Women in conflicts rebuilding their lives.

Stories from the Ecumenical Women's Solidarity Team visit to Sierra Leone, 12-19 Nov. 2000. Members include Aruna Gnanadason and Karin Ulmer (World Council of Churches), Battu Jambawai (All Africa Conference of Churches), Pauline Mumia (The Lutheran World Federation), Jane Wolfe, (President, World Young Women's Christian Association, Helene Yinda (World YWCA.)

On February 13, 2001, Sierra Leone parliament voted to postpone elections by six months and extended the government's term of office until September 2001 because of insecurity in the war-torn country. A ceasefire signed by President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) last November generally holds, but the rebels still control large parts of the country's north and diamond-rich east. However the reality of the 10 year-old war is a daily struggle for the estimated 1.2 million internally displaced victims including women and girls, as this ecumenical women's solidarity team visiting Sierra Leone found out.

"I Will Forgive, but the Scars of My Pains Remain Forever"

We found Aminata Mamadou, (not her real name) playing with her baby girl, Fatou, at the Freetown branch of the Sierra Leone chapter of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE). The center runs a skills' training program for war-affected teenagers. Mamadou is one among thousands, perhaps among tens of thousands, of girls who bear an indelible mark from the civil war that began in the West African country in 1991.

January 6, 1999 is etched in Mamadou's memory, the day troops of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) invaded Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown.

Mamadou, at that time on secondary school vacation with her aunt, was washing clothes at a brook when the rebel troops invaded eastern Freetown. There was an utter state of panic. Being unaccustomed to the city, she followed the crowds that were fleeing in all directions, seeking a hideout. But the rebels flushed the terrified civilians out of houses and other buildings, beating them senseless. "They said they would take us away but that excluded old women and mothers with babies. We watched them dump three babies, forcefully snatched from their mothers' backs, into a pit latrine. In front of our very eyes they killed all the old women among us and ordered the rest of us to follow them."

The young girl's nightmare was only beginning. "That very night one of the rebels raped me and declared I was henceforth his wife." For the next year, Mamadou was with a group of rebels that roamed the forests and fields, looting, killing people, destroying property and sleeping in the cold. In Lunsar, some 72 kilometers (45 miles) northeast of Freetown, where her father stayed, she went in search of him but residents had deserted the town when they got wind of the rebels' advance. "By then I was a very anemic, pregnant girl," she recalled.

But one day, she managed to escape from the rebels and from Makeni, the Northern Province headquarters. With the help of a friend in Freetown a doctor attended to her until her baby was born.

"At first, seeing my baby used to make me feel very angry but not any longer. She is now very precious to me. My daily prayer includes God's constant provision for both of us."

Mamadou talks of forgiveness. "I will never reveal to Fatou how she was conceived. If her father were to appear and claim his child, I would give him access, forgive him and talk to him, but not more than that." She is grateful that this man protected her from death on `so many occasions,' "but the fact remains that he raped me over and over again."

The young mother is grateful that the skills' training center provides an opportunity to rebuild a life for girls like her. Launched in 1995, the FAWE Sierra Leone chapter is one of 31 similar offices that form the pan-African Forum for African Women Educationalists. Founded in 1992, FAWE's membership includes African women ministers in charge of national education systems, women vice-chancellors of universities and other senior women policy makers in education in Africa. Through its national chapters, FAWE influences policy and implements interventions to address the challenges facing the education of girls and women in their respective countries.

Like more than 2.5 million Sierra Leoneans who are internally displaced or refugees in neighboring countries [mainly Guinea], Mamadou yearns for lasting peace in her country. For now, she is confident that her tailoring skills acquired at the center will enable her to secure a decent future for her daughter, Fatou, her first priority.

Beatrice Olu Parkinson, a counselor at the FAWE center said most of the girls on the skills' training courses were abducted and raped by rebels during the war. Trauma counseling must be an integral part of the assistance offered to war victims, according to Parkinson. She recalled the center's initial efforts to reach "deeply wounded" girls like Mamadou. "Don't hide. Come, your secrets will be safe ..." was their billboard.

