After returning from Sierra Leone, a number of us submitted articles to be published on The WIP, an online international news source. Two articles will be posted weekly spreading over six weeks to The WIP, so please keep checking this blog entry as it will be updated weekly!

19 August

Meredith Benton: Separate and Unequal: Sierra Leone’s Conflict with Tradition

17 August

Mary Magellan: Media and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone

12 August

Ben Mitchell: Legacy of Exploitation in Sierra Leone

10 August

Heidi Zirtzlaff: An Opportunity for Real Change: Building Peace in Sierra Leone

5 August

Christine Williams: Quiet Inequalities: Voices from the Women of Sierra Leone

3 August

Deanna Tamborelli: Transitional Justice: The Need for a Multifaceted Approach

29 July

Amanda Pope:  Surviving on Hope in Sierra Leone’s Isolated Camps

27 July

Rishna Gracie:  Sierra Leone’s Memory of a Violent Past

23 July

Shauna Kelly: From War to Peacebuilding

20 July

Sughey Ramirez:  Motorbike Riders in Sierra Leone: Menace to Society or Social Indicator?

15 July:

Mawuor Dior:  Witnessing First-hand: The Crux of Sierra Leone’s Conflict

13 July

Veronica Beebe:  Sierra Leone: Will This Place Know War Again?

Dr. Pushpa Iyer:  Looking Forward: But What Does Sierra Leone’s Future Hold?

I am spending my summer working for the IANSA’s UN Liaison office in New York and am in day two of a two week meeting on the ATT so I will report about Sierra Leone’s participation.  Sierra Leone was the only State to mention gender!!

http://www.iansa.org/

http://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/ArmsTradeTreaty/html/ATTMeetings2009-11.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071300190.html

Sierra Leone delegate statement points

• The issue of gender is important in considering the ATT since armed conflict is never gender neutral
• Condolences of victims of Uganda from yesterday’s bombing   Parliamentarians for Global Action has been advocating for the ATT
• Sierra Leone suffered because of a lack of this treaty and it is overdue
• Sierra Leone enacted initiatives around SALW but  8 yrs later Sierra Leone is still  struggling to recover from the conflict
• We are grateful for the $100,000 contribution to amputees from the Secretary General
• Sierra Leone, more than ever, is ready to cooperate to move forward with the ATT since they had a largest peacekeeping operation due to the 11 yr war

Coming back to the states was almost as big of an adjustment as going to Sierra Leone.  In many ways, I was prepared for going to Africa.  I didn’t think I would need to prepare for coming home.

As I drove home from the airport I began to think about all of the things I had started to learn to live without.  It was only two weeks, but I had already started to adapt to aspects of the lifestyle, or at least I had stopped expecting certain things.  Paved roads, electricity, internet, air conditioning, phones, working bathrooms, and the list goes on.  These were some of the ‘difficulties’ we were faced with everyday.  Being back in the U.S., I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on what we saw.  In the weeks after we returned, I thought a lot about what I could live without.

I could give up my blackberry, I already leave it at home without a second thought.  Probably, if I weaned myself off of it, I deal with not having the internet.  Living without electricity and bathrooms would be hard, but not impossible.  But could I live without steady access to clean water? Doctors? Food?  There are a lot of problems that the society of Sierra Leone faces, but health, food, and water are the things that have been sticking with me.

We were asked if we returned to Sierra Leone in five years what we would like to see changed.  I think at the time I said less corruption, but my answer has changed.  I hope that every Sierra Leonean has increased food security.  I hope that there is prevalent access to clean water.  I sincerely hope that within five years the quality of life in Sierra Leone is better.  In the future, I hope that the dialogue shifts from what can the outside world do for us to what we can do for ourselves.

My research during the “Challenges to Peacebuilding” course in Sierra Leone pertained to women’s needs post-conflict.  Below are a few questions I asked some of the various interviewees in Sierra Leone, followed by responses I heard.

What are some of the causal factors of gender based violence here in Sierra Leone?

There is a societal acceptance that men beat wives because they love them.

The husband/wife relationship is culturally defined.  The women have low self esteem because the culture has forced women to fell powerless.

The wife is heavily reliant on the husband leading her to be treated like property.

Women are starting to grasp gender equality but accepting and implementing it is different.

A low rate of literacy and a lack of schooling among women, contributes to the gender based violence.

Women do not know their rights, or do not have confidence that they can successfully exercise those rights.

“The practice of female genital mutilation is embedded into society.”

What are some of the ways you work towards community development and the promotion of women’s rights and security?

policy assessment and lobbying

community theater-training 40 youth a year on drama and communication skills, street drama, puppetry and radio drama

mapping themes, problems and solutions- pictorial/visual conceptualizations

local advocacy to work with men about women’s issues as they are “secondary stakeholders”

provide a community support, mediation, counseling and resource center for women and their families

Sadly, one community-based organizations reported an increase of rape in their community.  Like much of the world, the majority of rape in Sierra Leone is within the family and extended family.  Much like some other cultures, police stay away from the issue of rape, deeming it a “family affair.”  It makes sense that after a war in which rape was used as a weapon, rape remained prevalent following the end of the war before much progress had been made for ex-combatants to reintegrate into society.  I was told that ex-combatants carried on raping women because they were accustomed to lawlessness, violence and destruction.

Huge strides in gender equality are needed to make progress in the on-going peacebuilding process.

In preparation for the trip I read about the women who had been abducted, and forced to serve the rebels who were devastating the country.   How horrifying to be subjected to violent men who were constantly on “brown brown,” a mixture of cocaine and gun powder, adding to their disconnect to the reality of the hell they were imposing on the country.  Some of the young girls were made into commander’s wives and had to mother the rebel’s children.   These women lived through the horrors of struggling daily for survival in a war zone, under the constant threat of the perpetrators who raped them for years.

I admit that in writing the above description I had to constantly withdraw my grim choice of words.  I had to retract my harsh dramatization of what it was like for the woman captured by the rebels and replace it with softer words.  But I do not think it is a topic that should be made more manageable for the reader.  Nicolas Christoph and Sheryl WuDunn’s book, “Half the Sky,” does not spare the reader any details in the stories of women around the world who suffered through unimaginable abuses.  The stories are not told for shock value; they are the reality of the women’s lives, and the truth should be known.