Women are the Backbone to Our Success
This story was originally told by Keifala Amara.
It was translated and written by Bernadette Mustapha & Lossie Konneh.
Keifala Amara is a 50-year-old tribal leader in Maloma, one of OneVillage Partners’ partner communities, in Eastern Sierra Leone. Keifala Amara is married with four children and two wives. He is a farmer and works very hard to earn income, provide food, take care of his children’s school needs and health.
The leadership of Maloma was male dominated. Decision-making power was solely in men’s hands. This culture was noticed by women in the community. As a result of this, women were not respected. Women became scared to attend community meetings and participate in community work. They constricted themselves to the kitchen and domestic works. The few women who were invited for community meetings were only allowed to sit and listen but not participate. Women were shouted at when they spoke in community development planning meetings.
Moreover, the culture of women’s participation in decision-making and development planning was not prevalent in the community. “It was a taboo for women to challenge issues with men in public. We considered this as disrespect for us,” Keifala Said.
In 2017, OneVillage Partners introduced two programs in Maloma. The Community Action program addressed sanitation challenges in the village; and Nurturing Opportunities for Women (NOW) strengthened women’s household decision making and financial management. A female facilitator led the first community meeting. This served as a motivation for the women seeing their colleague addressing the community with confidence and energy. After the meeting, community women murmured among themselves that they can also do as the female facilitator did if they are given the platform. This action triggered a complete mindset change and leaders started allowing women participate and be part of major decision-making processes in the community. “We never knew education and leadership were meant for both males and females until when OneVillage Partners partnered with us in Maloma, where female staff led community meetings. This brought to us the realization as leaders to include all women in decision making and development planning.” Keifala said.
For the first time in the history of Maloma, the number of women far exceeded the number of men at a community meeting. Allowing women to use their voices and contribute in every meeting and decision-making together began to emerge and became accepted by all community leadership. This motivated and excited more women to regularly attend meetings. Women became bold to contribute in meetings; leaders encouraged inclusive leadership, and some women were given leadership roles in community development to act as planners and advisors. The number of women attending meetings increased exponentially over time. The confidence level and energy of the women increased as well.
NOW Women shared knowledge with other non-participants to use their voice, public communication and financial decision making. They also organized themselves to form self-help groups where they contributed their resources together and saved money. “Women who are in leadership positions can now influence major decisions in the community. They have also motivated other women to participate in development work in this community.” A NOW participant, Sombo Kamara said.
Based on consistent efforts from NOW women, the less confident women developed more self-esteem and increased their participation in community matters. The majority of women across the community now attend and participate in community meetings, lead the collection of household contributions for development work, and some of them are now leaders.
Finally, Maloma leadership now has increased awareness on the importance of women inclusiveness in decision making and development planning. “I am proud of women's roles in this community. If other towns and villages can copy and apply what we are currently doing, biases will end in decision-making.” He continues, “We now see women as strong development partners and contributors for a thriving community.” Keifala Amara, concluded.