Second Chance Africa.

Thought I should tell you a bit more about the organisation I am working for, the reason I am here.

Second Chance Africa is a small organistion with big ideas.  It is run by a group of inspirational people. 

The mission:

Peace building through free mental health services for survivors of war and conflict

Who they help:

- War affected youth (former child soldiers)
- Post war Liberian children
- Orphans
- Refugees
- Former combatants
- Victims of rape & domestic violence (male & female)
- Drug Dependents
- Inmates and former inmates
- Parents & teachers

The Liberian population as a whole benefits from reduction of  crime and violence led by war, trauma and poverty.

How they help:

• Direct clinical services for psychological rehabilitation of post- war and post conflict individuals (war perpetrators and victims) in various communities, prison compounds, and refugee camps.
• Preventive childhood clinical intervention at schools, orphanages and communities to attend the needs of post- war children at risk for intergenerational trauma, and domestic abuse.
• Fighting Crime and Poverty by raising our participant’s skills for employment and social economic stability through skills training, literacy, and basic education scholarships.
• Reconciliation of war perpetrators and war victims by lowering stigmatization of former child soldiers, combatants, and inmates, through helping them to integrate back into communities.
• Empowerment of the population with psychological education through community workshops and radio broadcasts about mental health conditions, drug abuse, and parenting skills.
• Psychiatric and neuroscience research in commitment to clinical excellence, for the development of culturally sensitive psychological intervention in Africa.
• Advocacy and development of the mental health field for Liberia by assisting the Liberian Mental Health Ministry with fundraising, professional training of Liberians, overseas awareness, and free international consulting services as a member of the Liberian Mental Health Advocacy Committee.

Go to the website for more information http://secondchanceafrica.org/

Prison Visit No.2

The straw thing is a man with a traditional mask on,
quite entertaining.

 After having visited the prison on Thursday and seen for myself the overcrowded and dilapidated building Friday brought a more hopeful prison visit.  An invitation to Second Chance came from the assistant Minister for Justice to the ground breaking ceremony at the site of the new prison that is to be built to replace the current one.

Me wearing my Second Chance T-Shirt

It was quite a random event, to just celebrate the beginning of the building, which may start in the next few weeks!!

The Vice President attended and gave a speech; several other people gave speeches including the village elder who gave the government the land and the Minister for Justice.  She spoke very passionately about the development of the justice system in Liberia and the plans they have for the new prison.  

The Vice President official breaking the ground.

It gave me hope after having seen the state of the current prison, and was left feeling positive.

The need for proper rehabilitation was stressed and the Vice President even said that ‘the prisoners need a second chance’….good advertising!

Now we need to see these things happening.

Jana, Sumo, Chelsea, William, Me, kaba

Prison visit

We went to visit Monrovia Central Prison today, because Second Chance have previously worked with the prisoners there, and are trying to re-connect that link.  They ran groups to deal with the effects of trauma, teaching them body stabilisation techniques and anger management.

It was a very eye opening experience.  Some statistics for you;

·      Prison capacity – 374

·      Actual number of inmates – 989

·      Number of inmates who have been sentenced – 109

·      Number of prison guards – 114

We did not actually go inside the buildings but walked through the grounds to meet in an office.  There were many prisoners in the grounds, although a large number are not allowed outside.  We were told to not make contact with them, which was very difficult for the SC staff who have previously worked with a lot of these prisoners, before the bureaucracy at the ministry ended there work there. Several recognised the SC staff and asked them when they were coming back, greeting them warmly.  Those prisoners who went through their programme are now being used as role models for the other prisoners…proving it works. 

Most prisoners have ended up there because they grew up in a country at war where they were not given a chance or taught how to make better decisions in life.

To further understand the state of the prison system in Liberia look at this report made last year by Amnesty International.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/appalling-prison-conditions-liberia-must-be-improved-2011-09-21

No pictures for this post because we were not allowed to take our cameras inside!

Monrovia

Monrovia is a small city and unlike many other African cities does not feel polluted.  It is situated on a peninsular so the sea surrounds the city.

View from Second Chance office
on Broad St

The centre is made up of a grid of streets, the heart of which is the junction of Broad Street (the main street) and Randall Street.  There are taxis, motorbikes, street hawkers and lots of people.

