Rebuilding lives through literacy

Rebuilding through lteracv A literacy project in Sierra Leone is empowering communities and helping rebuild a war - torn, impoverished land, reports HELEN FALLON I eariier this year. This small West African country had been my home for two years, from 1989 to 1991, when I worked with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) as a lecturer in librarianship. On returning to Ireland, I became involved in an Irish-registered charity, the Sierra Leone Ireland Partnership (SLIP), which seeks to create links between Ireland and Sierra Leone and to highlight issues relating to Sierra Leone in the media and elsewhere. h the public relations officer of SLIP, and because of my personal interest in recording people's experiences, I decided to return to Sierra Leone in a personal capacity in March of this year. My plan was to meet people and to record their experiences during and after the ten-year civil war (1991-2001). Through personal acquaintances and SLIP I had an extensive list of contacts, including a man called Edison Bockarie, a teacher and administrator with an adult literacy programme in the eastern part of the country, the part most badly devastated by the war. Over two weeks I talked to women in a camp for displaced people, a Catholic bishop, a former Kamojar (local army) fighter, Holy Rosary sisters involved in a wide range of reconstruction work, and countless others whose lives had been torn apart by a long and bloody civil war. While there was great sadness and loss in the stories people told me, I was verv struck bv their abilitv to move on - and. in maky cases,' to forgive ;he people who had Ka''ahun town perpetrated the violence - and by their desire to rebuild their lives project. His enthusiasm and sincere belief in the project shone both as members of families and as communities. through in my discussion with him and I hope transcripts of the In what follows, I talk about the Generating Empowerment interview reflect those qualities. through Learning (GEL) project in Uilahun, in eastern Sierra In July 1991 I left Sierra Leone. My last weeks were marked by a Leone. I have left much of the information about the project in the six o'clock curfew in the capital Freetown. Armed Khaki-clad soldiers voice of Edison Bockarie, a teacher and administrator with the patrolled dark silent streets where, previously, street - sellers, their OCTOBER 2006 ADULTS LEARNING 21 ds lit by cdndles and lamps, @Ad an arny of sweet-smeu'i food orha parts of Africa. EStablished by an Irishman, Bishop Jowph and household provisions, aad Wted the night air with noise and Shgnahan, in the &v pan d the hvenrieth centuw, with an inirial - laughter. focus on education, ~~~'MSHR has expanded its w&k to health and llw six o'dodt curfew was the mult of an wrisii in the eastern pastoral cam and cumntl~wo~ks with AIDS victims, rrfupeeo and the part of Siem Leone. This appeared to be a s&lo& 6um the W=, instipated bv ~~ %br. in minhbourine Liberia. Althmuh &hC is jnat the & size U gland, thIb; eastern p~ceCEis a long jwmsp along pot - holed roads, fmm Ftoetm. I left Siena Leone sharing my shldeats' conhdem rhat the fighting would doon atop. I was msmg. The rebel army, calI~ng itself the RGvolutionary United Fmnt (IPUF), made its wq hugh the counuy, seizing the diamond mlrcs, burning, kilhg, raping and maiming the people it encountered. It wasn't difticult to get young men (and somcties women] to &t. The &?ice was 'IWI or be killed'. Eleven years of war lee an &a& fraaile emnomy in &U, with numben dead >isplaced in wet, and south ~ia. meir potirj is to pro - vide and suppon ehcation in the widest sense, while addrewing the needs of &e particular time and situation. One bf the projects the Holy RoMly Sisma are involved in is an adult literacy programme cakd Generating Empowerment through Learning (GEL). Insierra Leone. I contacted Wion Bodurie, an administrator and &er with GEL. He agned to take me to Kailahun to see one of GELS projects and to me* participants. When the war broke out, EdMon. then a local der, awsed with thousands of other Siam Leonems, into neightrouring Guinea. Three nuns fium the Holy &%my order - Mary Coleman and Brenda L)'Sullwan from Jdmd and Siem Leonean Aneela Karimu estimated at som&m-berween 50b00 and 400,WO, and hundreds - nwsed with them. " of thousands maimed. homekss and destitute. The eastern ~rwince There were wer 750.000 ~eo~le in the cam^.' Edison cr~lained of Siem hone, home to the diampd mines, was parti&lY badly affected, with the majority of hospitals, schools, clinics, libnries and other &ociaI StrUDlne8 desaoged. Rahtming to Sierra Leone On remrning u, Sim Lcwc in Apnl of &IS year, I tmveUed to Kailahun, a town in Eastern Sietra Leone, near the Guince border. Through mx SUE' conncUien, I hew a lii about the work of the ~issio~~@rets d the a& &say (MS=) in Sierra Leone and . . 'Many of these people were from the easiarn province - Kono and Kailahun. In these areas thue has traditionally ken a vay high level of illitervy - about 85 per cent. Women have been marginalised. If you have two children - a boy and a girl - maybe you will send the boy to school, the girl will remain at home. Thudon, the majority of our sism are illiterate. The few that wem to schml stopped early when they we= given to husbands. Their fathers would have amngedmarriaga fdt them when they were 14or 15. In the &g= camp most of the people &d not read or write and were afraid to speak out, especially the women and children. Even the ration cards they got, sometimes somebody would take it from them and there was nobody to speak for them. Some of us came up with the idea that we could advocate for these people. At first, there were six Sierra Leoneans and six Liberians. The authorities were suspicious of us initially men the Holy Rosary sisters saw what we were doing they began to assist us. They provided us with the training to become , . - literacy tutors and to provide group counselling. We began to teach others. Sometimes the person calling the ration would skip a name. After the people learned how to read and write they could identify their name in the register and be sure to get their ration. So they were able to speak up and know they are somebody. People began to . realise that the age of thumbprint is over. 