I was so small. Bintu, now 20βyears old, and her seven-year-old sister were taken into the bush by the soldiers. She was so small that she died. She was not even allowed to heal before the sexual assaults began again. When she finally escaped, Bintu ended up on the streets of Freetown.
After more than a decade of violent civil war, Sierra Leone is trying to recover. The war, which erupted in and formally ended in , left tens of thousands dead and an estimated 2 million more displaced. More than a quarter of a million women and girls were raped. Their bodies were battlegrounds, and rape was used as a weapon of war to humiliate, terrorize and destroy. Although rebels attacked both young and old, they tended to target very young girls and adolescents whom they believed were virgins.
Many did not survive. Many were left with little or no opportunity to develop an affordable livelihood. The impact of violence, especially rape, he added, was devastating to these young women. Physical consequences include injuries, unwanted pregnancies, sexual dysfunction and sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Emotional effects include post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Following their release, many faced further humiliation when their own communities, and even family members, rejected and drove them out.
In order to provide much-needed prevention and treatment services, UNFPA works with the Government, United Nations and NGO partners to coordinate relief efforts and to provide security and community and health services.
The aim is to reintegrate young girls and women who were abducted, abused and terrorized at the hands of warring factions into their communities. To date, WICM has trained approximately former conflict victims, survival sex workers and other vulnerable young women in income-generating skills, including tailoring, soap making, tie-dying and hair dressing, which Bintu is learning.
