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In
2005 FOKUS, Forum for Women and Development Questions, an umbrella
organization made up of 60-70 different women's organizations,
received the money from this collection. The Norwegian Baptist Women's
Union applied for financial support and was granted 1 million NOK for
the project "Breaking the Silence on Female Genital Mutilation and
Domestic Violence" in Sierra Leone. The duration of the project was to
be three years, from 2007 to 2009.
This project is in the Makeni district of Sierra Leone. Julie Sesay,
President of the Baptist Women's Union of Sierra Leone, is in charge.
She has four competent staff members working together on the project.
They educate people on the consequences of Female Genital Mutilation
and Domestic Violence through workshops, focus groups, film shows and
discussion programs on the radio. It was this work we were going to
take a closer look at.
Sierra Leone is a small country in West-Africa, approximately the size
of Switzerland, with about 5 million inhabitants. The country has been
a British crown colony, but became a republic in 1971. Freetown is the
capital, with English the official language, but in addition 15-16
different tribal languages are also spoken. Sierra Leone is one of the
poorest countries in the world with the lowest life expectancy and the
greatest infant mortality. Corruption is widespread. The majority of
the population is Muslim, but there are also Christians and Animists.
The country has been through a bloody civil war lasting from 1992 to
2002, with reconstruction taking place at the moment. Insufficient
infra structure must be mended if the country is going to get ready for
the tourist industry. The natural potential for tourism is already in
place with beautiful landscapes and fantastic beaches. The climate is
tropical with an average temperature of 32 degrees Celsius. The rainy
season lasts from May to October. Farming is the most important way of
living, rice is mostly grown, but the country is rich in other natural
resources, including diamonds and gold. |
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The Journey
Three women travelled together to Sierra Leone: project leader, Synnøve
Gåsvær Angen, mission consultant, Lise Kyllingstad and board member of
the Norwegian Baptist Women's Union, Jorunn Haraune. We left snow and
frost in Norway in November, so the transition to the sun and heat of
Sierra Leone was great. We were met at Lungi airport by the Norwegian
missionary, Gudleik Husby who gave us a warm welcome. The Husby family
live and work in Lunsar. We were fortunate to have our base with them
during our stay. (They are sent out by EBM). The missionary family live
in a fairly big house at the compound of the Baptist Eye Hospital,
which used to be the biggest and best equipped eye hospital in West
Africa before the civil war.
After a day of acclimatization in Lunsar, Gudleik drove us to Makeni to
meet the project staff and look at their work. The first meeting was in
quite a big Baptist church by the main road. There was great joy of
meeting again for Synnøve and Julie Sesay who had met each other last
year. Julie is president of the Baptist Women's Union of Sierra Leone,
and leader of the project. We were told how they worked and were
introduced to Zainab, Florence, Cecilia and Josephine, the four ladies
in Makeni who do the educational work in the area. They share streets
and villages between them and gather people for meetings, go from door
to door talking to people, hold courses and train new coworkers who
bring the new knowledge back to their villages. We were taken to
several focus group meetings, first in Makeni, then in three other
villages the next day.
At the first meeting in a community hall there were about 50 people
gathered, women, men and children. They brought their own benches and
chairs to sit on and participated eagerly in the discussions about the
project and its effects. Violence and female mutilation are
controversial themes, but delicate methods are used to enlighten
complications that can occur, and people can decide for themselves what
are good and what are bad, based on the knowledge they acquire. The
same afternoon we participated in a meeting at an army camp where the
same theme was promoted and discussed.
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Next
morning we set off to visit villages in the surrounding district. In
Gbassia more than one hundred people were gathered under a big palm
leaf roof to meet with us and discuss questions concerning the project.
We hear that domestic violence is reduced because women and children
have become aware of their rights. The local community has been changed
as a result. A pastor tells us that the genital mutilation of more than
one hundred young girls has been prevented! There are cutters present
at this meeting. They come forward telling us that they will stop this
practice if they are given reeducation to enable them to take up other
occupations which will give them new sources of income. Leaders of the
village were also present, both imams and pastors. In Gbassia we also
visited a small new Baptist church which will get some financial
support from Norway.
The next village was Kamabai. The meeting took place at the village
school and around 80 people were present. All of them are participants
in the project, Christians and Muslims together. Also in this village
the project has brought positive changes, and the cutters are willing
to stop their practice if they are given other jobs.
In the Baptist church in Kamasiki we are told that domestic violence is
reduced, men have started to take more responsibility for housework and
the raising of children to avoid conflict, and children now know their
rights. Men, women and children are educated separately because this
gives the best result.
After all the meetings we have attended these two days, having met
several hundred people, there is one thing we are certain of, and that
is that this works. The project creates change which in the long run
can prevent the mutilation of young girls and that this practice will
be forbidden by law in Sierra Leone.
