by Rachel Ogbu//

Sierra Leonean-British Isha Sesay is the face we love to see when we tune in to watch the news on CNN. Since 2005 she has worked as an anchor and correspondent for CNN International covering major breaking news stories and global events of the past decade.

Born to Sierra Leonean parent, Sesay had wanted to be an actress but became a television journalist instead and has never looked back. She moved to Britain when she was 16 and later built her career with the BBC working on the BBC talk show Kilroy, BBC Scotland, and as a TV announcer on BBC Choice. She also worked as an anchor on Good Morning Sports Fans for Sky Sports News. “I know that were it not for having an educated and empowered mother, my life would be no different from millions of girls in Sierra Leone and across the African continent with unfulfilled hopes, dreams and a better chance in life,” she’s been quoted as saying.

Isha Sesay who is the founder of W.E. Can Lead (promoting girl education) has been working as an anchor and correspondent for CNN International since 2005. She had followed the missing Chibok girls story traveling to Nigeria to cover the kidnapping of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls- this earned Sesay a Gracie Award for Outstanding Anchor. She returned to Nigeria last year when some of the girls who had gone missing two years earlier gained freedom and were returning home. “A couple of days ago, I travelled with the 21 freed Chibok schoolgirls from Abuja, Nigeria- as they made their first journey home, since their abduction in April 2014. It was an incredibly emotional experience for me- watching as they were reunited with loved ones. These girls are amazing and testament to the strength of the human spirit! Almost 200 of their schoolfriends remain unaccounted for,” he shared on her Instagram page.

With CNN, Sesay has worked as host of the first edition of the weekday news program International Desk and presenter of BackStory, and anchor of CNN NewsCenter.

Rachel Ogbu

UK Based Strategic, multidisciplinary Writer with an eye for innovation and pixel perfection. MA in New Media and Internet Technologies. “Although my skill set is vast, my greatest expertise revolve in the worlds of social media, content creation and print collateral. My wish is to combine my knowledge and experience in these areas, to deliver the best creative to my employer’s clients and their audiences.”