"We were living in fear
of being killed"

Sierra Leone is suffering from a nine year civil war with an estimated 1.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in camps. The Council of Churches in Sierra Leone (CCSL), a member of the ACT alliance, is currently managing two of the largest camps with a population of about 15,000 people in the town of Bo.

Juliana feels shame. She doesn’t want to talk much about what she and her family have gone through. "While we were trying to escape we were abducted by the rebels", Juliana says. She comes from the diamond-producing areas in the north of Sierra Leone, which are still occupied by the rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). When they attacked the village Juliana’s husband, a diamond digger, was killed.

"We were with the rebels for six months", Juliana recalls. Then she managed to escape with her two daughters, Kemba (11), Sia (13), and her little son Komba (3) to the Kendeyella II camp in Bo. The two girls say nothing, but from the little their mother tells one can imagine the ordeal, they went through. Kemba was raped in the presence of her mother, Sia was taken away from her and raped several times.

And what about herself? Juliana is pregnant so she must have been raped as well, but she doesn’t want to speak about it. "We were living in fear of being killed all the time when we were with the rebels", Juliana says almost like an excuse. Juliana and her children stay with relatives in the camp. Because the family has only recently arrived in the camp and are not yet officially registered, the children do not attend school but help their mother collect wood and grow vegetables. All of the 5,000 or so people in the Kendeyella camp, which is managed by CCSL’s Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) department in Bo, come from the diamond areas in the north of Sierra Leone, still occupied by the rebels. Many of the men worked as diamond diggers.

Twelve year old Edith was abducted by the rebels as well, but escaped after one week. "In the beginning she was very sick and felt depressed, but she is getting better now", says Martha, one of the coordinators in the R&R-department. Its trauma counselling team (of about 70 people, trained in workshops), helped the girl by talking to her and her parents, Martha explains.

But programme director Marcos Melaku sees the need of more professional help, because most of the IDPs are heavily traumatized. "You need specialized people to train the counselling team", he says. But there is no money available for psychologists because of the poor funding for the ACT-appeal for Sierra Leone. The counselling team talks to the people and has established a drama and a music group. The team also teaches the traumatized also new skills. Maurie Amadu (45), a mother of ten children, for example, trains a group of 50 women in dyeing cloth.

15 year old Thomas tries to hide his crutch while he is telling his story. He was captured in 1998 by the rebels and stayed with them for two years. He didn’t have to fight, but to carry loot. "I was treated nicely by the rebels", he says. While carrying looted property he fell into an ambush laid by the Citizens Defense Force (CDF). An exploding grenade hurt his leg. Afterwards he was able to escape came to the camp where he found his parents. Now he is attending the school in the camp. "I wouldn’t like to be a soldier, I want to become a doctor", Thomas says. More than 400 students are taught by 7 teachers. Many of the children have to sit on the floor and have nothing to write on.

CCSL recently had to move 100 families from the overcrowded Splendid camp with over 7000 persons to Kendeyella camp. The camps have developed over the years into little town with their own market places, churches and mosques. What people worry about most: "We don’t know when we are going to leave. We think of tomorrow, but the day is not coming", says Isaac Tamba Pessuna, head of the counselling team and pastor of the Konu displaced combined church.

CCSL’s R&R department has been operating in Bo since 1997. It moved from the capital Freetown to Bo to be nearer to those who started to return to their villages when a peace accord was in sight. Since then, the department with a staff of 300 has been mostly working with returnees distributing seeds and tools to farmers (about 12,000 farm families), rehabilitating community infrastructures such as schools and bridges and running trauma healing programmes. The R&R department has been operating with support from ACT member Christian Aid.