with poverty, many teenage girls have to pay for survival. Asia: Thousands of Child Marriages Amid Pandemic Lockdown In Bangladesh, child protection authorities tried to stop a child marriage that would take place at 8:30. The parents blamed the COVID-19 crisis for their decision. Child protection officials counseled the ...

State House, Freetown, Thursday 10 December 2020 – Her Excellency the First Lady, Madam Fatima Maada Bio has presented their second-year report on the “Hands Off Our Girls” campaign to His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio at State House. She said she had heard her husband talk about how resourceful, committed and resilient Sierra Leonean women were even under the most difficult of circumstances, noting that when COVID-19 struck, she heard President Bio speak with great empathy and...

In a remote corner of Sierra Leone, a man caught a glimpse of 16-year-old Marie Kamara as she ran past his house. Soon after, he proposed to her. "My family does not have money so when he told me he wanted me, I said yes, said Kamara. The financial pressure on her family felt more pressing than her wish to continue her education and become a nurse. Her family needed the money. Her stepfather runs a tailoring shop in Komao, but the coronavirus pandemic meant there were few customers. Kamaras sui...

Long-serving Islington North MP’s supporters hold a second ‘solidarity stroll’ 11 December, 2020 — By Calum Fraser Supporters of Islington MP Jeremy Corbyn at the ‘solidarity stroll’ in Finsbury Park SENIOR figures from more than 140 local Labour branches are demanding that the party’s general secretary lift gagging orders placed on discussions around A flurry of diktats imposed by Labour HQ designed to police debate around Mr Corbyn’s position in the pa...