Aug 2022: Protests, new ideas and good food

[ssandino]

August 2022 → Subscribe to Monthly Updates

Protests, new ideas and good food

Protests in Sierra Leone

The impacts of the war in Ukraine, rising inflation and pandemic on workforces and global supply chains have led many in Sierra Leone to take to the streets and protest against increased living costs. While the protests began peacefully, they quickly escalated and resulted in violence with both police and protestors among the dead. The government imposed a curfew and shut down the internet. Our local staff and recipients quickly reported they were safe. This shows once again that poverty and the fear of not being able to cover the basic costs of living can quickly turn to violence.

At the mayor’s office

Our team members Mariatu and Mabel spoke to Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, the mayor of Freetown, about how Social Income assistance serves to reduce poverty and how we can further the positive outcome of the newly announced city-to-city cooperation between Zurich and Freetown. We were quick to act and onboarded 15 women who work in street markets and are especially vulnerable to hardship and inflation.

A story with a happy ending

From fleeing the civil war in Sierra Leone to winning the Basque culinary world prize, this is the story of Fatima Binta. She is the very first person from Africa to win the renowned prize, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for gastronomy. Read her story in The Guardian. Want to try one of her award-winning receipts? Invite five friends and cook Fatmata’s fonio jollof recipe contained in the article.

Want to know the difference?

Your chance of enjoying a long and healthy life, being educated, and having a decent standard of living is through the roof compared to if you would have been born in Freetown. While where we grow up does not define us, it definitely has a large impact. The UN ranks Sierra Leone 182 out of 189 countries on the Human Development Index.

Care to get geeky about microfinance?

Last month we posted a nerdy article about cash transfers; now let’s dig deeper into microfinance. A recent Bloomberg article paints a dark picture of the negative effects when failing to pay back loans. Sasha Dichter, co-founder of 60 Decibels, wrote a well researched response worth reading. Recipients of a Social Income never have to pay back anything.

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