Classifying these extremely complex issues into five main areas runs the risk of over-simplifying the issues or leaving something out, but most of the issues facing the women with disabilities in Sierra Leone are directly linked to one or more of these core, or root, issues.  Here’s a quick look at each of these areas and how it affects the overall lives of the women with disabilities.

Mobility and Health Concerns

The health challenges of women with disabilities are unique and complex.  At times, the disability itself creates additional health issues, such as in the case of Post-Polio Syndrome which leads to increasing degeneration and pain over the person’s lifespan.  In many cases, the fact that they have a disability further complicates other health-related issues, such as the ability to carry a child to term or safely deliver.  Access to care is extremely difficult since wheelchair ramps, sidewalks and handicap-accessible offices are nonexistent in Sierra Leone.  The extreme poverty of the women with disabilities also impedes their ability to receive appropriate health care that is neither free nor guaranteed in Sierra Leone. 

Mobility concerns are complicated by the severe lack of infrastructure in Sierra Leone.  Wheelchairs and crutches have a very short lifespan with use over rough gravel roads.  For the blind, walking is hazardous at best with potholes and rocks strewn everywhere.  For the deaf, the fact that no one in the society at large speaks sign language greatly hampers their ability to navigate around the community and perform the basic necessary tasks of purchasing food or accessing health care.  Mobility aids and adaptive devices are not readily available to people with disabilities, which severely impacts their lives and general function. 

Negative Societal Perceptions of Disabilities

Cultural perceptions, rooted in animism, identify people with disabilities as demons or cursed by God for some past wrong, either by that person or another family member. This results in an entire people group that is outcast from society and either feared or despised.  The implications that these perceptions have on the people with disabilities are far-reaching and greatly hamper their ability to succeed in society.

Gender inequality enhances the struggles of the women with disabilities. Even non-disabled girls are given less opportunity for educational and skills training. Gender violence is a huge problem since the civil war eradicated all sense of normalcy. Women with disabilities are often left defenseless and become the perfect victim for rape and abuse.

Loss of Dignity and Purpose

Living under the shadow of familial and societal rejection robs women and girls with disabilities from the most basic of human emotional desires and needs – acceptance and belonging.  These girls begin to believe that they have no value or dignity and then begin to live in that belief.  Before they can begin to work toward a life of purpose and wholeness, they must understand that they have value because they are made in the image of God and loved by Him in their current state – sinful in spirit and with their physical limitations. 

It is not unheard of for women with disabilities to turn to suicide as an escape from their difficult and purposeless lives.  The cycle of purposelessness and despair resulting in hopelessness can only be broken by addressing all levels of need together through the hope of Christ, who alone can heal them within and enable them to rise above their disability toward hope. 

Poverty

Women with disabilities experience poverty far beyond the level of the general population. Poverty is perpetuated by oppression, discrimination and injustice all of which these women experience on a daily basis. Lack of education and skills training limits their ability to find work in a country whose unemployment is already among the highest in the world.  The terrain in Sierra Leone is unrelenting and mobility can be almost impossible for a woman with blindness, post-polio syndrome, paralysis, or amputations. This further limits their ability to be employed or to sell goods on the open market perpetuating the cultural stigma that disabled people are useless and a burden to society.

This level of poverty leaves the women struggling day to day just to feed their children and often reduces them to a life of begging or sexual exploitation as a means of survival. This in turn leads to a cascade of other problems such as unplanned pregnancies, high infant and maternal mortality rates, the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and escalating gender violence. These lead to an increased loss of dignity, unhealthy personal relationship and unhealthy relationship models for their children. The cycle perpetuates as each difficulty impacts all of the others, ultimately resulting in despair and hopelessness. 

Christless-ness

We at Women of Hope International understand that the answer to the downwardly spiraling cycle of poverty is neither simple nor easy.  It is multifaceted, requiring a holistic approach. We believe that breaking this cycle and finding true hope begins with Christ.  His gift of eternal freedom from their earth-bound disabilities, His promise to be with them and give them grace to walk through every step of their struggles, big and small, and His unyielding love and compassion for them can bring hope, dignity and transformation.

While other programs may provide temporary relief from various aspects of this web of complex issues, ultimately there can be no lasting solution without Christ.  The problems will continue to spiral, each into the next, unless this cycle is broken.  Christ came to bring freedom to the captive and release to the oppressed.  In every possible way, these women are held captive and oppressed by their complex circumstances.  Finding Jesus is the beginning of their ultimate transformation.  As each woman finds Christ and the hope that is available in Him, He will begin the process of transforming her into His likeness; each woman in the way He has determined – for His glory and her good. 

Conclusion

The commitment of Women of Hope International is to walk beside these precious women and address their heart-felt needs through holistic development, beginning with Christ.  A key factor is being sure that the women and their communities are involved in identifying the problems as well becoming the solution. The women themselves must become a part of the solution and start to experience “successes” in their lives.

As the women understand that they are made in the image of God and have intrinsic value, they find relief from hopelessness and start to gain a sense of dignity.  As they yield their lives to Christ and come into relationship with Him they begin to sense the purpose that He has for them in this life.  Finally, having regained their dignity and found a purpose, they begin to walk the path toward true transformation.

.