Bonnie Allen

In the past week, my colleague Mae Azango has received mutilation and death threats for a recent article on the health risks of female cirumcision. Mae has covered this issue a lot in the past, but this backlash is unprecedented. The Secret Society that performs the cirucmcision on little girls guards its authority and power in communities by demanding secrecy. In 2010, Mae and I collaborated on a story about Liberian men rejecting circumcised women - an eye-opener in a county where a woman's ability to marry is paramount.

I link to it here because I believe that men's rejection of circumcision could be critical to the phasing out of circumcision - since it contradicts one of the primary motivations of sending a daughter to be circumcised: helping her to get a husband.

Much of the recent debate in Liberia is rooted in misinformation about the Obama policy. Liberia receives more than $200 million a year from the U.S., and the Liberian media have repeatedly reported – incorrectly — that the Obama policy makes American foreign aid contingent on advancing gay rights. One newspaper headline declared: “‘No Gay Law, No Help,’ Obama threatens African Leaders.”

The backlash has escalated anti-gay rhetoric and triggered some physical attacks.

SEE MY STORY:

www.theworld.org/2012/02/anti-gay-attacks-liberia/

A recent story that I did about a 22-year old American girl who serves as legal guardian and foster mom to 13 kids in Uganda sparked a lot of controversy. People were somehow offended that I interviewed a child welfare officer in Uganda who said 13 foster kids in one home isn't best practises, and that the young American woman is too young to adopt under Uganda's laws. I can only shake my head at that response - those are the laws in Uganda, and just because a young woman has good intentions and a great heart doesn't mean the law isn't the law.

That said, I think that Katie Davis is a lovely young woman and that her 13 'adopted' daughters are happy and loved. So when Deutsche Welle radio wanted to feature Katie Davis in its radio program about youth who are making a difference, I had the chance to feature some of Davis' other work - including a feeding program for 15-hundred children five days a week.

Listen to the radio piece on "Generation Change"

Acid attacks are not common in Africa, compared to places like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where hundreds of women are burned and disfigured every year. Yet, in Uganda, there are several acid attacks every month. The victims are both women and men, and, in many cases, the perpetrator is a woman.

Most of the attacks are crimes of passion.

Listen to radio piece on PRI's THE WORLD

Four years ago, Katie Davis was homecoming queen at her high school in Tennessee. Today, she serves as legal guardian or foster mother of 13 girls in Uganda, East Africa.

Listen to radio piece on NPR

Rhino Baby "Obama" was the first rhino born in Uganda in 27 years. He lives at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in central Uganda, where he gets secret-service style protection. The 30-square-mile rhino sanctuary has armed guards, perimeter foot patrols, an electric fence, and constant monitoring.

All this security is to stop a repeat of history. All of Uganda’s rhinos – hundreds of them – were killed by poachers in the early 1980s. Rhino horn, which is made of thickly matted hair and keratin, is a considered a precious commodity. One pound of ground rhino horn can fetch $40,000. In Asia, it’s used in traditional medicines to treat headaches and fever.

Listen to radio piece on PRI's The World

Photo: David Nemlin starts a fire to clear enough land to grow food for his family in Liberia after they fled Ivory Coast.

CBC DISPATCHES: VIEW FROM HERE...

A story of the human spirit under pressure in Liberia.  The tale of a farmer and the want of some seed.

Listen to radio piece

I'm in Liberia for a couple weeks to report on the refugee situation. More than 150-thousand people have fled the violence in Cote d'Ivoire and crossed the border into neighbouring Liberia. Most of them -- 90 % - have chosen to settle in small, impoverished border villages rather than moving into formal refugee camps. That's putting a huge strain on resources in post-war Liberia, a poor country with limited infrastructure and food production. Stay tuned for a few reports.

photo: Mohamed Alshrqawi, recently freed after 16 years in an Egyptian prison without charges.

U.S. Public Radio:

Egypt's ruling military council recently announced that it would lift the country's emergency law before September's parliamentary elections. The law, which has been in place since President Hosni Mubarak took power in 1981, gives the state sweeping powers to arrest people without charge and to detain prisoners indefinitely.

The military-led transitional government has released almost 2,000 prisoners. But by some estimates, there are still thousands of people being held without charge in Egypt's prisons, including activists, bloggers, and members of Islamic groups.

Reporter Bonnie Allen followed one family's struggle to free their father.

Listen to radio piece

Photo: Orthopaedic surgeon Patrick Sekimpi repairs a broken leg inside operating room in Kampala, Uganda.

U.S. Public Radio:

Uganda is desperately in need of surgeons. In a country of 32 million inhabitants, there are only about 100 surgeons, and accident victims wait weeks or months for critical operations. As Bonnie Allen reports, one reason for the shortage is that medical students in Uganda are increasingly choosing to work in the better paying field of HIV and AIDS

Listen to radio piece

So ...this one is a bit more personal. A first person account of some of the acts of kindness received while reporting in eastern Libya!

U.S. Public Radio:

For four decades, foreign journalists have been banned from reporting in Libya. And Moammar Ghaddafi's government has kept tight control on Libyan journalists, dictating exactly what the state media covers.

When the recent revolutionary movement began, foreign journalists managed to enter the country through the east, which was controlled by those rebelling against the Ghaddafi regime. In this Reporter's Notebook, Bonnie recounts how the people in eastern Libya gave journalists a warm welcome.

Listen to radio piece