LIFEBOAT

“In the beginning, they’d say ‘Oh, you want to give voices to our women, you want to challenge us, you don’t want our women to be submissive,’ because that is how it operates in rural communities; women are submissive, they answer to everything even though they are su ering inside,” Kallon continued. “Over the years (leaders) begin to understand, ‘ is is not about us, it’s about the women, and when women are happy — have happy homes, happy families, their children are well taken care of,’ they begin to see that it’s for the good of everybody. And so, they join forces.” at’s where MMW’s activist bent comes in. e newsroom worked to alert advocates and residents to the situation, and within months, a public uproar had been kindled.

In one instance, a powerful man in Bombali, Sierra Leone, raped a 9-yearold girl and — because of his status in the community — the legal system did not seriously prosecute the case, Kallon said.

“We’ve had so many issues where women are victimized, or sexually harassed, or young girls are being penetrated by in uential men in society, then the (legal system) would want to play games with them; the police would lose the les,” Kallon said.

“What they did at the initial stage was bribe the family, but the girl’s mother was very determined to get justice for her daughter,” Kallon said. “So, what they did was the bank where he worked, instead of sacking him, they transferred him to another region. And then the civil society, all of us, we took up that matter — it was a whole journey, over a year after that.” e road has not been easy. MMW started with ve listening centers each in three major population hubs, totally 15 listening centers in all. But when Sierra Leone was struck by the Ebola virus epidemic in 2014, the journalists had to gure out a di erent strategy.

Finally, Kallon said, the man was brought to justice, thanks in large part to the media coverage and outrage from community members.

“ e police said they lost the le, the justice system cannot charge any case, so we had to go back and forth, and because civil society were not quiet about it, the media were making a lot of noise about it, so they had to bring the man back and he had to face justice and now he’s in prison for a lifetime,” Kallon said.

Kallon and Sesay, along with their team, began reaching out to “ambas- sadors” in rural communities who they could electronically send podcasts to and then have the ambassadors distribute the podcast to folks quarantining in their homes. at model proved to be e ective for MMW, which was able to reach a larger listener base at a time when many Sierra Leonians would have otherwise gone without pressing public health information.

Many remote communities still rely on town criers to disseminate information, so MMW has partnered with them as well to distribute their podcasts. Kallon said these e orts — plus the occasional boat visit by an MMW journalist to remote villages — have given their newsroom the ability to reach truly o -the-grid locales.

“ at was how we began getting into the interior regions because initially, we were just at the city centers,” Kallon said. “Over the years we progressed into getting more listenership because we’re not just stationed in one area…

We have created that impact over the years; we go to last mile communities — sometimes you have to use a boat to cross over — but these are places we must go.”

With a general election coming up in June and tensions between rival political parties mounting, MMW has made it their mission to inform the public — particularly women — about issues, candidates and their voting rights, all in a nonviolent, nonpartisan fashion.

“We were very strategic in sending out nonviolent messages,” Kallon said. “We are for all of Sierra Leone, not a particular politician or party. We also encourage and support women during elections; we let people know it’s their right and responsibility to vote. But as journalists, we don’t want to be partisan. We don’t promote a political party.”

MMW is also faced with confronting one of the most persistent spreaders of misinformation — social media.

“Tension is really high among the two rival parties,” Kallon said. “ ere is a lot of fake news going on, so we have to nd a way of going around that and sending the correct message because people use social media — especially WhatsApp — to send all kinds of messages.

“We listen to what’s happening on social media, especially on WhatsApp, and then we send the correct information out in our podcast,” Kallon continued. “If we are not on the apps, our listeners will be misled, so we have to take the lead in ensuring that people get the correct information that will prevent violence during the election because tensions are aring around things like that, so we have to be on top of the situation, otherwise, it will be disastrous.”

Despite the issues they face in providing news to last-mile communities, Sesay and Kallon said that the inspiration they have provided to women across Sierra Leone makes their e ort worth it.

“ e young girls, they see us, and they want to become journalists now,” Kallon said. “We’ve become kind of an inspiration for these young girls who want to be journalists, advocates, all of it. It’s really triggering that kind of interest in them.”

“MMW has created a platform where women are building condence, we can speak hope, we can share our stories to each other,” Sesay said. “We’ve really inspired and created that space for women to speak up. And de nitely, I’m sure, most want to be like Auntie Alina.”

“We just keep telling them, ‘Just stay in school and you’ll be like me,’” Kallon replied.

Sesay said she hopes that the next decade of MMW will bring even more female empowerment and equity to Sierra Leone.

“MMW is 10 years in operation in Sierra Leone, and that means 10 years of resilience, working with communities and building a movement,” Sesay said. “So, by the next decade, we want to see strong women, stronger communities where we end violence against women, and have a very peaceful society.”

In the meantime, Sesay and Kallon will convene with a team of DU grad students assembled by Professor Renee Botta to help MMW with data collection and analysis, which will be used to create more tools to reach lastmile communities in the west African nation.