Stories written by Tommy Trenchard

Sierra Leone’s Child Trafficking to Blame for Street Kids

By Tommy Trenchard
On a street corner in downtown Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital city, 12-year-old Kaita sits with a friend on a peeling steel railing watching the headlights of motorbikes cruising through the otherwise silent streets. It is after midnight, and motionless human forms lie curled up in doorways or stretched out on pavements nearby. For Kaita, these streets are home, and have been for almost six years.

Sierra Leone Shedding ‘War-Torn’ Image to Attract Tourists

By Tommy Trenchard
On the fourth floor of a new office block in western Freetown, Cecil Williams sits beneath posters of idyllic tropical landscapes as he discusses the many natural attractions that once brought tourists flocking to the small West African nation of Sierra Leone.

Diamonds are Not Forever, But the Land Is

By Tommy Trenchard

In the village of Makonkonde in western Sierra Leone, Mabinti, who no longer knows her age, sits on a low wooden stool in the dappled shade of several palm trees. She clutches a solitary papaya fruit in hands toughened by a lifetime of hard manual work.

The Ugly Face of Street Justice in Sierra Leone

By Tommy Trenchard
On a steamy, starless night in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, a teenager runs desperately down a potholed street before being violently brought to the ground by a bystander. As word spreads that a thief has been caught, young men come running from all directions.

Unemployed Youth Turn to Drugs

By Tommy Trenchard
The air is heavy with the smell of marijuana as Gibrilla (23) expertly rolls a large joint at the Members of Blood (M.O.B) gang base in a poor neighbourhood of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.

Former “Blood Diamonds” now Provide Employment

By Tommy Trenchard


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