Liberian Women Celebrate Peace, One Another

Women across Liberia came together on March 8^th to celebrate International Women’s Day 2014, and to reconfirm their commitment to building peace and increasing the strength of Liberia’s women and girls.

Approximately 1,000 women and men turned out at the Women’s Day Peace Rally, which was held at Monrovia’s ATS Stadium. Special guests among the attendees included the Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and senior officials from Liberian Government, United States Department of State and the United Nations. Women’s groups filled the stadium stands, wearing coordinated t-shirts or traditional dress, which illustrated the range of groups they represented such as the Women in the Drug Enforcement Agency, Women for Sustainable Logging, and Women in Science and Technology.

At the celebration, Women’s Campaign International (WCI) staged a Peace Fair as part of its program funded by the US Department of State. WCI had a prime position in the stadium, as rural women from 10 counties showcased their peace building grants in a tent decorated like a traditional peace hut. Wearing all white for peace, the women displayed their outputs from the grants they received in areas such as economic empowerment, conflict mediation and gender-based violence.

The atmosphere in the stands was full of pride and expectation, as different government and NGO officials stepped up to the microphone to talk about what Women’s Day means to them. Foreign officials particularly noted what a special privilege it was to spend the day in Liberia, where women have done such a great deal towards the peace process. One of the rural women working with WCI gave a riveting speech about the role of rural women in the peace process, and the need to support the efforts of rural women moving forward.  President Ellen Johnson Sireaf was the last to speak, proving her ability to mix strong messages with warmth and humor. The President finished her address with a commitment to provide public transportation to any women who need to get to their local voting registration center. It is critical for women to start registering for elections in order to have a greater say and impact on their communities.

The second half of the day is when the real party started.

Women came down from the stands in their groups and spilled into the field where the speakers, including the President, were making their way around to greet each other and tour WCI’s Peace Tent. Traditional dancers performed for the crowd, and even a troupe of acrobats constructed human towers, with the younger and more flexible members topping the pile. No less than three different musical groups began playing in different styles all at once. It was certainly a harmonious sight, if not sound.

In the WCI tent, the women groups talked to guests about their work to build peace.  The women presented their programs, describing their approaches and the training they received that helped make their visions a reality.  As one woman from Bomi County said, “Rural Women are important in the peace process.  The violence that affects us starts small and grows big.  We, the rural women, make sure to stop it when it is still small.  We turn the violence into something positive.”

Read about some of the women’s groups, and how they were better able to affect change in their communities through their peace projects below.

Foyah Rural Women Group and Kolahum Rural Women Cotton Group from Lofah County (the northernmost region of Liberia) showed some of the produce from their farms. After the war, the women had taken over the care of plots of land, producing food, and creating a livelihood to support their families. The women call them ‘peace farms’, because if there is tension between communities or ethnic groups in the area, the farms act as neutral land to resolve these issues. Because they were women, and many were widows, other members of the community had contested their right to the land – a common source of conflict and distress in post-war Liberia. With the help of the WCI grant and training, the women were able to carry out a proper survey of the land and purchase the deeds officially. They are now able to continue nurturing the land to provide the safe space for resolving disagreements, and generate money to feed the women’s sense of utility.

Zai Town Women’s Group travelled all the way from Grand Gedeh. The women told us of their fear of secret killings, which had been taking place in the town, with women, men and even young children being taken at random for suspected acts of ritual sacrifice. People were afraid to go outside to work or sell in the market in fear of these attacks. There’s often a disconnect in rural parts of Liberia between tribal law and formal law, meaning that when local tribal leaders cannot solve a problem, it becomes the responsibility of the community to bring the issue to the attention of county leaders and the police to enforce the formal law. With WCIs support, the Zai Town Women convened meetings to do just this, alerting the authorities to their plight. They then went out into the community and explained the advice that the police had given, and how to report the crimes if they continued.

Tewor Rural Women’s Group in Grand Cape Mount were in danger of finding themselves victims of a concession agreement, when a local Palm Oil company was awarded rights to the land they lived on. The women of Tewor knew that they still had rights under the concession agreement, but lacked the expertise to fight for the protection they were due. With the help of the WCI grant, they were able to hire experts to train them in understanding how land rights and concession rights worked. Armed with this expertise, they successfully negotiated with the company to stay on the land and reap some benefits from the concession.

The Women & Children Development Association (WOCDAL) from Douzon in Montsurredo showcased textiles and jewelry they made with training and workshop space provided by the WCI grant. WOCDAL’s main focus is to educate young women on how to fight against gender-based and domestic violence. They have found, that by combining their mission with support for women to earn a their own income, they can help foster confidence and independence, which allows women to stand up to violence in their own lives and understand that they deserve more.