'Social analysis is the centre of our oroeramme.' Edison explains. . - 'As well as being able to read and write we want people to speak out and to participate in discussion of issues. We aim at social change through social awareness. We do this through what we call " the code " . The code might be a short story or a drama or a picture. We identify the concerns of the community. It can he a concern like corruption. Then we design the code. We perform the code in the class. We list all the vocabulary that gws with it. After the language lesson we sit and discuss the issues raised and what can be done to change things. For example, corruption played a role in bringing about the war We want people to look at issues around corruption. The policeman taking money from the bus driver - that becomes normal, the person getting the job he is not qualified for, people say " no problem " . We see these things happening every day, but, actually, it is not normal. In this way we integrate literacy training with social issues. We want to empower people to have a say in the decision - making of the community. We have cultural beliefs which we have to look at and talk about. People are no longer being forced into child marriage. We want, through the code, to create a society where gender is no barrier and the dignity of both women and men is maintained. 'At first it was very difficult. All of us were traumatised because of the war. Through the programme people were able to come out with sorrowful stories. They were very fearful at first but when they began to speak about those things that happened they began to get back to their normal human life.' Safe to return Edison explained how the literacv programme spread through a .. number ofrefugee camps in Guinea. men the war was declared over in 2001. he returned from Guinea to Sierra Leone to reeister the oro- " gramme as a non - governmental organisation (NGO) and to find an office. Following registration, Edison contacted the Holy Rosaq sis - ters in Guinea, telling them that it was safe for the trainers to return to Sierra Leone. Trainers returned to the districts they came from to work with their own communities. With the assistance of the Holy Rosary nuns who sourced funding for the project, 15 centres have been established in Kailahun and 15 in Kono, a neighbouring district to the north. The programme is now beginning in Liberia. Where a literacy programme is established, the paramount chief and local people are very actively involved. The women in the villages are invited to come to the training sessions so that they can spread the word through the community. Edison explains: 'The programme can only be sustainable if the local people are inside. If they are outside thev will say, " This is not our concern " .' The locdl peopl; provide the land, labour, and sand and sticks for buildine work. Both Muslims and Christians are welcome. GEL oavr U . , the trainer and the programme is free. Class runs from seven until nine each morning. After that, participants go to work in their homes and farms. So far 750 people have learned how to read and write, over 350 women and men have been trained in soap making and we hope to soon start a sewing programme. People can get micm - credit once they have acquired a skill. 'We are seeing great chan~es,' Edison explains. 'Women are . . coming together to organise things, attending meetings. Now we have chairladies as well as chairmen. The women are savine thines to ," " their husbands they would not have said before. Children are going to school. Evcn the husband says: " My daughter has to go to school " . The first boy child, urho used to go to the fields to help the father, he is going to school and men and women are decidingtogether on the education they want for their children. The programme has had a personal impact. When you are discussing issues and concerns that are relel,ant to you, you yourselfwill reflect and at the end of the day you see yourself changing.' While Edison and his colleagues acknowledged the support of the Holy Rosary sisters, they emphasised the Sierra Leonean people's ownership of the programme. . .. A few days later, back in Freetown, I attend a reception hosted by the lrish Honorarv Consul to mark the visit of Conor Lenihan, Irish Minister of State for Foreign Alfairs. The whirring of a helicopter in the night sky brought a loud cheer from the gathering. Charles Taylor, Liberian warlord, was being extradited to Sierra Leone. I am back in Ireland when 1 read that he will be tried in The Hague, for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone. I'm left with a great sense of hope for Sierra Leone and for the Generating Empowerment through Learning project. GEL is one of the most successful proiects I have seen in Sierra Leone. l believe that . " it is the involvement of local people in all aspects of the project, lead - ing to their feeling of ownership of the project, and the fact that the literacy programme is embedded in and related to people's everyday experiences, that has helped make it successful. The origins of the project in a refugee camp and the role of the Holy Rosary sisters in helping source funding illustrates how, with appropriate supports, adult literacy initiatives coming from the people themselves, and embedded in their lived experiences, have the power to bring about change in this, the second poorest country in the world, and, indeed, in other countries, rich and poor. Helen Fallon is Depuly Libranan, Nafional Uniliersily of Ireland Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland. Email: helen.b/[email protected]. Ediron Bocknrie can be contacted al GEL, PO. Box 3, Kenema, Easlern Prouince, Sku Leone, West Afica, email: gel - [email protected]. Practical support for learners OCTOBER 2006 ADULTS LEARNING 23