Liberia 4

Friday 11th May

I already told you that Liberia has a high number of rape victims. For this my NGO has set up a special sexual violence program. One of the key person in this program is Angie, the psychologist. She's training 3 social workers who counsel the rape victims. Two for the adults and one for the children. Raping children is quite common here as well.

The 2003 civil war but also before (they refer it has world war I&II – between 1989 and 1997) has made rape a "natural" thing. Many women, children were raped by the rebels and the army. Today, the perpetrators have still not been punished and rape is still very much part of their daily life. We also went to see the Female Lawyers association ,which is helping to change the rape and gender based violence law. Slowly the country is changing but it will take years before the rape stops altogether.

Interviewing rape victims, especially children is extremely hard. I begin to get the impression that I am this white girl coming to Liberia to hear all the miseries of the world and then is going to go back home to my comfortable daily life and routine. And worst part is: it's true. Next Wednesday I'll be back home. These people still have to live in terrible conditions. I'll just worry about what to wear on my next date. I have these extremely mixed feelings: I feel guilty and at the same time I can't take all the misery of the world on me. Already I am helping a little bit by raising awareness of what is happening here. A beautiful country with very capable people that have sadly been living in a country destroyed by 20 years of civil war. They have to start everything back from scratch.

Despite all that, there is hope. This morning we went to the delivery room of the hospital we work at. A lot of women were in labour but as I have learnt over the last few days, it can sometimes take hours before they actually have their baby. But this morning we were lucky: 4 babies were born. And all boys! One woman even had twins. All perfectly healthy babies. So good to see this especially after the last few days.

I was a bit apprehensive with the labour. Probably I'll go through it one day and somehow I thought that seeing a delivery would put me of the idea. But it was great. Ok, it's very impressive and the first one is not scary, not gross but at the same time scary and gross (if you get what I mean). But by the second one (very quick one) and then the twins it was totally natural. The women don't really make a big deal out of it. They don't scream their lungs off (and we don't give pain killers), they just moan a little and some sing. In general it's a silent business. Very reassuring for the day I'll go through this myself :-)