So much of life happens out on the street, from hawkers and stallholders selling anything from phone credit to, clothes, food; fake DVDs…..the list goes on.  You can get your shoes cleaned and shined whenever you want from the many men offering this service.

People walk the streets with large containers on their heads selling doughnuts, wheelbarrows with French bread, iceboxes of water in plastic sachets, whatever you want.

I even saw a man with a wheelbarrow piled high with bras for sale today.

  The street the office is on is lined with people with photocopiers and laminating machines, so when I need something copied I just pop down to my regular photocopier stall under a parasol umbrella.  I asked one of my colleagues where they get the power from……simple they hook up to the buildings electricity supply!! 

The other side of the road is where you go for your smart men’s shoes and a suit, all second hand sent form the West.

A random sight, 2 anteaters off to
become someones dinner!

To get around there are two options for those without a 4x4!  There are the share taxis or motorbike taxi.  The main roads are full of yellow taxis, you tell them the general direction you are going in and they pick up people along the way, squashing in as many people as possible, usually 4 in the back not matter what size those people are.  Or you jump into one on route to where you are going.  You can then get out anywhere along that route.  These are pretty cheap, but you have to be prepared to suffer a dead leg and get very close to sweaty strangers.  The other option is a motorbike, these are useful because they will take you to exactly where you want to go, they can however be a tad dangerous as they weave in out of the traffic!!  You have to keep a keen eye out for these bikes when crossing the road!!

There’s one thing you cannot fail to notice here is the number of UN 4x4’s driving around.  The UN occupy a massive building, and their presence is everywhere……not really sure what they are doing these days, predominantly development work, don’t worry its mainly not a military presence, although you do occasionally see a blue helmet.

View of the City, Broad Street

View of West Point, a ghetto area

Mamba point is the diplomatic enclave.  Walking through the streets here (theres not many its not big) you will see Save the Children, The Carter Centre, UNSESCO, American Aid, World Food Programme, etc etc.  There is also a massive American embassy surrounded with enough security to ward off most.  Apart from us…..a word of warning, never think just because you come from America you can take a photo of their embassy!! The other volunteer, Chelsea, tried this and before we knew it a police man was there questioning us about what we were doing.  There was no convincing him that she could just delete it, he would only be satisfied with a quick trip to the embassy police station to see his boss!!

The derelict Ducor Hotel

View from top of hotel

The now derelict Ducor Hotel is a large building on a hill on Mamba point, it was Liberia's number one 5* hotel, it is now a shell.  It is visible from around Monrovia, it was a gift from Ghadafi…..a great friend to Liberia!!! 

He was in the process of beginning to refurbish it before his departure from power!

I haven't taken that many photos yet and these don't show really what it is like, I will work on getting some better shots!

Lessons to learn about living in Liberia!

Some lessons to learn about living in Liberia.

1.    Plans are moveable:

Foolishly I believed that the plans that were made on my first day would actually happen.  Oh no, wrong.  I didn’t get to the meeting at the Ministry of Health because we couldn’t get in touch with them to find out the time.  (I didn’t know this was the reason until several days later) I didn’t get to see the other people I was told I would meet, not sure why! I ended up going to the schools only once rather than the 3 days planned and that was to just repeat the same information that we had discussed the first time I went to see them.  So all in all not very productive, my patience is growing!

2.    Information is a precious commodity:

I am getting used to never really knowing what is going on.  This is a whole new level of confusion to my normal making it up as you go along.  To preserve your sanity the only way forward is to go with the flow and to never expect to fully understand whats going on. And if you want to know, ask…you won’t automatically be told. (that does, however, only work if you know what questions to ask!)

3.    Who said they spoke English here:

English is spoken here but it is Liberian English, it mostly does not resemble what we speak.  I can usually catch 1 word in 10.

4.    How many currencies does one country need?

Apparently 2 with the same name!  So when I am asked for 5 dollars or 20 dollars…..which one is it Liberian or American because they use both here…..and there is a big difference in value!

Football match, 8/1

Firstly I don’t actually like football, and I have never been to a match. So why not for my first ever match the Liberian equivalent of the FA cup final!

