©InfoMariana* speaks quietly and it is clear from the look in her eyes that she has lived through more trauma in her eighteen years than most will experience in a lifetime.
The child advocacy and rehabilitation centre (CAR) takes 150 children each year and the new intakes are in their first week. Mariana says: “I’m enjoying everything here. I used to spend all my time on the farm, making rice. Now I want to learn how to do the gara tie-dye and soap making. My friend came here before and and she now makes a living from it.”
A lot of the girls like doing the gara tie-dye and soap making because it’s an easy way to make quick money and it’s enough to live on. Every day, there’s no escaping the red dusty earth of Liberia and people are always washing clothes. The soap made by the graduates of the CAR centre is the most popular around town. They pile the soap into a big bowl, put it on their heads to carry to market and in one day can sell the whole lot, making $15.
The trauma of war
“During the war I was raped by two fighters. My father left the home and I watched as the fighters killed my mother,” Mariana says. “I managed to escape with my aunt and hide in the bush and I live with her now. I have an older brother and sister, but they live far away.”
The CAR centre caters for children affected by the war in different ways – some saw their family killed before their eyes, or witnessed people they knew being tortured. Some became soldiers because they were given drugs and were forced to fight – some of these were as young as nine years old.
Madia Reeves, project co-ordinator, says: “Often, girls were gang raped and they still have infections. It’s only when they finally tell us that we are able to help them get treatment. Some of them have been living with the pain of infection for a long time. We also train the nurses so that they know how to deal with the kids and don’t go around repeating their stories in the community.”
Education brings hope
Madia continues: “What we are doing is meeting the needs of the whole person. Those that have babies can bring them to day care, so the girls can pay attention to their studies. We give them academic knowledge as well as skills to go back to their communities, so they can contribute to the welfare of the community, the family and themselves.
“At the same time, we give them starter kits after graduation, we don’t just leave them with the skills in the head but give them something to work with, so when they go they have the opportunity to start straight away. We also identify places for them to do apprenticeships.”
Mariana smiles as she cradles her two-week-old daughter, Angel. She says: “I like playing kick ball, but I also enjoy learning. In fact I prefer it to kick ball, even though I really like that game. I’d like to be able to afford my own place to live and it will be good when I graduate and can get a business.”
*Name has been changed because of the stigma of rape.
More about post-conflict care in Liberia
Find out abotu post-conflict care in Sierra Leone