Support for the West Point Women in Liberia

West Point Women for Health and Development Organization bought seven machines from Guinea with funds from the Global Neighborhood Fund (GNF) through GlobalGiving.

During the months of January, February and March, massive awareness on Gender Base Violence (GBV) in the West Point communities was carried out. Also in March, awareness on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and violence against women were carried out in the seven zones of West Point which now results into the minimizing of all kinds of violence against women in the Township of West Point.  Since the inception of our awareness campaign, violence against women is reduced a bit. This has become a major milestone for our work in the township.

The West Point Women for Health and Development attended the International Women’s Day celebration on March 8^th 2012 in Bomi County. This program was attended by almost all women groupings from all over Liberia; Her Excellency President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf also attended the program.

Rape Cases

On March16, 2012 a rape case involving a 5 years old victim was attended by the West Point Women for Health and Development. The case was closely followed by us, the victim received medication from the Redemption Hospital and the perpetrator was apprehended by the Police. On May 2, 2012 we also attended to a rape case involving a 16 years old girl bringing the perpetrator to justice. All of these rape cases; the family looked to us for transportation to the hospital, feeding as well as the little fees that needed to be taken care of.

Vulnerability

A woman by the name of Mary Sack was abandoned by her fiancé Kojo. Mary with her daughter was encouraged by her fiancé to move to Liberia. After been in Liberia for few years, she had the second child by him, a boy.  Few months back while Mary was pregnant with the third child, she was severely flogged by her fiancé nearly losing her child when he refused to contribute to the welfare of the family.  Kojo finally left the house leaving the family vulnerable and striving on their own without support.  He has refused to identify with them in any matter of support for their well-being. After the flogging which resulted to several bruises on her body, the West Point Women for Health and Development was contacted for assistance. Mary was taken to the hospital for medical checkup. We provided the medical expenses and helped with the feeding and clothing for her children. To date, the fiancé is nowhere to be found for clarity or apprehension.

When Mary had given birth to the third child; we took care of the medical bills and clothing’s for the baby as well. We then linked her with a partner organization who helped us took care of the delivery bills and the responsibility of transporting her back to her homeland Ghana.

We want to appreciate the GlobalGiving Family and the many contributors for the support to West Point Women; we wholeheartedly appreciate our donors as well for their kind donations in helping us help humanity.

Thanks ever so much to you all.

We want to thank the GlobalGiving Family for the support to the West Point Women; we wholeheartedly appreciate our donors as well for their kind donations to help us help humanity.

During the period under review, we were faced with electoral problem in our country Liberia, most especially the West Point community was faced with many challenges during this period, October and November. We were caught up with cases of mediation and conflict resolving with family members as well as community dwellers.

We had this case where, the clinic in West Point called us the Women’s Group to attend to this case of a woman who gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, stating that the lady needed help. They are asking us if we could take the initiative keep her with us while we can find her parents because according to the clinic director, they cannot locate any one from the woman end, she had been in the clinic for days and no one had come to claim her and the children. We went and took the woman in along with her twins, kept them for three days while trying to locate her family, we located her relatives in the Borough of New Kru Town on Bushrod Island and later they took her home. We named the twins, Ellen and Joe because we had just finished with our election and the President and Vice President had just won the election just within this time the twins were born. This took place in early December 2011.

Links:

• Support for the West Point Women in Liberia