Fatumata is from Virginia, Liberia, a community about 45 minutes outside the Liberian capital of Monrovia. During her first trip to the United States, Fatumata had the opportunity to explore one of the biggest cities in the world and described New York City on her first day as ‘very exciting and different!’

Fatumata on the Staten Island Ferry

WCI is leading a countrywide program for the political and economic empowerment of rural women in every county throughout Liberia. To promote a sustained living for the participants, WCI supports a country cloth initiative in which they lead workshops that train Liberian women on product development and business strategies. As part of this country cloth program, WCI sponsored Fatumata to attend this week long training course run by Aid to Artisans. The five day training course included sessions that focused on producing crafts, marketing, and exporting goods in order to develop successful business and to export skills for traditional artisans on the global market.  Topics included ‘green’ market strategies, creating a strategy for product development, costing and pricing for profit, and techniques to enter new markets.

In addition to the trainings, Fatumata had the opportunity to meet and talk with buyers to understand what kind of products the US market is looking for and how Liberian women can adapt their crafts to generate interest from outside markets.  At the end of the week, Fatumata declared with a great smile, ‘I learned about the need for finished goods and high quality products!’ More than a simple training, the experience gave her new ideas and relationships for future potential sales and product development.

When she returns home, Fatumata will travel to five different country cloth collectives throughout Liberia to train weavers and business women on market strategies and how to be more productive and increase profits. WCI is looking forward to updates on how Fatumata has shared her economic empowerment with other Liberian women.

Country cloth is a hand made cloth weaved by setting up looms or wrapping thread around trees to create long strips of striped fabric.  The production of this cloth is time consuming and requires skilled artisans.  In a post conflict context, too few nationals have the capacity to pay the price needed to make this material profitable. For this reason, WCI is working to improve the efficiency of country cloth production in order to bring the price to a level that Liberians can afford. Additionally, this process improves the quality of the material and increases the variety of country cloth products, making them more marketable for international buyers.

To do this, WCI is working in Mama Tomeh Village—named after the leader whose vision for a country cloth collective, WCI is making a reality.  During and after the war Mama Tomeh was an advocate for peace and stability and is now the president of Liberian Traditional Women for Peace.  To build up her community after the war, Mama Tomeh relied on the skills she learned making cloth while growing up in Lofa county.  She saw that in sharing her skills she could ensure that this cloth making tradition is carried on while also providing income to fellow women in the community.

With strong leadership, a vision for growth and a commitment to work together, Mama Tomeh village was the perfect starting point for WCI’s Country Cloth project.   Here, WCI conducted interactive workshops on product development, marketing, business strategy and financial management.  Then, based on a community proposal and plan for the growth of their country cloth program, WCI provided the community with a small grant to purchase thread in bulk and a design machine to create finished products with the cloth.

The immediate results have been a success. With raw materials in bulk and a streamlined process to execute intricate designs, the village has been able to collectively produce large quantities of country cloth in a shorter time period.  So far, they have been able to produce large orders (The office of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf recently ordered  500 lapas in Liberian colors) and the group even has enough surplus cloth to create finished products such as shirts and dresses to put on display.

With new opportunities the once modest country cloth collective with two looms and no capacity to make finished products is now transformed.  Two months since WCI’s initial donation and business training, the group employs 16 weavers in Monserato County and at least another 20 in Lofa County.  It has seven looms and has partnered with four skilled tailors to create finished products on site.   For Mama Tomeh, this is the beginning of a larger goal for women’s income generation and for the art form as a whole.  “We will have a ‘country cloth factory’ someday, a place where the women can work and sell their cloth.  I know it.”  We at WCI are already convinced and will work with Mama Tomeh village and other collectives like it to make their vision for country cloth a reality.

GALS students listen intently to their Skype call with Liberian women

Students in WCI’s GALS program recently had the pleasure of Skyping with a few female counterparts in Liberia.

