BOMBALI HAPPENINGS PART TWO:

LAST ACTIVITIES IN SIERRA LEONE JUNE 2014

The next two activities with Fambul Tok revolved around Peace Mother meetings. The first took place in the Masongbo Section, Masongbo Village.  This section has earned a casava grinding machine as part of the “walk

Peace Mothers & Chairperson Masongbo

 side by side” program of rewarding sections who show great initiative and self help capabilities.  In this case the section has a very large casava farm and needs the grinder to preserve the casava for future sales.

The purpose of this meeting is to give guidance about planning for the use of the machine.  Joseph, team leader of Fambul Tok District Staff, kicked off the meeting by establishing the purpose and with suggestions of how they can use the machine to make money from other villages in the area who do not have a machine.

Joseph & Leader of Meeting

In this section the men are very active participants with the Peace Mothers thus one of the men leads the meeting instead of the Peace Mother Chair.  It was a lively meeting, but a little disjointed.  The Peace Mother Chairperson had some difficulty keeping the women focused.  She confided in Joseph that she felt overwhelmed by the job and was thinking about stepping down.  Joseph counciled her suggesting she wait until the upcoming elections for Peace Mother Chair and she agreed.

The next Peace Mother meeting was held in Masabong Section, Makanie Village.  The purpose of this meeting

Barrie 

was similar to the first one except this village was presented with a rice milling machine as a reward for success with their rice farming.

This is my third visit to this sectional meeting of the Peace Mothers.  This is the section that has a very successful revolving loan scheme started in 2011 with 750,000SLL. A scant three years later they now have 17,000,000SLL in their account and all the villages in the section have begun businesses using the revolving loan.

Gathering After Dancing

The difference in this meeting compared to the first is astonishing.  Joseph had no problem introducing the suggestions for making money with their machine nor with the purpose of the meeting.  These women are very well organized and already had an earnings goal for the first month the machine will be operational.

They also love to dance and I was in 7th heaven joining them in that activity.

Much Love To All,

Mom/Grandma Syrup/Sara