What We Do
I am a Sierra Leonean documentary filmmaker, social impact communicator, and community organizer using film, education, and advocacy to amplify unheard voices, challenge injustice, and drive real, community-led change
About
Chernor Mustapha Thoronka is a Sierra Leonean documentary filmmaker, social impact communicator, and community organizer using film, education, and advocacy to tell powerful stories, challenge injustice, and drive grassroots change.
Featured Work
Diabetes in Sierra Leone | DW Documentary
In Sierra Leone, diabetes is both life-threatening and often undiagnosed. For 15-year-old diabetic Hawa and her family, finding life-saving insulin and doctors who know how to treat the disease has been a huge challenge. Fifteen-year-old Hawa is severely ill with diabetes. She also lives in Sierra Leone, where there are just a handful of doctors for every 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. Clinics offering treatment to diabetics are especially rare in the West-African country, as is the life-saving drug insulin. Some of the medicine arrives in the country in suitcases, as private donations from wealthy countries. Another problem in Sierra Leone is a lack of information about the important of diet to those suffering from diabetes. Hawa fears being a burden to her family, but help is at hand.
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Land-grabbing and the fight for justice in Sierra Leone | DW Documentary
Africa is a continual target of land-grabbing. Big international corporations are snatching up farmland. A group in Sierra Leone fights for justice. Sierra Leone, in West Africa, is among the poorest countries in the world, despite rich mineral deposits and abundant arable land. One of the government’s key economic strategies in recent years has involved leasing and selling land, often to large foreign corporations. Deals over land rights are generally closed without the local population having any say in them. Many village communities are not adequately informed of their rights and are unable to afford legal representation anyway. These are the people the Namati NGO aims to help. The “Barefoot Lawyers,” as they’re called, travel to the most remote places to advise the local people of their rights and give them a voice in the negotiations for the land they live on. A report by Sam Liebmann und Chernoh Mustapha Thoronka.
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Kush: Into the Mad World - BBC Africa Eye Documentary
ush - a cheap, new illegal drug high is taking the youth of Sierra Leone to a dark place. Young people driven mad. Young people killing themselves. Young people harming themselves and others. Psychiatric wards are filling up with Kush cases and police are battling to win the war against the drug. With Kush use spreading like wildfire and with ever-younger users being exposed to it, Africa Eye reporter, Tyson Conteh, investigates the drug and asks whether Sierra Leone can stop the march of this dangerously addictive high.
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Connectivity Cost Reduction: A Game-Changer for Internet Sustainability
Watch to discover how Sierra Leone is proving that even the most remote schools can become hubs of innovation, creativity, and opportunity. The country has reduced school internet costs from $12,000 to just $1,500 per year — opening the doors of digital learning for thousands of students. From rural villages to the outskirts of Freetown, this connectivity revolution is empowering students like Mohamed Turay, who now use online research and AI tools to become true 21st-century learners. Jasper Sembie (DSTI) and Rudolf Schwenk (UNICEF Sierra Leone) share how strategic partnerships, smart policy, and innovation are driving sustainable connectivity and human capital growth.
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