"She Leads the World"
For International Women's Day 2024, CARE teamed up with Nigel Barker to showcase women leaders in Sierra Leone through the power of art.
All photos & images: Nigel Barker/CARE
She Leads The World
Isatu
A single mother of four is, by definition, a leader.
Every decision they make, from the moment they wake to the moment they sleep, is characterized by leadership for their children, for themselves, and for their community.
Isatu Gbla is that leader. She has to be.
Isatu with her newborn twins and two older children. Photo: Nigel Barker/CARE
Meeting Isatu
Before the CARE team met Isatu, we had interviewed Zainab, the nurse in charge at the nearby Maternal Child Health Post in Mayossoh, Sierra Leone.
When Isatu's twins were born in November, Zainab had cared for her and her children, so Zainab decided to ride along with us to Isatu’s house at Makebie village, about a 15-minute drive from the clinic.
Isatu was nervous, but she trusted Zainab, and having her calming presence and steady leadership was helpful for her, so she decided she would sit with Isatu as she shared her story.
On the porch
As we talk, we are situated on Isatu’s covered porch where she holds both the babies.
It is a nice little house among others in this community, with a dirt road running through it, and the neighbors doing their jobs.
In the trees behind her house, there are bananas, plantains, coconuts, and papayas ripening.
Baby & Mama Kits
It is a cultural norm to keep twins together for things like our interview, filming and photographing them. They are considered part of each other and to separate them on an occasion like this is to break that bond.
When Isatu was three months pregnant, her husband left her, seeking fortune in the mines.
She hasn’t seen or heard from him since and the babies are now eight months old.
“If it wasn’t for CARE who supported me with the Baby and Mama Kits, it could have been more difficult for me and my children."
The kits are supplies for new parents that include diapers, blankets, formula, cleaning wipes, soap, and other necessities as part of the Light the World Program implemented by CARE.
As we talk, Isatu takes us through an average day.
“When I wake up in the morning I clean the compound, I rush down to the stream, fetch water to do laundry, and maybe walk around to know how neighbors, friends, and relatives are doing. I mingle with people, I speak well to people, and we play together.”
She has a small enterprise, and the community is a great support to Isatu, both socially and practically.
“The only means I use to survive is to borrow flour and prepared cakes, sell and buy food for me and my other children. That is what I eat and breastfeed my babies because I cannot afford to provide them with any other food except breast milk. The community people support me with food; others support me with non-food items.”
Isatu has her eye on the future, too.
“I actually want to go back to school to learn a trade like cake making or if it does not work, I also want to learn nursing. Seeing my children healthy makes me happy because with support from Nurse Zainab through CARE I am very much happy.
"I want my children to be great people in the future. I want them to be proud of me and I want them to succeed in life. I also want more support so that I will be able to take care of them.”
She cradles her twins and sings them a little song: “Aapapudo aah, aapapudo aah aah,” which means “my babies, my babies.”
It has been a rough time of surprise and loss for Isatu, but she is coming through it with the support of the people around her. Her dreams for her children are as bright as her smile as she sings.
Mabinty
Shaping Future Leaders with Purpose and Passion
Mabinity standing in her classroom. Photo: Nigel Barker/CARE
The Wesleyan Church of Sierra Leone Primary School in Mafaray is a big, bright campus with two brick school buildings, a large front yard with its own well, a line of neatly kept latrines, and a big soccer field.
There are large trees here and there providing shade from the sun. The second classroom building is new. At least three more classrooms were needed, so the community raised the $1,200 to build them out of their farming shares.
One of those volunteers is Mabinty Thullay a 35-year-old mother of three in a bright yellow dress amidst a sea of schoolchildren in their green uniforms.
Mabinty volunteers because her businesses are successful enough that she can afford to, both in terms of time and money. She is a farmer, and trades in fuel, groundnuts, and rice. She has gained skills over time, but points specifically to CARE when talking about her success.
