Digging for the truth

Davida Spaine-Solomon picks her way carefully through the grass of the graveyard just outside a small village in north-eastern Sierra Leone.

Davida is a young journalist trained by BBC Media Action and working for Truth Media, an independent news outlet. She’s here as part of an investigation into artisanal mining, a labour-intensive method of extracting minerals such as iron, diamond and gold from abandoned mine sites.

She crouches next to the grave of two brothers, who were killed in an unexpected mine collapse. Absent is Fatmata, their sister and the woman Davida wants to give voice to. It’s too difficult for her to visit their resting place. Davida lays a hand on the cold stone and covers her face.

Mine collapses, accidents and injuries are all too common in this community and the villages surrounding it, where mining is their main source of income and survival. Poverty is the biggest single factor driving these families to unsafe and unregulated pits and quarries, and death is an all-too-familiar shadow here.

In the aftermath of Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war, rural communities like Fatmata’s turned to abandoned diamond and gold mines, left behind by industrial corporations, to earn their living. Artisanal mining involves back-breaking work, digging for minerals in vast pits with pickaxes and metal bowls without safety equipment, helmets or even boots.

Families, however, have no other choice. 

Fatmata Kamara, a mother of three and a widow, relied on her two brothers to help her financially. With male-dominated artisanal mining as the main source of income in most rural communities, women lean heavily on men for survival. 

For Fatmata, everything changed on a regular day – her two brothers went to work at a pit close to the village and were crushed by a pile of sand whilst excavating. As well as leaving Fatmata without two close family members or any financial support, one of her brothers left behind a wife and two children. Their family had to fend for itself. Fatmata quickly remarried so she was able to afford food and shelter for her children.

It is difficult for these mining communities to access proper safety equipment to protect themselves from such disasters. Speaking to the Chairman of the Mining Committee, whose organisation visits mine sites to raise awareness of safety measures, Davida was struck by their stretched resources.

Davida's mission is clear: “The impact I hope this story could have is that they should have another alternatives and livelihood opportunities for these people. I think the story should start discussions on how to do something else for women and children.”

For her, without impartial, trustworthy journalism, these communities’ voices go unheard. And when these stories are left untold, change can never happen.

Davida, who was mentored and funded for this investigation by BBC Media Action, hopes that her work will shine a light on these untold stories, so that more can be done to help their families. Whilst local leaders try to warn artisanal miners against putting themselves at risk in order to feed their families, they are competing with the families' very real need to earn a living.

With her courageous reporting, she hopes to amplify these silenced voices and transform communities like Fatmata’s through the power of truth.