BLING (Better Life in Ghana) and VWF (Vulnerable Womens Fund)

We came up with a name for out bead project: BLING (Better Life in Ghana) and the project is now fully up and running. We actually succeeded in getting in run through SHIFSD (one of the organizations I work for) and we have gotten a lot of people to help out with it all. Because the days have to few hours I have not been able to help Jessie out as much as I like with the project but I am trying to support her as best as I can. But like I said, we have gotten a lot of positive response and a lot of help from other volunteers.

As an addition to the children’s fund (BLING) we are trying to get a project for a fund for vulnerable women up and running. Although many asylum seekers face hardships in the prolonged refugee setting, gender inequalities often exacerbate the challenges of daily life. Women therefore constitute an inherently vulnerable class within the Buduburam refugee camp. Unusual family situations often make women the sole bread winner, a paternalistic culture often values male children above female children (male children frequently have better access to food, medicine and education) and in a community that is collectively suffering from post-trauma., rates of domestic and sexual gender based violence (SGBV) are common. There is very little support for those who suffered SGBV during the war and on camp (support is urgently needed in the form of counselling, protection, guidance and financial assistance). Teenage pregnancy is also very common because of a lack of access to family planning, a culture that encourages male ‘experimentalism’ is also responsible for this (the common perception that woman have a much higher sex drive than men does not help). Women are often unskilled with poor, broken education after years of war and transit and many are thus unable to save funds to complete school or other technical training. Refugees cannot get employment in Ghana because of language barriers and racism. Therefore the camp supports itself from its own internal economy. With few jobs available, men mostly fill the labour market and women must resort to prostitution to supplement unliveable incomes. And when women have no choice but to depend on a man for assistance, they are sometimes forced into sexual slavery in return for support.

The vulnerable woman’s fund (VWF) looks to provide an opportunity for study or skills training for women. The project will involve seamstress training and then the creation of fashionable western bags, skirts, wraps, make up bags, purses etc in African prints. These will be sold in key tourist destinations both in Ghana and overseas with returning volunteers. The profits will go into an education fund that the woman can access to enrol in academic or other technical training. The idea is to empower these women with a number of skills allowing them to support themselves into their unknown future.

Some stories of participants in VWF- project:
The follow are extracts from verbal interviews and the women have agreed to have them published.

My name is Safiatu, I’m 28 years old. Life was normal before the war, I was going to school. There was no problem, no problem, until these people came.

I was in grade 8, I was 16 at the time, it was 1999. So one day they came. They came into our house. They ask my father for dollars, my father said he doesn’t have money, then they took my mother outside, they rape her. I was watching them through the window from my hiding place. About 4 of them did it. When the last one was finishing, another came with this stick. It was thick and sharp. They put the stick through her vagina, up, up until it came through her throat. That’s when I shouted and ran from my hiding. They saw me, and hit me over the head with a gun. I was lying dazed and semi-conscious, I heard them take my father behind me, and I heard gunshots. And then they left.

Sometime later I woke up, everyone was gone, my house was burnt.

Since that time I have had large pain in my head, and it can effect me seriously. When the the pain comes sometimes I will fall unconscious for 2 or 3 days before I wake up, this happens still. These days, I get nosebleeds all the time. If I bend over for too long, say to do washing, my nose starts bleeding. I can’t even carry things on my head nor can I stay in the sun too long. All us Sierra Leone woman we were rejected refugee status. When we arrived they told us the war was over and to go home. But where am I to go? I have no family. My house was burned to the ground. I just want to know what will happen to me tomorrow. That is my only hope.

Safiatu was also made a sex slave in return for protection from a man during her flight from Sierra Leone. When she arrived on camp she had to frequently visit the camp clinic because of chronic nosebleeds and head pain. She befriended a doctor who sponsored her to the medical school on camp. She studied nursing for a year but when the doctor died suddenly she had to stop her schooling. Now Safiatu sells water bags on the street to support herself. This meager income does not allow her to save for schooling or skills training.

My Name is Mietta, I am 26 years old. Before the war, actually we are living peacefully. I was born in the southern province, but our parents had brought us to Freetown. I was around 16 when the rebels came.

When they were coming we heard a lot of commotion outside. Me and my sister and twin went under the bed with my brother’s wife and hid. We heard them question our brother. They asked where his family was. My brother told them that he was here alone, but the rebels had spied on us the night before and seen us all there. They yelled at us to come out or they would kill us all. So we came. The first thing they did I they rape my brother’s wife. Then they raped me. They used the bayonet on my twin brother, when they were raping me. He was trying to resist. One, two raped me. When the third was coming for his turn, I grabbed the small stool next to me and tried to strike him with it. The other saw
what I was about to do and stamped my head against the wall. I can’t remember what happened after that. Until this day I still get times when the whole right side of my face is swelling. I was not given refugee status like my Sierra Leone sisters. They did not tell us why.

I don’t even like thinking about the future because it makes me feel sick. I have nothing. I am nothing. I just see zero everywhere. It would drive me crazy I don’t want to talk about it. Here, my sisters and me are sitting on a sand bank, and we don’t know when it will disappear.

These women must live every day with the memory of this trauma. Our aim with this project is to rewrite these stories as stories of bravery and hope. By selling their products accompanied by their stories, we want these women to believe that it is their phenomenal strength and stoicism that is reaching people, not their desperation. We want them to believe that desperation was a feature of the past, and that skills and opportunity lie waiting in the future.

Initial funds will of course need to be raised to start the woman with their training so: to those of you who intend to get me something for Christmas (mum, dad and the rest of my family foremost), I would rather have you giving me money as I intend to buy sewing machines for the VWF project (one sowing machine have been priced at $50). I will shortly send you all our project proposals both for BLING and VWF so that you can read through the whole thing for your self and give us some sorely needed feedback to our ideas and aims so that we can see our projects come through and help these women and children start a better life.

From Buduburam with love,
Yours Trine

King John: Closing in 🙂 IIIIIIINNNNNDDDDDIIIIIIIAAAAAAAA 😀

Marit: Som sagt søkt masse jobb i Oslo nå, på klokkegården også!!! KINGEN! Savner deg som alltid! Klem klem

Egil: No worries my dear, kommer du så kommer du. Som du sa så har vi all verdens tid til å gjøre ting sammen 🙂 Reiser til India 12 desember, du er mer enn velkommen dit! Og ring meg når som helst, kos å snakke litt norsk igjen vet jeg 🙂 Suss og klem

Christoph: Glad you are still with me! What are you up to these days? Miss you heaps and heaps! Hugs n kisses

Andreas: Inte så modig inte, bara en människa. Precis lika bra som du 🙂 Puss på dig!