Our meeting is at Judys Place ( a public place where you can have a softdrink or something else to drink) and today is October 17th, 2009
this is Judys Place:
We (Christianah, Lesole and Brigitte - but still waiting for Cora, Vivian and Philomena) here in Harper now reading through the whole blog. Yes we have online access (we are using Brigittes Computer! and her modem).
Introduction of Christianah
Christianah is from Nigeria and just came to Harper to visit the Tubman University. Lesole is from Monrovia, she is working for the Ministry of Justice, Bureau of Fire-Service, Maryland County - based in Harper.
Lesolo is introducing herself a little bit more:
She as worked for and with women who where abused and sexual violated during the war but also working with women who are victims of sexualized violence. In Harper she had a project where are about 200 women and girls are comming together and supported each other and now she is also working with the women and do some training in agriculture. It is about how to plan cassava, corn and so on.
And here at the Fire-Department the women sit together and talk about women-empowerment. Lesole is the head of Liberia Female Law Enforcement Association. (Objective: advocate for women and children).
Brigitte is really impressed at the moment because she is learning soooooooooo much!!!!!!
Christianah will now tell a bit about herself (we are sitting at Judith Place - the Laptop from Brigitte is on, we are on the Internet - and now it is starting to rain - so we have to hurry up).
Christianah graduated from Lagos State Polytechnic, July 2007. She studied accountancy. She is 27 years old, single. She did her Industrial Attachment, Nigerian Tribune - a year programme. (during that time she did some newspaper publication for Nigeria). After that she worked with Manager Special Duties Department. She used followed him for outings (e.g. when her boss gave a speech - she went with him so she was able to build up a very good network). Those outings where always about a 2h journey from the office from Nigerian Tribune. After that she did a decoration programme (Interior and Exterior Decoration). Now she came to Harper (just a month ago) and is a student a Tubman University; doing her BSc in Accountancy. She decided to study outside the Country of Nigeria because of the stike going on in Nigeria for the past four month (there is a strike from the university lectures about the increments of the sudent fee but the government promised that the salary from the university lectures will also increase but they did not get more money and they did not get what the government promised before - that means that the governmental University is more expensive than a private University).
Vivian and Philomena are both Students of Fatima High School (Catholic Highschool in Harper). Vivian is in Grade 11 (from 12) and Philomena is in Grade 7. We are both over 20 years of age - but please dont wonder why we are still in school. Due of the Civil War we had to stop our school education - but now since the situation is stabel again and since we came back frome the refugee camp we tried to continue schooling in Harper. Actually two years ago. Most of our fellows in school are at that age.
Some thoughts about the Palava Hut:
We now also discuss about the Palava-Hut. By reading through the post from the Women from Monrovia we just discovered, that in Liberia we have a palava-hut but in Nigeria there is no such thing as a palava-hut, except courts. So in Nigeria, people go straight to the court if the have a dispute. In Liberia Lesole is talking about a palava-hut. When there is a certain disput - you discuss it first in the palava-hut and do NOT go to the court first. Your try to find a common ground for peace first in the palava-hut.
A picture from a palava hut:
We just learn Judy Andee (Ambassador of Culture) is the head of the section for palava-hut in Liberia. One of here tasks on national level is to "put people together for peace and reconciliation (Friedens- und Versöhnungsarbeit).
So that you get an "live-idea" in what we are doing - sometimes we are commenting on in. We have the computer open and as long as it is working we just write, look and talk! We now read your latest post and we are discussing how we will continue.
Situation of women in the rural areas (like Maryland County, River Gee, Grand Kru, Sinoe ...)
Lesole just tells us that the women are ding so much work here - they have to do so much work, she talks about what to do when the give birth to a child, how long they have to walk (sometimes it is about 7 hours - with an other child on the back, one child by the hand, a heavy load on their head ....).
So for her it is such an important topic to discuss about ways to empower women and to support women that they can have a better live.
Vivian and Philomena came later to the meeting - and will introduce themself a little bit more the next time, when we meet again. We are joining in and our topic is Women and Peace but also sexual violence against women and girls. And we are also very exited to be part of the group and looking forward to make new friends from Austria. Somehow at the moment it seems like that Harper and Graz are very close - this is something that is because of the Internet but also because we meet here with a women from Austria.
Some thoughts on Peace - Peace and Women. For us here in Liberia Peace is still an important topic. At the moment we do not have a Civil War - but still we can not really talk about peace. Peace is a process and a process that should include all. It seems very often that we as women are not included in all processes that have to do with peace, especially in those processes where decissions are made. We are aware that there is the UN Security Resolution 1325 where it is written that women are part of peace process and at all levels. This is still something we need to work on. Philomena and Vivian talk about the Train of Trainers for Youthleaders - where they are trained to work towards peace in the different communities. And it is great that there are women also in the training.
Our topics today are very broad! We are talking about how women live in Austria, how we are living in Liberia. What are the effects of the war. We are talking about the sexualized violence against women and girils during the war but we are sorry to say it is a topic that is continuing - sexualised violence against women and girls is continuing. Rape as a weapon of war is used in war time - but rape against women and girls, sexual assault we had before the war and still have it. Sexual exploitation and abuse is a huge topic (Vivian and Philomena will do a radio programm on it), teenage pregancy and much more.
Some Questions for you!!!
Now we will answer more of your questions the next time. But we have some questions for you:
# we are here discussing a topic here. Our question in Liberia is - how can we empower women? how can we secure livelyhood for women? we are really interested in how you see it - is there something you would suggest for us women here in Harper?
# how are you - or especially those who do not have a job and don't have a lot of money - surviving in Austria? How do you live in Austria. We would like to hear abut the women in Austria - who do not have a job and maybe do not have social security money - how do that women survive ? what does the government do for them?
# we want to know about your dressing? how do you dress?
# what is a traditional food in Austria (and send some recipes) - we will give a a recipe of palmbutter soup and bitterball (it is like eggplant).
and send us some pictures, even though we saw a lot of pictures from Graz - Brigitte brought some with here.
Some impressions from Harper:
We are going to meet again on November 14th, at 12 midday. We now try to get some more women. Talk to you soon!!!!
Lesole, Christianah, Philomena, Vivian and Brigitte
