The trauma of war in Sierra Leone.

Mining and Environmental Degradation: a Gift Brings Grief Scenario for Mining Communities in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone is blessed with abundant natural resources but yet prone to environmental degradation due to the mining operations. Most often, the mining communities are faced with social tensions, as a result of the possible trade-off between the expected employment impact and the cost of mining operations to the environment. Over the past decades, the contribution of the mining sector to the de...

Psychosocial intervention for war-affected children in Sierra Leone.

BACKGROUND There are no psychosocial interventions to address both educational needs and psychological distress among displaced children in post-conflict settings. AIMS To assess the psychosocial status of displaced children enrolled in the Rapid-Ed intervention; and to determine whether the Rapid-Ed intervention alleviated traumatic stress symptoms that interfere with learning among war-affe...

School Persistence in the Wake of War: Wartime Experiences, Reintegration Supports, and Dropout in Sierra Leone

Associations between Mental Health and Ebola-Related Health Behaviors: A Regionally Representative Cross-sectional Survey in Post-conflict Sierra Leone

BACKGROUND Little attention has been paid to potential relationships between mental health, trauma, and personal exposures to Ebola virus disease (EVD) and health behaviors in post-conflict West Africa. We tested a conceptual model linking mental health and trauma to EVD risk behaviors and EVD prevention behaviors. METHODS AND FINDINGS Using survey data from a representative sample in the Wes...

Trends in Child Survival in Sierra Leone, 1961-2008∗

This paper offers a theoretical model of how child survival is influenced by pre-war, civil war, and post-conflict contexts. Hypotheses are then proposed and tested using retrospective data for Sierra Leone. Even under conditions of economic and state collapse during Sierra Leone’s pre-war era, under-five mortality rates (U5MR) improved. This appears to be due to vertical and parallel aid inter...