The Junior Doctors’ Association of Sierra Leone (JUDASIL), has honoured Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden with an award for her “exceptional dedication and outstanding contributions to Public Health resulting in a positive national impact through raising awareness on key health issues like Ebola and Coronavirus pandemics as well as the ongoing Kush drugs addiction”.
Reacting to the honour, Dr. Blyden said: “Night of eminence and class with junior doctors at LOR Restaurant. Lovely Honorary Award was presented to me for my exceptional dedication and outstanding contributions to Public Health resulting in a positive national impact through raising awareness on key health issues like Ebola and Coronavirus pandemics as well as the ongoing Kush drugs addiction. Thanks JUDASIL. Thank you”.
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.
JUDASIL is the principal body that seeks the interest and welfare of all junior doctors in Sierra Leone. It is part of the Junior Doctors Network (WMA), which include junior doctors from around the world.
Members of JUDASIL also form part of the membership of the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association.
Prior to the 1st GA, JUDASIL members served as the backbone in the fight against the Ebola viral surge in Sierra Leone, provided medical coverage to victims of the flood and mudslide in 2017 and various medical talk shows on radio and television networks in the country.