Parkinson says counseling the victims is a slow, continuously painful process. "It can take months, even up to a year, before such a person finally opens up." The FAWE counselor echoes many Sierra Leoneans' longing for an end to the civil war in their country. She is nevertheless emphatic that reconstructing people's lives should be an ongoing concern. "As women, we must do something to raise the dignity of fellow women," she added.

For Mamadou and other girls at the center, the counseling and training open a window of hope. But the young mother will never forget the horrible things that happened to her when she was with the rebels. "I will forgive, but the scars of my pains remain forever," she said.

Asumpta's Baby

In mid-2000, 19 year-old Asumpta (not her real name), assumed a different status--mother. The former secondary school student was a victim of rape in 1999 by rebels in their efforts to wrestle power from the Sierra Leone government. On the day that rebels attacked Makeni District, she was hiding in a house together with other girls. If they had resisted abduction by the rebels, they would have been killed, or have had their limbs amputated. For some time Asumpta lived in the bush with the rebels. The girls once attempted to escape but when the rebels discovered their plan they locked them up in a room for days without food and water. A rebel woman took care of their babies.

During her time in the bush, she was not forced to take drugs such as heroine. However, she was continuously raped by different men who threatened her with death if she would not submit. Rapes, she said, were not done in public, but in the dark and the rebel(s) was armed.

She had to cook for the rebels, and her captor later took her as `his wife'. The rebels were very aggressive, often fighting amongst themselves, Asumpta recalled, and they often used the girls as human shields when attacking areas under the surveillance of the west African peace keeping force, ECOMOG.

Asumpta had heard on radio news about the July 1999 signing of the Lome Peace Accord, a sign to the end of the nearly 10-year-old civil war between the rebels and government forces in the West African country. She finally managed to escape, first to Bo and then to the FAWE's skills training center where she is learning tailoring. She also helps out in the kitchen.

Asumpta does not know the father of her child.

Lutherans Support Vision for Hope

Kadiatu Fofana is among victims of Sierra Leone's civil war who now live at Aberdeen Road Amputee Camp in Freetown. The 42-year-old mother of nine is convinced she can manage a small-scale food business similar to the one she had operated before the rebels attacked Freetown in January 1999. "They chopped both my legs just below the knees ..." Fofana recalled.

A micro-credit scheme of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone (ELCSL) enables groups of women like Fofana to establish income-generating activities. The ELCSL receives support from the Lutheran World Federation as well as from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Sierra Leonean church also conducts trauma counseling sessions. "We help them focus on hope," says ELCSL's Rev. Marie Barnett who counsels girls and women. She coordinates a hot-meal feeding program and fellowship on Sunday evenings.

Credit scheme for amputees

Chopping-off of civilians' limbs was one of the methods used by rebel forces, the majority members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), in their attempts to wrestle for 10 long years, the country's control from the government. The rebels continue to hold much of the Sierra Leone's interior, including the diamond-rich east.

The amputees are young people including children, male and female, whose limbs were chopped off during rebel invasions. In many instances, by the time medical help arrived, amputation was the only alternative. Many among the current Aberdeen residents are double amputees, with more than one limb missing. A majority of them originally come from provinces that are still occupied by rebels.

In November, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Sierra Leone (ELCSL) launched a micro-credit loan scheme for these amputees, a follow up of an Amputee Trust and Reintegration Fund established in December 1999. Speaking at a workshop in Freetown aimed at teaching the scheme's beneficiaries how to effectively manage their own small-scale businesses, ELCSL President Rev. Tom Barnett urged them to invest prudently and encouraged them to be "productive in their disability". Most of the beneficiaries are residents of the Aberdeen Amputees' Camp in the Sierra Leonean capital, run mainly by the ELCSL and the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone, with other organizations providing services such as medical care and food rations.

The ELCSL also offers evening worship, regular counseling and a once-a-week cooked-meal service at the camp.