Holistic Development
In serving the women with disabilities, we must treat them as whole people. This means realizing that their various needs are all interconnected and must be addressed altogether. We classify these needs into five categories.
Physical
Social
Emotional
Spiritual
Economic
Physical
The women with disabilities have a wide variety of physical needs depending on their type of disability and their level of function. Each woman needs to be involved in the problem solving of her situation and then give input to the solution since she has the best understanding all of the issues surrounding her circumstances.
Mobility aids such as wheelchairs and crutches can be the keystone to survival and independence for women with Post-polio Syndrome, pa
ralyzed limbs, Leprosy or amputations. Others may benefit most from a prosthetic device in order to perform the most basic of daily activities. The terrain of Sierra Leone makes getting around extremely difficult so quality, sturdy, terrain-appropriate assistive devices are essential for these women who are struggling to care for their children and earn a living on their own.
Many of the women we serve have no permanent place to live, or live under the tyranny of a landlord or caretaker who is unkind or exploitative. In these cases, there is a need to find suitable permanent housing for the woman and her family.
The types of physical assistance that each woman might need are as varied as the individuals themselves. In each case we attempt to help the woman find her own way to meet her need, rather than immediately provide handouts. We strive to restore the dignity that has often been robbed from her by demonstrating that we believe in her abilities to care for herself. We believe in empowering her to reach farther and higher than she ever has before in order to meet her and her family’s needs. We will walk with her on this path and build her confidence in herself, equipping her with the skills and resources she needs to find a better way.
Social
In many, if not most cases, the women with disabilities have suffered multiple fractured relationships during the course of their life. If they were born with their disability, they were more often than not “thrown away” by their families and maybe raised in a boarding home or foster home. People with disabilities are often treated as sub-human, causing them have no models of appropriate familial relationships from which to build their lives.
Many of these women whose disabilities have occurred in adulthood find themselves abandoned by their husbands. It is common for men to make emp
ty promises of assistance in exchange for sexual favors leaving the women used and abused. This lays a crumbled foundation for healthy relationships with men so that even the expectations they have of appropriate relationships are skewed.
Emotional
The emotional scars of growing up rejected due to something outside of your control cannot begin to be described. Many of the women we work with do not see themselves as having any value whatsoever, but only as a burden to everyone around them. For those who have become disabled later in life, there are the emotional traumas of the events that caused the disability to deal with as well.
Whether or not the recent civil war was the cause of the woman’s disability, each woman suffered her own trauma and pain during the war. Many were gang raped by rebels, some were shot or wounded, and others were abandoned by their family members who fled to escape rebel violence. For the disabled women, being unable to defend herself at all during such attacks exacerbated the physical and emotional toll of the war.
Beyond the trauma of war there are many other emotional wounds inflicted upon the women with disabilities. Sexual exploitation, rejection by those who should protect them, humiliation by people who don’t understand their conditions, rape, and shame for being a burden on others are just a few of the daily emotional struggles the disabled women live with. Bringing some of these emotional wounds to the surface and acknowledging them can begin the healing process for many women. As one woman told us, “I have never told the story of my rape to anyone since it happened several years ago – and I had no idea so many others had experienced similar things to me and understood what I’ve gone through.”
Providing a safe place for the women to share their stories and gain support from each other and the staff is key to beginning the journey down the road to emotional healing. Using Biblical counseling techniques, story therapy and mutual support, Women of Hope International can provide the women a way to deal with their wounds and find restoration. Becoming emotionally whole is essential to being able to be an integral and productive part of society.
Spiritual
The vast majority of women with disabilities in our program have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. They have heard of Jesus and know about Christianity, and some have even attended church, perhaps for many years. But they don’t understand their need of a Savior or what Christ did for them. The Bible tells us that faith comes through hearing the word of God, and most of these women have not heard His Word proclaimed with accuracy, and because they have no education, they cannot read it for themselves.
Most of the women practice a composite of Christianity, Islam and animistic religions in an effort to cover all their bases. The need for spiritual truth is great. This need is practically displayed in how it affects the perception of disability, both by the people with disabilities themselves and also by society as a whole.
As a result of a lack of knowledge regarding the causes of disability and a worldview that attributes everything “bad” to curses and evil spirits, people with disabilities are often believed either to be a devil or to be a person cursed by God. These beliefs create a great deal of distress for people with disabilities and have led to much abuse by well-meaning, but poorly informed family members who want to get rid of the devil. Correcting these beliefs is critical to changing society’s acceptance of and treatment toward people with disabilities.
On the other hand, as noted in Biblical examples, some physical ailments can be a result of demonic activity and oppression, and those n
eed to be dealt with appropriately in the authority of Christ as He Himself demonstrated (Matt. 12:22-28, Mark 9:14-29). People need to be freed from the bondage of demonic power, whether in their physical bodies or in the deception they have believed in their minds.
The Chronological Bible Storying (CBS) strategy is the methodology we will employ to transmit the truth of the Scriptures in a relevant and meaningful way to people who come from illiterate backgrounds. Traditional evangelistic sermons do not speak to people from oral cultures in a way that they can relate to. Using the more traditional means of story telling conveys the meaning of the Scriptures in a way that is relatable, memorable and transferable. Learn more about this method here.
Economic
The unemployment rate in Sierra Leone is approximately 80% with many highly qualified people vying for the few jobs. Most people survive on “petty trade” selling small commonly used items such as candy, flip-flops, pens, or various food items to those around them. The profit margin on this type of trade is infinitely small, and the market is fixed and saturated.
In Sierra Leone it costs a minimum of $1.25 per day to feed a family just the essentials. Among the women we are serving, we have found that while most are trying to do something to earn their own living, they make only 25 - 50 cents per day, while some bring in nothing. They are forced to resort to other methods of making money, which often mean that when men offer them some money for their “services,” out of desperation, they comply. While none of them are happy with this arrangement, and it contributes to multiple other problems that they have to contend with (including many unwanted pregnancies) they feel they have no choice. One woman stated the problem very articulately, “If I desperately need Le 5,000 ($1.25) today to feed my family and I have nothing in my hand and know that I have no way of finding that money, and a man offers me Le 10,000 to sleep with him – I’ll say yes. What else can I do? But if I hold Le 20,000 in my hand, and a man offers me Le 10,000 to sleep with him, I can say ‘Forget it!’ and feed my family without him.”
There are also many barriers prohibiting the disabled women from making a decent living. Some have tried to sell products to the public, but because of their disfigurement or disability, no one will purchase their goods. Others have no skills, since they have been denied any education or training. Some have skills and can produce items people will buy but the
y have difficulty marketing their items because of their mobility issues. Some women are just so weary from the demands of life on their broken bodies that they have nothing left to pour into starting a business from scratch.