“I was not doing anything much, but when CARE came here with the project, they first trained us on business entrepreneurship, which really taught me a lot," Mabinty says. "After that, they introduced the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) scheme at first."
“When I joined the VSLA my husband never wanted me to be part of it, but when I started bringing returns home after the first cycle, he became interested, and this is how I started contributing and supporting the home. This was how I convinced him to join the VSLA, and now when we do share out, he brings home [his share, and] I also bring mine and [we] put [them] together to run the family affairs."
"I decided to become a volunteer here in this school so that I don’t lose the knowledge I have gained. Since there were only male teachers in the school, as a female. I thought it fit that women also can do what men can do, so I spoke to the head teacher, he accepted me, and this is how I became a volunteer teacher. I became the first woman teacher in this school, but I also spoke to another woman who later joined me as a volunteer because we need to push ourselves and capacitate ourselves.
"For me, one of the opportunities in being a leader is that I also have the opportunity to talk to other women, share information with them and encourage them to step up for leadership and development. It is almost like the principle of 50-50 where you see a man, you also see a woman. This is what I believe, and this is what I have been talking to my fellow women.
"I was a shy person but when I started teaching, the time I took in the classroom built my capacity. I am now bold, and I am proud to stand in public and talk.”
She doesn’t just talk. She sings in the classroom as part of the lessons she teaches. It keeps the students’ attention and gets them directly involved. This is especially important in here, where keeping children in school is not always top of mind for their parents. Farming families, for example, will pull their kids from school to harvest their crops. This makes it hard for them to complete their lesson plans and effects their readiness for exams.
"I really want to get more education so that I can compete with the men… If I have opportunity, I will live abroad, come back, and support my family, community, and the country as a whole."
Kadiatu
The world’s best-dressed nurse
Kadiatu taking a break from work. Photo: Nigel Barker/CARE
At the Matufuli Maternal and Child Health Post (MCHP) in this small community, if a woman is giving birth, the staff must walk to a nearby stream to get water because there isn’t any clean water at the hospital.
Clean water is one of many things this clinic in rural Sierra Leone lacks. What they do not lack is a strong dedication to the health and well-being of their neighbors.
Not long ago, overwhelmed by need and with only three staff, the hospital’s nurse-in-charge asked around the village if anyone would like to become a nurse trainee. She got no takers.
So, she went to the neighboring village, Mapaki, which is where she met Kadiatu Turay.
Kadiatu had completed her secondary education, but she didn’t have the funds to go on to university. A self-starter, she joined a CARE Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) to support her small business, selling a flowered rice and groundnut mixture, growing rice, and trading in groundnuts.
The nurse-in-charge, Hannah, talked to Kadiatu about the opportunity at the hospital and shared her own personal experience of struggle, saying it was never too late to start something new.
Today, Kadiatu is wearing a stunning blue dress as she goes about her business.
The hospital is big and clean, with the warmth of wood furniture and big, covered porch areas in the front and back. It has examination rooms and a delivery room that, while spare, are welcome sights for people seeking treatment.
On a typical day, Kadiatu wakes up early in the morning and walks the three miles from her neighboring village to the hospital. She is always the first one there. She starts with cleaning the clinic and prepping for the day’s patients.
“I want to become a nurse so that I can help treat my people when they are sick,” she says. “My mother often advises me to put more attention into the nursing program.”
Kadiatu’s duties are to test and treat patients for malaria and to monitor the growth of infants by tracking their weight.
With only three staff, the workload is onerous. There are also transportation and communication challenges being as remote as they are.
Despite this “we train for the community,” Kadiatu says. “It is only for them we are here.”
The team works hard to keep spirits high at the hospital. Kadiatu sings a song that means “unity is very good in the world today.”
“During ANC [antenatal care] sessions at the clinic, we sing for pregnant women to dance,” she says.