Lucy was one of the women in that call. After the call, she was so inspired from hearing other people’s stories that she wanted to share her own. Lucy is one of many women in Liberia who took her own initiative, seizing opportunities in her own community, to make a better life for herself. She currently works at IREX, an international non-profit organization also active in promoting leadership in Liberia. Below are excerpts from her own story in her own words:

Well, about knowing me, I am Lucy, a single mother with two children; a boy and a girl. I am 36-37 years old and have not gone to school. Before I came to IREX I was very desperate for a change in my life and worried about my children’s future. But as an uneducated woman what could I do? So I vowed that I would do anything to make money, but not prostitution nor anything that will take away life. So I began going from house to house to wash dirty clothes for people, when I came across a pastor and his wife who hired me to wash once every weekend. At the same time during the week, I began selling used cloths going from bank to bank, that is I would buy retail from those buying wholesale since I could not afford to buy wholesale. This was not easy for me…

Then in IREX I met Tilly, she is just one of the few in a million people who really make a difference. Tilly is a mother, understanding, caring, loving, sensitive and above all she does common things in an uncommon way. I was hired as a cleaner, but before I knew it she changed me to a Office Assistant, then one day she ask me if I would like to know how to use the computer and I said yes. Before I knew it she sent me to one of the well known computer schools in Liberia (Cheale Vocational Training Institute) where I learned about Windows, MS word and the Internet… since then things have never been the same. Now I am useful to myself and the office. I am presently going to a night school in 4th grade were I am learning so much. I love social studies.

Note: education is sweet, it is powerful, give it to your children, get the best of it because it can never be taken away from you!

I love talking to people like me, because I believe there’s always another way to succeed.

With love,

Lucy

On Saturday, April 30, as part of their global awareness education, the students in WCI’s GALS program had the great privilege of Skyping with young Liberian women from our Liberia office!

We’ve asked one participant from Liberia, Office Assistant, Jojo, and three GALS girls from our Philadelphia office, high school students Helena, Simone and Tion, to share what they learned from the Skype call. Following is the written and video responses from participants:

1) Were you nervous about the Skype call? How did that change through the course of the call?

Helena and Simone: I think that our group was scared to ask the girls questions. But, people started to get more comfortable once [our Liberian counterparts] started to ask us questions.

Jojo: Before the call I was feeling nervous.  It was my first time using Skype.  It makes it easier because you can see the people and it is easier to interact.

2) What was your favorite part of the experience?

Helena and Simone: Our favorite part was when we found out that we had something in common with them. They listen to the same music we listen to.

Jojo: I loved talking with the girls.  It was my first time interacting with young girls from the United States. When we were walking home Christine said that she loves Skype.  It is easy and doesn’t cost much money.  She wants to use Skype all the time now.

Students in GALS Skyping with WCI Liberia Staff

3)  What did you learn through the experience?

Helena and Simone: We were surprised that they did not know who Michael Jackson was but that they know the rapper Nicki Minaj.

Jojo:I learned that they care about abuse and women. I learned that we like the same movies and music.

4) Do you think this is a valuable activity for young girls?

Helena and Simone: We do think this is a valuable activity because it gives young girls a chance to be aware of what’s going on in different parts of the world.

5) Is there anything you wanted to tell the Liberian girls during the call that you didn’t get a chance to?

Helena and Simone: We would like to tell them thank you for sharing information with us. Thank you for enlightening us.

6) Additional comments?

Jojo: I would like to be friends with the girl on Facebook so we can communicate.

The TRC was created to promote national peace, security, unity and reconciliation by investigating gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law during Liberia’s armed conflicts from January 1979 to October 14, 2003.  Part of the TRC’s mandate included providing a forum in Liberia and in the Diaspora for both victims and perpetrators of human rights violations to share their experiences as to facilitate genuine healing and reconciliation.

The Forum will feature discussions by Cllr. J. Augustine Toe, the Executive Director of the Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) of the Catholic Diocese in Liberia, Sarah Paoletti, Clinical Supervisor and Lecturer and Director of the Transnational Legal Clinic, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Sam Togba Slewion, former Secretary General of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), and Coordinator of the Technical Committee of the Liberia Media Support Initiative (LIMESI).

The forum is being sponsored by the International Human Rights Advocates student-group at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in the Levy Conference Center at 3443 Sansom Street from 5 pm- 6:30 pm. The event is free and open to the general public.

