World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 25)

“People are ready to accept one another based on the shared difficulty of their horrific past.” to their collective garden plot of sweet potatoes, ginger, chilies and rice. A row of lush green Chinese beans climb trellised bamboo poles lined up beside a long slab of slotted concrete that used to function as a latrine for hundreds of internally displaced people. These women farmers are members of Kamuyu Women’s Development Organization. Kamuyu means perseverance in Temne, one of the native languages in Sierra Leone (English is the official language). The organization works with 33 communities, and its members learn trade and vocational skills such as soap making, sewing, dressmaking and typing. This group existed before the civil war, but once the war began, operations were interrupted after several of the girls were kidnapped. Seven were returned, but one girl was killed. “There were over 900 people in the camp here. Most of them dispersed after the war and returned back to their own villages, but a few of them stayed,” says Kadiatu Koroma, a group leader and member of the K amuy u Women’s Development Organization. What used to be a refugee camp is now a vibrant parcel of arable land. On the hillside next to a field of young maize, Mariama Fatorma, 48, rubs her hands together as she talks about her painful past. “I had three children during that time [the civil war], and they all died. My father perished along www.heifer.org School enrollment, particularly for girls, is increasing in Sierra Leone thanks to social service and food programs to assist the poor, according to the Sierra Leone Development Report 2007/2008. with my uncle and aunt,” she says. “All of my children died from a sickness in 1996. They had fever, and there was very little food. No medical care was available around here at that time. My father was killed by gunshots in 1993.” Fatorma’s traumatic personal experiences are not uncommon among the Kamuyu collective. Many of the women express deep gratitude to the leader of the Kamuyu organization, Patricia Sankoi. A former teacher and supervisor of schools, Sankoi now focuses her efforts on development work, especially women’s issues. “I was in different places during the war but I made it here by foot, to Port Loko,” Fatorma says. “And when the war was over, I asked Kamuyu and Madame Patricia to take me in like her child. It is very nice to live here now. November/December 2008 | WORLD ARK 25 http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Finding Peace in Africa Sierra Leone on the Mend The Roma: A People Apart Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.