Sierra Leone Women Protect Themselves Against HIV
MASIAKA, Sierra Leone — For Mariama Bangura, the peace that followed a decade of bloody civil war in Sierra Leone was almost as devastating as the conflict itself.
Mariama, now 25, was spirited away from her home in Masiaka seven years ago after rebels attacked the town.
“I was captured by the [rebel] soldiers and taken away for five months,” said Mariama, whose mother was killed during the brutal fighting. The rebels made her to do all the cooking and fetching of water. She was repeatedly raped by her captors.
Sierra Leone's civil war killed an estimated 60,000 people and maimed thousands more. Many of the young women who survived the civil war in Sierra Leone suffered sexual abuse during the war or were kept as ‘bush wives’ and dragged across the country as the war fronts shifted.
Deprivation continued even after the end of the war and for many women survival sex work became the only source of income. “After the war, I never had enough food,” Mariama explains. She was so desperate that she would often barter her body in exchange for a box of biscuits. Throughout Sierra Leone thousands of girls and women who experienced sexual violence, trauma or dislocation need help in putting their shattered lives back together.
Today, the future is looking brighter for Mariama. She is among the first participants in a pilot project sponsored by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. The project, Concern for Women Affected by War in Sierra Leone (CODWASL), is helping young women, like Mariama, reintegrate into society and learn valuable life skills, including the knowledge and personal empowerment that can help them protect themselves against HIV.
“HIV/AIDS could have a potentially devastating impact, not with the numbers but because of other factors on the ground. You have a country where almost half of the population were uprooted and forcibly displaced in the last 10 years, which can foster high-risk behavior,” Dr. Diallo said. “These destitute women are now being given the opportunity to earn a living and also get quality women's health care and HIV prevention education.”
Many of the girls in the project are attending school for the first time, an opportunity unavailable during the war and out of reach for many who could not afford the fees. “I want to be self-sufficient,” said Mariama, who is learning tailoring. “I’m very happy I can earn money and learn a skill. I’m trying to forget about the war.”
To date, 36 girls and young women have completed skills training and a literacy course that includes information on reproductive health. CODWASL also operates a farm in nearby Makambie, where more than 100 women cultivate cassava on 10 acres of land.
“When they have a good harvest, they don’t waste it – they will sell and use the money to pay their children’s school fees, buy books and medicine and provide for the daily activities of the home,” said Conteh. “If women are empowered, I believe things will change here in Sierra Leone .”