Feah’s Long Road Ahead

Feah is from Sierra Leone. Her normal, happy family life was shattered on the day armed rebel soldiers suddenly arrived at her parents’ cocoa plantation. Feah and the younger children of her family were collecting water from a nearby stream, when they saw the rebels approach the plantation. Terrified, the children hid from the armed men, but from their hiding place they heard their mother’s agonized cries as she was tortured by the soldiers.

The cries went on for many hours, and the horrified children could do nothing to help. They could only stay where they were, hoping the vicious soldiers would go away without discovering them. When it was safe to leave their hiding place, the children found their mother. She was dead and by her side was the machete with which the soldiers had assaulted her.

Feah and her brothers and sister searched for their father but could find no trace of him. Perhaps he was still alive; perhaps he had been abducted by the rebels. Whatever had happened to him, Feah, the eldest child, now had to take care of her young brothers and her sister. She had to take them somewhere safe. It was too dangerous to remain on the plantation, even to remain in the country, while government soldiers and rebels ruthlessly attacked civilians as well as each other.

As Feah and the children traveled on foot through the countryside, they avoided soldiers and others who would hurt or take advantage of five unaccompanied children. The journey to safety took them seven days and seven nights. At the end, they reached the neighboring country of Guinea, and sought shelter and safety in a refugee camp.

That was a year ago. Feah has had to grow up quickly. Her childhood ended abruptly the day her mother died. Now aged 14, she is responsible for her sister, Kadiatu who is 4 years old, and her brothers, Aiah, 10 and Junior who is 2. A third brother, Komba, escaped with them; but during the flight from danger, Komba caught a chill which developed into pneumonia. He died in Feah’s arms. He was only 5 years old.

Feah’s daily life is hard. She has to walk long distances to local villages to earn money. She pounds newly harvested coffee and husks rice for the Guinean farmers, receiving less than 50 cents for each sack of pounded coffee or husked rice. Sometimes the payment is just a small quantity of spilt rice grains. On market days, Feah helps traders to sell used clothing. For a full day’s work she earns less than a dollar.

At home with their parents, the children used to eat well - three balanced meals a day, with good amounts of meat or fresh fish. Now, Feah can only provide her sister and brothers one meal a day. They eat the rice residue that Feah brings home from work, flavored with salt and palm oil. For a change, Feah also prepares bananas with salt. Sometimes, but not very often, she may be able to buy a small quantity of green vegetables and ingredients for a simple sauce. These extras are not usually available, and when they are, Feah does not have much money with which to buy them. As well as providing food for her brothers and sister, Feah also feeds two old women, who have lost their families. They share the simple hut which Feah built.

Refugees need firewood to cook the simple and meager daily meal. Four times a week, Feah goes into the bush or to Guinean farms to collect the wood. She leaves the camp very early and returns by midday to avoid capture by men who would either rape her or force her into a work gang. She walks a total of eight kilometers each time to collect firewood, and needs about five hours to find enough wood for her family’s needs. The load that she carries back weighs between 18-22 pounds.

Feah and her family need food, firewood, and of course, water. Each person is allowed less than 7 liters of water a day, and this is collected three times a day in whatever containers Feah can borrow from other refugees in the camp. The family uses the water carefully and frugally, to drink, to wash in the morning, to prepare the family meal, and finally to bathe at night.

Aiah, her 10-year-old brother, is the only one strong enough to help Feah with her chores, but Feah prefers that he and the other children go to school. She herself cannot attend school as she does not have the time, but Feah hopes that one day, she will have the chance to learn a trade, and perhaps obtain a loan with which to start her own small business. She dreams of being able to provide a better life for her brothers and sister. She wants to see them well-fed, healthy and happily settled with some relatives. If she cannot trace her missing father or find any other relatives, Feah would like a kind and loving family to adopt her brothers and sister. However, she wants to be sure that they will not be used for child labor. Rather than run that risk, Feah prefers to keep her young brothers and sister with her, and work the long, tiring days to provide for them.