“She is loved by the other colleagues,” Hannah adds. “They are fond of her and do most everything in common. She has the prospect of growing more than me. She is learning faster. We will continue to encourage and support her to stand and do more.”
The same is true for Kadiatu’s brothers and sisters. She says they want to be like her in the future.
Kadiatu’s day ends at 5pm. As the staff leave, they bid one another farewell, and she makes the three-mile walk back home, a true and dedicated leader-in-the-making.
Adama
Where the rubbers meet the road
When Portuguese explorers arrived in Sierra Leone in the late 15th century, they found the mountains bordering the shoreline constantly roared with thunder. They likened this thunder to the sound of lions roaring and named the place “Serra Lyoa,” today’s Sierra Leone—"the mountains of the lions."
Thunder Hill, an area in the Kissy neighborhood of Freetown, is named for this dynamic. It is where we meet an equally dynamic and determined 19-year-old woman named Adama Kamara. Adama lives with her family near the top of this mountain. The treacherous access road is deeply rutted from past rainfall. Cars can’t make it up here, only motorbikes, and even then, it’s a struggle. Closer to town is where the wealthy people live. But they don’t get the same view that Adama has.
“When I wake up in the morning and look at the sea and view people around, it gives me courage,” she says. But it’s not easy. “Some of the challenges we face here are fetching water from down the hills and the dust.”
Adama’s family didn’t have the money to keep her in school, but she was determined to learn anyway. “It is important for women to get education because when she has education she will not suffer. And when you get education and have a certificate, it is easy for people to get you a job.”
Adama used to do odd jobs for neighbors, like fetching water, and then everything changed when she became pregnant.
“When I had my pregnancy, I went to the hospital and anytime I went to the hospital the nurse usually felt sorry for me. One day she told me she will take me somewhere. She took me somewhere where I learnt this job."
Adama became project participant of the Happy Kids and Adolescents Foundations working with CARE. Today, Adama is a kehkeh driver. Known elsewhere as a tuktuk, a kehkeh is a three-wheeled taxi.
“When I started this job, I felt good because it took me away from being lonely and idle and as a woman, I felt proud because most people kept admiring me for driving a kehkeh because it is not something women usually do. When I ride, I have more hope and feel motivated and that one day I will be a great leader. It is necessary for women to lead because when women lead, they change the society positively.”
And that’s not all.
“Now that I am riding, I have a bank account and at the same time I can make a local savings (osusu),” Adama says. “When I ride my kehkeh I often tell my passengers that I have a business, so I tell them that I have condoms for sale and even where I buy fuel. I also tell them about my market which is Protect Plus condoms.”
Sierra Leone’s HIV rates have long been considered stable, but there are indications that the epidemic may be escalating and unless it is curbed now, it has the potential to spiral into a major public health issue once again. Adama’s small business is a part of that.
And Adama has a message for others like her. “I will tell my fellow women that we have to be strong and focus, keep our self strong and protect ourselves, so that they can be leaders tomorrow, and then the community can admire at them as well.
I love my family. Because they are my friends, my motivator. When my family sees me riding, they admire me, they feel proud of me. My family and children are my first priority.”
As we’ve been talking, several children in the extended family that lives here are playing with colorful bottle caps they keep stored in a box. Others play in a miniature car parked at the side of the road.
“My hope is to do more. Before this time, they told us to buy another kehkeh from this kehkeh as part of the project agreement, but because of the changing in price this may not be possible. I want support to have a kehkeh on my own. When I go for work, I can have something compared to the time when I was not doing anything, and it gives me strength.
As we end our conversation, Adama is going to go to work. That rutted road that we can barely navigate without slipping is no trouble for her, even in the slipper-like shoes she wears. She puts one foot firmly in front of the other and makes her way down the hill. She shows us her kehkeh in the rush of midday traffic, climbs in, and she is off.
Join the campaign
Share your own #SheLeadsTheWorld story by posting a photo, illustration, or short video clip about a woman whose leadership has inspired you.
