Peace Mothers, a group of rural women brought together by Fambul Tok International, have gone beyond traditional reconciliation approaches in post-war Sierra Leone to mobilising and coordinating farm and business women in the north.
The women groups, drawn from 16 sections in Bombali and all 11 sections in the Koinadugu districts, were being trained in business sustainability measures and approaches, values and principles so they could pull individual resources and help themselves with little supervision.
They were also being educated on such pieces of legislation as property inheritance after the death of a husband and how to calculate the percentage of such property between the widow and the children.
“All of these are important to understanding gender-based violence, domestic violence, ways of settling disputes in communities, neglect of partners and children”, said Turad Senessie, one of the facilitators.
Director of Peace Mothers, Michaela Ashwood said women who came together as peace mothers were largely petty traders and farmers with some teachers and volunteers to contribute and help fellow women and orphans.
“But with less understanding of how they work and pull their resources, they wouldn’t be productive even with such a bright initiative”, she explained, adding that the United States government had set aside some money for peace mothers who already have something going on.
She said large open-door meetings and workshops were being held in the northern towns of Makeni and Kabala in Bombali and Koinadugu districts respectively, so that group representatives would come forward to tell of their activities and how they sustain them at section, chiefdom and district levels.
To that effect John Caulker, who heads Fambul Tok International, said those women had been encouraged to form themselves in peace mothers with support to undertake independent decisions and business initiatives for self-reliance.
“These women are being administered by a national board which is constituted entirely by representatives drawn from all sections in the districts. They take decisions that affect their lives and activities, they run their organisations and agree on reporting mechanism”, he said.
Meanwhile president of Catalyst for Peace and co-founder of Fambul Tok, Libby Hoffman told women groups from all chiefdoms in the Bombali district at the Pastoral Centre in Makeni that she was very thankful to have been "inspired" by the Peace Mothers initiative.
“A peace mother in the United States of America will be very interested in stories from their counterparts in Sierra Leone. Stories of reconciliation and forgiveness and especially the ways in which they are being told”, she said.
(C) Politico 16/01/14
