But these women
have survived and endured; whether they can ultimately prevail
and prosper will be a test for Liberia's new interim government
that took office earlier this week.
Wesley Johnson, the government's vice chairman,
could have been speaking about Mary Joe and others when he said
in a recent interview that concrete steps will be needed to
improve life and correct past wrongs committed during the presidency
of deposed leader Charles Taylor and in the brutal civil war
that led to Taylor's downfall. "People need to see changes
in their lives,"
Johnson said.
Change is certainly welcome: Mary Joe's story
is alarmingly typical of many Liberian women.
Mary Joe, her husband, Maurice Brown, and
four children ages five to nine were doubly displaced —
first from their destroyed home in Bomi, Liberia, and then from
a camp for displaced persons in Jahtondo, another community.
In the resulting chaos, Brown disappeared, and Mary Joe, as
of a few weeks ago anyway, did not know where her husband was
or even if he was still alive.
While fleeing from her home, two guerrilla fighters raped Mary
Joe. That experience, she said, make her hesitant to return to
Bomi. "I have bad memories of that area," she said.
It took the family two months of travel, nearly all of it by
walking, to arrive, as did tens of thousands of others, at the
Samuel K. Doe Sports Complex on the outskirts of Monrovia.
Here, some 30,000 displaced persons have set up shelter in
and under the stands of the open-air stadium.
By day, children play soccer and women prepare meals —
suggesting some level of normalcy. But it would be a grievous
mistake to portray conditions at the stadium as welcoming or
normal: the stadium is far from safe, particularly at night.
Mary Joe is particularly anxious that her children return to
school — "children are the future of Liberia,"
she says — but such dreams always seem deferred in a place
like this, with its crowded byways and fetid smells.
Some assistance to mend the trauma caused by war is available:
Mary Joe is one of more than 1,500 women participating in a
program by The Concerned Christian Community (CCC), one of the
member agencies of the Liberia Council of Churches, and a partner
of the global alliance Action by Churches Together (ACT) International.
The CCC program assists women by providing
psychosocial care and trauma counseling. More than 600 of the
women are, like Mary Joe, survivors of rape.
Tellingly, Mary Joe had previously participated in a CCC program
that helped train women with small, micro-credit projects that
gave them some financial independence to support their families.
Mary Joe made and marketed her own soap. "She was doing
well," said Jianjay H. Moore, a CCC project supervisor.
Moore said it would take international support to continue such
programs given the massive task of rebuilding now required in
Liberia.
One more thing is required, too, as Mary Joe — weary,
tired but determined — said as she accompanied a visitor
to the exit of the sports complex and pressed her hand into
his.
"We need peace." |