WCI has been working in Liberia on increasing women’s political and grassroots participation in sustainable peace building initiatives since 2008 and has worked with the TRC.  Our program encouraged war affected women to come forward and testify as part of the TRC hearings.  Read more about WCI’s work in Liberia and with the TRC here.

Read Kristof’s op-ed about rape in Liberia and post-conflict countries here.

Read the full story here.

WCI was honored to be able to attend and participate in the International Women’s Colloquium in Monrovia from March 7-9, 2009.  The delegation enjoyed the amazing and uplifting speeches by heads of states and representatives calling for increased international attention of women’s issues especially in regards to the safety, security, and equal opportunities of women and girls.

WCI is happy to have witnessed history with the signing of the Monrovia Declaration and proud to have been able to put into action some of the thematic priorities of the Colloquium.

The Monrovia Declaration outlines a commitment to “honor women’s leadership at all levels of community and public life, and through our action and decisions to enable women leaders, in particular young women, to take up roles of leadership and responsibility.”   While in Liberia, WCI put the Monrovia Declaration and its mission to increase the political participation of women into action through the following:

•    WCI held a successful and “standing room only” training on campaign and media messaging strategies.  More than one- hundred women and men attended the training that was held as part of the Women’s Colloquium and specifically on the launch of Liberia’s National Action Plan on women, peace and security through the implementation UN Security Resolution 1325.  As one participant wrote in an email to WCI, “It was like magic,” condensing the most critical campaign skills into a few hours of training.

•    WCI also conducted a training specifically for market women outside of Monrovia in Kakata.  The market women of Liberia are considered by many to be the backbone of the economy throughout the conflict and also an impressively organized constituency, largely responsible for ensuring President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s victory.  WCI trained these women how to conduct of a self- assessment of their strengths and weaknesses as political candidates and how to frame campaign messages.  WCI’s trainers helped to critique participants on their political messages.  More than one-fifth of the participants want to contest leadership positions in the marketers association elections.

•    WCI attended the groundbreaking of the Angie Brooks International Center.  This center will become the premier research facility for women leaders from around the world to engage in training and research to promote and develop women’s leadership.  WCI is proud to fund a young women leader’s mentorship program as part of the Center’s outreach.

•    Through WCI’s local partners in Liberia, WCI has supported some of the other goals of the Monrovia Declaration including supporting the implementation of UN SCR 1325 and sustaining women’s roles in peace processes, empowering women with decent work opportunities and promoting their roles in the formal and informal economies and enhancing the leadership capacities of young people.  WCI will continue to uphold the commitments outlined in the Monrovia Declaration in its new programs in Liberia and around the world.

Read more: http://jezebel.com/5169013/photographer-publishes-plight-of-women-worldwide

Betty Gbean-Harris

President of the Liberian Koyean Women’s Group and WCI training participant

Biography:

Betty Gbean-Harris is the current President of the Koyean Women’s Group in Beatuo Toen, Tappita District, Nimba County, Liberia.  She is a former elementary school teacher at the Ganta United Methodist School.  Ms. Gbean-Harris participated in a WCI-sponsored training to promote the capacity of rural Liberian women in community peace negotiations and mediation.  She organized discussions in several communities about the role women can play in sustaining peace and encouraging inter-tribal reconciliation.

Betty’s Thoughts on Women Worldwide…

My wish for women is ……….. for capable women to be empowered, meaning they have leadership skills comparable with that of their male counterparts.  But, what is most required now, is to help raise their financial status to the point of becoming totally independent in decision making process.

My advice for young women leaders is ……….. to remain focused and above all emulate the good examples of older women whose services have been exemplary.

The reason I am here today is ……… to add my voice to the many voices in the field of advocacy for the advancement of women. I believe women can do even better than their male counterparts if given the same opportunity.

I am most proud of ……….. seeing women becoming leaders of their nations like Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf the first female President of an African nation. Her election gave encouragement to women to build confidence in themselves that no role is ever impossible for women to perform.

The greatest obstacles that I faced were ……….. that majority of the women are not literate, lack financial power, feel inferior to males in most work places and are in most cases  entrenched to cultural and traditional habits.