AYV News May 25, 2023
Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Walmina Oreshola Blyden has started working as a Medical Doctor at the Connaught Hospital in Freetown.
In her new office yesterday as an In-House Medical Officer, Dr. Blyden said:
“Thanks to my sisters (Babsy, Cheryl and Fatima) for inspiring me to go collect my License and return to field of Medicine. Happy to report to my fans and followers that I have started working as a Medical Doctor at Connaught Hospital today May 24th 2023. I have started as an In-House Medical Officer.
“My doctor colleagues made me feel so welcomed today. They took lovely pictures of me at Connaught today. After few days of practicing here at Connaught, I will take a short break to handle some other personal issues and then I will resume daily work at Connaught next month (June 2023) and later do rotation at other Hospitals.
“Meanwhile, today was great. I worked under direct supervision of an excellent Consultant Doctor and it was quite fulfilling. It’s good to be back in the field of Medicine as a trained and qualified Medical Doctor”.
In 1996, after securing her 2 medical degrees (BSc Hons. in 1993 and MBChB in 1996), Dr. Blyden flew to the United States of America to study at Kaplan College for the ECFMG to administer on her, 3 USMLE exams; all of which she passed with flying colours at first attempts.
Dr. Blyden was born on 1st October, 1971 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She is a Sierra Leonean journalist, newspaper publisher, youth, human rights, political commentator and women’s advocate and former Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children Affairs.
She served as Special Executive Assistant (SEA) to Sierra Leone’s former President of Sierra Leone from 2013 to 2015.
Dr. Blyden is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Publisher of one of Sierra Leone’s leading newspapers, The Awareness Times. She is Sierra Leone’s first female news publisher and one of the most recognisable names in the country.
Born and raised in the capital Freetown, into a prominent political family, Dr. Blyden is widely considered one of the most powerful and highly influential female political figures in Sierra Leone.
Dr. Blyden is a Christian and a member of the Creole ethnic group. She is the great-great-granddaughter of Edward Wilmot Blyden, the “father of Pan-Africanism“. Her maternal grandfather is a Sierra Leonean politician Solomon A. J. Pratt, and her paternal grandfather is the late Sierra Leonean diplomat Edward Wilmot Blyden III.
A Child-Appointed International Goodwill Ambassador for Sierra Leone’s Children, Dr. Blyden has been a Youths and Women’s Rights Activist. She represented Sierra Leone’s Female Youths in Beijing during the 1995 United Nations Women’s Confab, and was chosen by her African peers to deliver the Female Youths of Africa Speech on 11 August 1995.
In early 2002, she became Sierra Leone’s youngest National Political Party Leader at the age of 30, and the third Sierra Leone woman to lead a fully registered political party (the first being Presidential Candidate, the late Mrs. Jeridine Williams-Sarho in 1996).
Following her 24-Hours Internet Cafes, she launched a news media in 2005 known as Awareness Times, which is generally considered critical of the excesses of Government and State Institutions.
Dr. Blyden remains the youngest ever Sierra Leonean to be nationally honoured with an Officer of the Rokel insignia in recognition of her meritorious service to the Nation, on 27 April 2007 Independence Day.