But there is still a long way to go.
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A
new day and new possibilities! We are going to take part in a training
workshop for 50 women who all are dressed in colorful costumes. There
are 20 Christians, 20 Muslims and 10 Animists present. Some have
brought their babies and breastfeed them during the workshop. All these
women are selected from different local communities because they can
read and write. They are going to go back and educate others. The
lecturer is a competent woman who has been educated in human rights by
Amnesty International. She teaches by breaking the large group into
smaller groups so that the illiterate can understand what human rights
are about. It is important for women and children to know that they
have the same rights as men. Summing up the education, the conclusion
is as follows: It is better to spend money on educating the girl than
mutilating her. A child can be kept at school a whole year for the same
amount of money mutilation costs! The lecturer talked about breaking
the silence on female genital mutilation (FGM) in the light of human
rights. She also talked about good and bad culture. Neither Christians
nor Muslims are able to prove their assertions on FGM from the Bible or
the Koran. This is just inherited bad culture.
When the group work started, we left and were driven back to Lunsar.
But first we got the opportunity to buy some nice fabrics to take back
to Norway. Makeni is famous for its beautiful batik.
We spent the weekend with the Husby family in Lunsar, visiting a
village in the jungle where Anne educates public health workers. We
crossed the wide river in a hollowed out tree trunk! We were also
invited to a lovely dinner at PaMan's house. He is the founder of the
Baptist Union of Sierra Leone. On our way back there was thunder and
lightning, but we were back inside the house before the heavy tropical
rainfall came. On Sunday we went to church. A motorbike trip with
Gudleik rounded off the weekend. The impressions after the first week
in Africa were many and varied. Truly an adventure!
On Monday we followed Anne to a health centre delivering 26 baby shirts
knitted by women in Norway. Many mothers were there to have their
babies vaccinated that day. The idea of knitted baby shirts was given
to Turid Nedland and Synnøve when they attended EBWU's women's
conference in Dalfsen. Danish Baptist women have for several years been
knitting baby shirts for babies in Burundi. At the annual Baptist
conference in Harstad, Norway, last year, interested women got knitting
pattern and cotton yarn. When we travelled to Sierra Leone we had more
than 200 baby shirts in our luggage. These shirts were spread among
eight health centres in Lunsar, as a "carrot" to make women come to the
health centres for the delivery of their babies.
Very early on Tuesday morning we set off to Freetown. Gudleik and the
German volunteer Jan, took us there by car. In Freetown we checked into
Kingtom, EBM's guest house for missionaries. We were given a warm
welcome by the hosts, Hans and Aisha Oosterloo.
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Our
first meeting was with the project committee at the Baptist Women's
Union's office. They gave us a survey of the work they had done and
their method of working. The Baptist Women's Union is leading in the
work against FGM and domestic violence in Sierra Leone. They are
working to pass a new law saying that girls have to be 18 years old
before they themselves decide if they want mutilation or not. This law
has not been passed yet, but it will come!
The project plans for 2009 are among other things that 375 Baptist
women will be educated through workshops to spread the message to
their local communities. The written material that is already prepared,
will serve the purpose. The project committee also wants to build a
crisis centre for women and children in Freetown. They have the
building site, but lack the finances.
We also had a meeting with Julie Sesay at Kingtom, summing up the days
we had spent together and talking about work that needs to be done.
Julie has a dream for registering children who are not mutilated, to
give them a scholarship and in collaboration with their parents, sign
a legal paper stating that they are not to be mutilated.
The next day we met the auditor who was satisfied with the accounts. We
also met Laurel Bangura from Inter African Committee who collaborates
with Julie Sesay in similar issues. She said that people who conduct
genital mutilation have little knowledge about the complications
afterwards. Both Julie and Laurel hope to find collaborators and
finances to continue this important work after 2009 when the project
money is spent.
In the evening there was a party at Kingtom for the project committee
and the leaders of the Baptist Union. Linda Koroma hosted the party.
We had good social fellowship, enjoying tasty African food. Synnøve
handed out "Nidar's jelly women", brought from Norway, saying some
appropriate words about women's ability to stretch in all directions in
order to do good things.
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had one more day in Freetown and spent it shopping in the markets to
"contribute to Sierra Leone's economy". It was very interesting to
wander around the markets looking at the goods. We were mostly
interested in batik and wooden carvings. After a while we learnt the
art of bargaining too. To get back to Kingtom we drove through slum
areas. It was sad to see the bad housing conditions many poor people
live in. It was an eye opener for Europeans to enable us to be more
grateful for what we have at home.
We thank the Lord for this opportunity to collaborate with the Baptist
Women's Union of Sierra Leone and pray that this project work will lead
to a better future for the women in this country.
Jorunn Haraune and Synnove Gasvaer Angen
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