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12 June 2003 by Rosemarie North in Freetown When Victoria, now 16, first came home from the war, her mother thought she was a ghost. The shy girl with almond eyes had disappeared two years earlier and her mother had given her up for dead. Victoria and her brother had been captured in 1998 by a band of rebels in a raid at Waterloo, near Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. The rebels raped her when they first abducted her. Then she became the “bush wife” of one of them. She tries not to think about him now. For two years the band travelled far from Freetown, into the north of the country, where they fought the army and other military groups. She wasn’t just a passive witness, she says in Krio through an interpreter. “I burnt houses, I carried arms.” Victoria is one of thousands of children abducted and forced to work as sex slaves, domestic labourers or soldiers during Sierra Leone’s nightmarish 10-year civil war. On one day alone in 1999, rebels captured more than 400 school children in Kambia, a town north-east of the capital of Freetown. Child soldiers rampaged through villages on killing sprees fired by cocaine and heroin. Rape, mutilation and amputation were widespread. The war was declared over in January 2002, after a disarmament process that was implemented by a 17,500-strong United Nations force. Then the lost children – girls and boys - started coming home. Victoria took her chance to escape during the disarmament when the rebels sent her to buy cassava and bananas from a nearby village. She hid until it was safe and then made the long journey home on foot and by boat, carrying her baby, who is now nearly three years old. She still doesn’t know what happened to her brother. But it wasn’t a warm welcome at home. After her mother got over her shock at seeing her daughter – and her new grandson – she hid the young pair from neighbours, who would have killed them because of their association with the rebels. Now Victoria and her son live in safety with her mother. During the day she attends a unique 10-month programme designed to help young people who were brutalized by the war. Some were forcibly conscripted. Others witnessed atrocities. This year, 450 young victims of the war, aged 10 to 18, are taking part in three Child Advocacy and Rehabilitation centres, funded by the British, Swedish and Canadian Red Cross and run by the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society. So far 300 youngsters have completed the programme. Participants receive counselling to help them come to terms with their experiences, they catch up on basic schooling and personal health, and the older children learn job skills like traditional gara tie dyeing, soap making, construction or tailoring. At the end of the year, most of the younger children are enrolled in schools. Case manager Jestina Boyle says “we tell them: don’t be afraid about what has happened. We teach them to think about the future.” Edward Saffa, project supervisor at the Waterloo Child Advocacy and Rehabilitation (CAR) project near Freetown, which was the first such centre, says all the children – even the former fighters – are victims. “All of them were abducted by the rebels. Some were taken at the very young age of five to ten years,” he says. “They were the most vulnerable members of their communities. All have gone through trauma. They have been through all of the hazards you can think of.” Staff members say the disturbed children can be withdrawn or aggressive at first. But it gets easier when they hear others talking about similar experiences. At the same time as working with the children, the Red Cross talks to parents, neighbours and communities to make sure the children are accepted and cared for at home. Waterloo advocacy officer Mariama Fullah says: “it hurts the community to accept them back. Sometimes the community doesn’t accept them because of what they have gone through.” Steven E B Koroma, field officer in the Kambia district, which takes in students from remote villages, says communities are often suspicious of the children. “These children were viewed with an ugly eye. Many parents feel the children joined up willingly. But even if they did, they did so by ignorance. The way the children see things is quite different from the way we do. We talk to the community about peace building, reconciliation, all those things.” Precious Rhoda Dove, a manager at Kambia Car centre, likes to use a Sierra Leonean saying: “there’s no bad bush to throw away bad children into” - even if children have done terrible things, you can’t throw them away, she says. One way or another, the community is stuck with the child. Different villages find different ways of accepting children back – sometimes with cleansing ceremonies or special prayers. Although it’s tough work, there are kids Precious will never forget. “There was a child in a village. She was a suckling mother by 10. That’s how I met her. Any time I see her I don’t regret bringing these children here. “There was one boy who was an ex-combatant, he was fighting in the war. Looking at their eyes you see the drugs. These are the people you need to help. He’s always in the centre.” Precious is positive about the future. She believes people are tired of fighting. Now in its third year, the project has been so successful at reintegrating children who lost their childhood that the programme is oversubscribed. CAR staff monitor students for at least six months. Many continue to drop in once their course is over. With the help of donors around the world, the Sierra Leone Red Cross hopes to expand the programme to reach more of society’s most vulnerable and equip them with the skills needed for rebuilding their economy and society. At Waterloo, Victoria says she loves gara tie dyeing: “I never learned anything (during the war). Now I know how to work with the gara, I’m not sitting idle. When I’m sitting idle doing nothing I don’t achieve anything.” Her eyes light up when I ask about the future. Her ambition is to go into business with a roadside stall selling goods. “I got the power,” she says. Related links: Sierra Leone: appeals, updates and reports Profile of Sierra Leone Red Cross Make a donation |
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