wfn.org | CWS West African Delegation In Guinea-Sidebar Stories

["Natl Council of Churches/Church World Service News"]

SIDEBAR STORY #1:]

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE WEST AFRICA DELEGATION IN GUINEA

By Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, in Republic of Guinea, West Africa

This is the story of a friendship born in tumult, bred of independence, fed
by spirit and hope. Its the story of Junior and Abraham.

The story of a swelling sea of people, washed beyond the shores of their
nearby homelands by the angry tides of war.

We are in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa.  After navigating  twisting
roads up hillsides that have become mountains, we have reached a plateau
with an incredible, subtropical vista. We are in Kindia Refugee Camp, about
100 kilometres from Guineas seacoast capital, Conakry.

This place, this camp, is a transitional camp for about 80 refugees who have
been sent here. Some have just shown up in Kindia on their own. Some will go
on to more permanent refugee camps in Guinea. Some are preparing to be
repatriated. To go back home.

.They come from Sierra Leone and Liberia mostly.

They left their homes, fleeing war, rebellion, insurgence, oppression,
privation.

My colleagues and I, an eight-member peace-building delegation of Church
World Service, are here to understand. To go back to our own homes in the
U.S. and help others understand.

To help people elsewhere in the world come to know West Africa a little
better. To help others come to know what a fragile and complex and
escalating and helpable problem there is here -- in a subregion that
includes Guinea, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

Junior and Alpha have helped my own understanding of the situation.
Friendship counts for a lot.

Junior, a Liberian, tells me his story matter of factly. Right after the war
erupted, he fled his homeland in 1990. When he was six. Only six. He was in
a refugee camp in Sierra Leone until 1995, when that camp was attacked by
rebels and they all had to go to a new camp.

In 1997, there was an attack on Freetown, and Junior fled to the neighboring
Republic of Guinea. And to another camp, this one a temporary camp, then on
to a more permanent camp, both overseen by the UN High Commission on
Refugees. Junior tells me he was able to attend school there.

But then there was an exchange of fire in that location, and Junior had to
move again.

Enough of camp life, thought Junior, slipping out and making his way to
Conakry. To try and make it on his own. Junior was not alone in that idea.
Other refugees were trying to make it in town. Then a cross-border attack
from Sierra Leone sent anti-immigrant feelings soaring in Guinea, and
refugees, including Liberians, were being stigmatized.  Junior had to get
out of Conakry.

So now he is back in a camp, in Kindia, and will soon be on his way to
Darbola, a camp of about 15,000 people.

Today he is wearing a polo shirt with a ball point pen clipped to the
collar. He says, when he was in school, they tested his aptitudes and
suggested he go into accounting. Junior is 19 now and has spent most of his
life as a refugee.

And now we come to the friendship part. Junior and Abraham are together
today, and, as we talk, you can see on their faces, in their personalities,
that these are the kind of guys who know how to make a good friend. How to
be a good friend. Holding hands African style, posing for photos with their
arms around each other, gaffing at the camera.

Abraham is from Sierra Leone. Now 21 1/2, hed come from his homeland,
fleeing the horrendous fighting there on January 6, 1999. He left at
midnight while the town was under attack, walking for three days until he
arrived in Guinea.

After spending six months in a camp, he, too, slipped out and went to make
his way in Conakry.

One day, after Junior also had gone to Conakry, he went to the Australian
Embassy. While he was waiting, Abrahams friendly smile caught his eye. They
started talking. Now, both in Kindia, Junior and Abraham are fast friends.

When we talk of the war in Liberia, Junior says, I feel upset. I should
have gone farther. This has set back my education.

Abraham says he will go with Junior to Dabola camp and will stay there for
about six months. Like other Sierra Leoneans at Kindia, he wants to see if
things stay calm back home.  He wants to go back and finish his education,
although he hasnt decided on a field of study yet.

Junior doesnt hold out similar hopes. The problems are just increasing in
Liberia, he frowns. He cant see a time when he can ever go back home.

For the moment, though, time is frozen in the still, midday air. The
sunlight seems to be the only thing moving, shimmering on sweat-trickled
faces. Two faces. Two young men.  Two futures with question marks and lost
childhoods. But one solid friendship.

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[TWO SHORT SIDEBARS:]

CHURCH WORLD SERVICE WEST AFRICA DELEGATION

ON LOCATION IN GUINEA

Alpha and Omega

By Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, in Republic of Guinea, West Africa

Alpha is a Liberian refugee. Hes one of the luckier ones. Hes working.
Alpha had two years of training as a nurse before the war in Liberia
interrupted his future. Now working in Kimbia Camp for Doctors Without
Borders, he is an educator of preventive health, and conducts the health
census of refugees coming into the camp.

Kimbia, with about 80 refugees presently, is a transitional camp, primarily
for refugees waiting to be repatriated.

Alpha says, Guineans, Sierra Leoneans and Liberians all live together and
eat together in this camp. Were all the same people. Our families straddle
the borders. We have the same culture, speak the same language.

So where does the divisiveness lay? Says Alpha, Unless the leaders get
together in Liberia, and in the other countries, well continue to have all
the same problems. The problem isnt with the people; its with the
political leaders.

Now age 30, Alpha has spent 12 years as a refugee. Thats a lot of my
 life, he says. But he hasnt stopped living. Alpha is married now. He met
his wife, also a Liberian, in a refugee camp. They have two children.

Sometimes you find love where you just think you wouldnt.  He says, Life
goes on. Life has to go on. There have been 27 births in this transit camp
since it opened, Alpha says.

As if in proof of Alphas philosophy, the 27th birth has happened today,
while our Church World Service group is in Kindia Camp. It will probably not
be the last birth here.

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CHURCH WORLD SERVICE WEST AFRICA DELEGATION

ON LOCATION IN GUINEA

By Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, in Republic of Guinea, West Africa

The Spread of AIDS Brings Changing Attitudes in Guinea

The facts arent fully known yet as to the extent of HIV/AIDS in the
Republic of Guinea. But what we do know is that the countrys attitudes seem
open and invested in preventing the spread of the pandemic. And women-and
changing traditions around women-are playing a role in helping with that
prevention.

We talked with Marthe Isabelle Bouri, who heads the Union of Christian Women
in Guinea. Part of the unions focus is AIDS education. She told us that, a
few years ago, only a few cases of AIDS had been acknowledged in the
country. More recently, its become more openly acknowledged that Guinea has
a substantial number of HIV+ people.

Fortunately, not only the Christian Womens Union but the churches, mosques
and government are right out front in communicating how AIDS is spread and
how to prevent it.

This exuberant woman told us, We are working on destigmatizing AIDS. We
talk about sexual transmission and other ways that AIDS can be contracted.

In Guinea, till recently, female excision or circumcision has been fairly
universally practiced.  The cutting tools often are crude and un-sterile,
contributing to the spread of AIDS and resulting in other sometimes fatal
infections and severe reproductive health problems. Today, Mrs. Bouri said,
the rate of excision is declining as an aggressive campaign by
non-governmental organizations is convincing people of its dangers.

There is also frank talk about the use of condoms in Guinea, among men,
women and younger people. Young Guineans, it appears, are in sync with the
new reality, and are very conscious about protecting themselves and staying
alive.

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