News & Stories

Isata spent 18 days under continuous supervision and care in the emergency department at Koidu Government Hospital before transitioning to the general ward to continue her recovery. 

In August 2018, 17-year-old Isata Biango welcomed her triplets, Sarah, Caleb, and Isaiah Biango , into the world at PIH-supported Wellbody Clinic in Kono, Sierra Leone.

In Sierra Leone, where extreme poverty means nearly half of families don’t have enough food on a daily basis, children are particularly vulnerable to malnutrition. The consequences of this lack of nutrition are staggering, and long-term.

Cylian B. Kargbo is planning for her future. “My birthday is coming up!” the 12-going-on-13-year-old from Calaba Town, Sierra Leone, proudly announced, looking ahead a few weeks when she would celebrate with, first and foremost, “pizza!” Further down the line, Cylian has even bigger dreams: “I want to be a lawyer—study abroad, then come back to Sierra Leone to help the people in my country.”

Mariama Alieu was heavily pregnant when she was admitted in June to Koidu Government Hospital in eastern Sierra Leone. The 30-year-old mother of four said she’d suffered ill health for more than a year without receiving the correct diagnosis and felt like she would “always have the flu.”

Leaning over the pregnant patient before her, Regina Korgbendeh touched the woman’s looming stomach and spoke softly in Kono, a dialect common in eastern Sierra Leone: “Thank you for this child.” Blessing an unborn baby is a custom strictly followed in communities throughout Kono District. 

Mondeh Mansaray sketches the form of his favorite football player with swift, diligent movements of his pencil. Nothing can break his focus as he sits curled-up on a wooden stool and pores over the white page in front of him.