Me with my permanent sweaty face and Augustine is to my right

I made my way out to the stadium without much of a clue where I was going to meet Augustine (a friend from Second Chance), in amongst hoards of people all going to the match I wait…typically he is late.  The atmosphere was football crazy!

Getting tickets was an interesting feat with only one ticket office open, but we got them eventually.  It seems the guards wanted people to queue but everyone was too eager to get in and tried push in. (the Mzungu card was of no use!)

Luckily Augustine bought us the more expensive seats so we were under shade, thankfully, we were ready for the match……!  Unfortunately the 3^rd place play off match was still going on and it was only half time. There was also a couple of 4x4 relay races and some other random stuff, which took up ages.  We were there over two hours before the match started to happen, by that time my bum was numb from sitting on concrete and I was seriously bored.


Things livened up when the President appeared to great the teams and finally the match started.

The President is that crowd somewhere!

 I never felt threatened, or stared at or singled out, even though I think I was the only white person there.  However I could not keep some anxiety a bay throughout the whole experience.  Football, beer, rivalry….are a bad combination anywhere.  This wasn’t helped by some trouble happening in one of the stands during half time, it was quickly stopped with a water cannon fired on them, and calmed down.







When the first goal was scored it was party time. Dancing, beer spraying everywhere, general chaos!                 

We only stayed until 15 minutes into the second half when we thought it best to get out of there.  This was easier said than done!

A great experience….perhaps not one I want to repeat too soon, mainly because I still don’t like football!

First day in Monrovia

I know this is a bit out of date but I will tell you about my first days in Liberia, typically it has taken me while to get round to getting this onto the blog…..but I did actually write it on my first day!

Well my first day in Liberia was quite an experience.  My first impressions of Monrovia are;

·      Hot – although apparently this is the cold season, it gets hotter in February, March and April…great!

·      Noisy – you have to get used to the fact that there is no concept of noise pollution in Africa.

·      Hectic.

·      Scarred by war.

The four men who run Second Chance, Sumo, Augustine, Will and Kapa, have been very friendly and welcoming to me.  I was greeted in the office with welcome signs for me.

I was taken on a city tour by Augustine, first stop food, my introduction to Liberian cuisine was a random shed in a complex of sheds out the back of a building, sitting in the semi dark with music so loud I could not hear what Augustine was saying to me.  We ate pepper soup, thin spicy sauce with unrecognisable chunks of meat and fish, (I have later learnt that most dishes are called soup, even if they are completely different!)

The tour was great, I saw a lot of the city, visited Providence island where the first settlers arrived, but after having walked all the way around the streets of Monrovia during the mid day sun I was pretty sweaty and near exhaustion.  Luckily the beach is never far and I recovered with a much needed drink at a beach bar. 

The city reminds me of the many other African cities I have been to with its mix of beeping taxis, crazy motorbikes, street vendors, and lots of people hanging around on the streets.  However you can’t miss the bullet holes in the walls and many derelict buildings.

Back at the office we discussed what they had planned for me.  I’m going to be working in schools three days a week, teaching (not sure what) and also teaching the teachers (again not sure what!), working with children suffering form signs of trauma….and I’m not really sure what else. (theres a them, I don’t really know what I will be doing!)  I have a packed programme of people to meet next week.

Augustine was walking me back to my convent and in typical style he wanted to go to visit another volunteer, I had said I wanted to go tomorrow, but not telling me it was more convenient to go today, until I finally twigged that was what was going on.  So we got in a share taxi, we went out 40 minutes out of town to where she lives.  The people in the taxi started talking about the war, I couldn’t really understand what they were saying at first, but then I realised they were talking about their experiences, having to kiss a corpse and someone being skinned alive!!

I was then thrown into an even more crazy part of town through a market, called Red Light with even more taxis, motorbikes, hawkers and people.  We ended up at the other volunteers house,( no water or electricity).  Because we faffed around so long, they had already eaten but left us some and we ate in the dark while they watched (its custom here to both eat from the same dish)….it was duck, because they had been given one by a neighbour!

Back out into the craziness, this time in the dark, which made me feel uneasy.  Luckily Augustine is a very good bodyguard and I felt completely safe with him, (but don’t think I’ll venture there on my own)…and home to my convent!!  (that’s where I am staying, its actually a hostel and convent)