On the 13th of February 2010, one of the Australia mainstream charity organizations, Soroptimist International did their third fundraising in Sydney for post-war Sierra Leone.
Hearing about the news, one of the Sierra Leone community members in Sydney said: “If foreigners or straingers who are not sons and daughters of our war ravaged country can sacrifice their time and energy to raise money to make our people, especially women and children live a better life, what really are we Sierra Leoneans doing towards the development of our mother Sierra Leone”? Are we here just to oppose or criticize and to destroy the good work of others? “I think it is time we put our differences aside and come onboard to assist Soroptimist and others in developing our country."
The membership of Soroptimist organization in Sydney invited Sierra Leonean Journalists in Exile association to give a presentation on the civil conflict of their country, Sierra Leone. Mr. Kenewa Gamaga, one of the veteran journalists base in Sydney was the guest speaker at the occasion. Gamanga told the Australian gathering that since Sierra Leone became independent in 1961 the current ruling APC and opposition SLPP are the main political parties in the country. “The genesis of the Sierra Leone conflict could be traced back to the early seventies after the country was declared a republic under the All Peoples Congress regime of the late President Siaka Steven in 1971,” he said.
He said that there had been a few upheavals in the political history of the country before late Siaka Steven became President of Sierra Leone. But it was during his time that Sierra Leoneans began to hear about rumours of war that engulfed the rest of the country for almost 11 years.
Kenewa Gamanga
“On the eve of Sierra Leone’s independence, up and until 1967, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita income was higher than Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea and most of her sisters states in Africa south of the Sahara,” he pointed out. He said that the country was able to produce abundant food, especially the staple food, rice, to feed itself. And it was also exporting surplus rice and cash crops, including cacoa, coffee, piassava, ginger, palm oil and at the same time the railway system was carrying out food distribution in the country, from the rural to urban areas. Our academic institutions were the best in sub-Sahara Africa with Fourah Bay College, one of the oldest university colleges in Africa earning the encomium “The Athens of Africa."
Madam Sandra
"It attracted students from as far as Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Uganda and neighbouring Gambia and Liberia,” he said.
Gamanga said access to education and medical care were at the time rights to all Sierra Leoneans and also all the material conditions necessary that would make them possible were also provided free of charge.
Sierra Leonean-Australian cultural dancers.
“In short, Sierra Leone was basking in the glory of an emerging developing nation when Stevens’ APC regime took the reins of power in the aftermath of the 1967 General Elections. Sensitive to the challenges that faced him before he assumed power, Siaka Stevens systemically destroyed the culture of political tolerance and introduced violence and intimidation of the opposition as a strategy to consolidate his rule. He said Siaka Steven usually made false claims of mercenary invasions and military coups were used to declare curfews and also states of emergeny were used as weapons to usher in the Public Order Act. “He used this scheme like the sword of Damocles to unlawfully arrest and detain political opponents and the most vibrant sectors of civil society - i.e. the press, students union, the Labour Congress and other pressure groups. Outspoken Journalists and media practitioners became the most vulnerable species,” said Gamaga.
He said because Stevens wanted to safeguard himself during his retirement, he handed over power to former president Joseph Saidu Momoh who was the Commander of the Armed Forces of Sierra Leone. “Like his predecessor, Momoh’s APC rule was increasingly marked by abuse of state power. The catchphrase of his reign was the “New Order” but what the country witnessed was completely new disorder in lawlessness and bad governance. Sierra Leoneans were so frustrated and obsessed with the system that they started yearning for a “bloodbath” that would cleanse the country of all corrupt politicians and bring about a change for the better,” he said.
God listened to the Sierra Leoneans’ prayer for war and the war came. “Without any doubt it happened and the unspeakable misery which the war wrought on the nation had left an indelible mark that reasonable Sierra Leoneans would not forget too soon.”
In a very short but meaningful speech by Madam Sandra, President of the Soroptimist International in New South Wales (NSW) said that their organization is almost all over the world, including Canada and Newzealand. “Our organization caters for the needs of the poor, especially women and children,” she said. She said that when she went to Sierra Leone on a fact finding mission and saw how the people were suffering after the war, particularly women and children she nearly shed tears. She said that during her five days visit to Sierra Leone, especially in the provinces, she met with lots of people, including the Paramount chiefs and discussed issues affecting women and children, including schooling and medical issues. She said that some of the chiefs she met with brought some of the girls and children to interact with them.
Madam Sandra said when she returned home she and some people decided to set up a non-governmental organization in Sierra Leone known as Sierra Project to support the people of Sierra Leone, especially women and children whom she saw were more vulnerable in the country. “Now the project is caring for the health of some of the women and children, building schools and also training women and young girls, including gara-dying, and technical training. She said that the purpose of the fund raising was to support women and children in the country. Currently the organization has raised more than $2m all over the world to support the project in the country, especially for school fees and medical support for every single woman and child in order to become self reliant rather than living on hand outs through the training they will acquire
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