Monrovia – Eighteen years in the past, Saybah Fomba left Liberia for Sierra Leone, braving the uncertainty of her first cross-border buying and selling journey. Almost 20 years later, the as soon as timid woman who trembled at border posts now stands tall because the chief of the Montserrado County Chapter of the Affiliation of Girls in Cross-Border Commerce (AWICBT).
By Tina S. Mehnpaine, contributing author
“We’ve got to ensure no lady feels powerless once more,” she says with quiet resolve.
The AWICBT was based in Might 2010 after a baseline examine by UN Girls Liberia in November 2007. This was across the similar time when Fomba on the Bowaterside border she was stopped by two male officers who demanded to look her. Earlier than she may consent, their fingers had been inside her shirt and trousers, rifling via her bag.
“They knew Liberians journey with U.S. {dollars}, that’s why they searched,” she remembers. What they didn’t know was that Saybah had hidden her cash below her bra. The money was protected. Her dignity, much less so.
That analysis, the primary of its form, documented girls’s experiences at border websites and markets throughout the nation: Foya/Kondou (Liberia–Sierra Leone border, Lofa County), Ganta/Beala (Liberia–Guinea border, Nimba County), Bo-Waterside/Jendema (Liberia–Sierra Leone border, Grand Cape Mount County), Kuwait and Pink Gentle markets (Montserrado County)
The methodology was wide-ranging: 450 respondents surveyed (240 girls & 150 males from Liberia, plus 30 girls & 30 males from Guinea & Sierra Leone). Seventy individuals in focus teams at every border. Direct remark and interviews with Immigration, Customs, Police, the Liberian Advertising and marketing Affiliation, and transporters. The findings had been stark: Sexual harassment was essentially the most generally named type of violence. 9% of girls reported rape. 5% stated they’d been requested for intercourse in alternate for favors.
Girls because the Financial Spine
Girls will not be marginal actors in commerce; they’re its basis. Throughout Liberia, they make up 65% of cross-border merchants, carrying meals, textiles, and client items that maintain households provided and native economies alive.
Actually, their contributions lengthen far past markets. They supply meals safety by transporting staples throughout borders. They maintain family revenue within the absence of male breadwinners. They contribute on to the nationwide GDP by paying taxes and market charges.
“Girls merchants will not be simply victims,” says Ramon Garway, UN Girls Liberia’s Girls’s Financial Empowerment Programme Supervisor. “They’re connectors, innovators, and suppliers. Recognizing them is the important thing to unlocking financial progress.”
Indicators of Progress
Since AWICBT’s formation in 2010, girls have organized chapters in all 15 counties in Liberia. They conduct literacy courses, train enterprise improvement, and mentor younger merchants.
Nationwide and worldwide companions are starting to reply. The World Financial institution-funded Liberia Funding, Finance, and Commerce (LIFT) Undertaking is addressing extortion, enhancing entry to finance, and offering coaching in monetary administration and commerce laws. The Ministry of Commerce has been engaged with girls merchants, educating them about their rights at varied border factors and thru schooling campaigns. Transport associations are below rising stress to enhance security and cut back exploitative prices. Even drivers, usually accused of charging exorbitant fares, acknowledge systemic issues. “The roads destroy our automobiles,” says Joel Dennis, a taxi driver who frequently travels from Monrovia to Lofa County. “But when the roads enhance, fares will too.”
Tradition, Braveness, and Continuity
For a lot of girls, commerce will not be a alternative however a lifeline: widows, single moms, and people excluded from formal employment flip to markets. The sector is accessible, requiring much less capital than different companies, however demanding braveness.
The dangers are actual: damaged roads, unsafe nights, and harassment. However so too is the hope. Girls merchants converse of solidarity, of constructing networks throughout villages and borders, of offering for kids and conserving communities provided.
“We’re those who maintain meals shifting,” Fomba says. “And now, we’re additionally those who’re making the principles.”
By the Numbers: Girls in Cross-Border Commerce
Sixty-five % of cross-border merchants are girls (Liberia–Sierra Leone border). The ladies surveyed within the baseline report proceed to be on the forefront of the commerce. The challenges encountered don’t deter them. As a substitute, they navigate their methods as a method of gaining employment, taking good care of their households, and contributing to meals safety. From border factors, sideways, and market stalls, cross-border merchants proceed to extend of their numbers.
Martha Jackson, 42, sells gari and fish between Monrovia and Freetown. Harassment as soon as slowed her at checkpoints. Now, via AWICBT’s networks, she makes use of authorized coaching and consciousness to push again. “We all know our rights now,” she says.
Pauline Saywah, 32, sells plantains in Omega Market after three-day journeys from Nimba County. She describes driving motorbikes for hours, sleeping by roadsides when automobiles break down. But her stall bustles, a testomony to endurance.
Saybah Kollie, 31, leaves her youngsters for weekly night time journeys to Lofa County. The emotional toll is heavy, however she now travels in organized teams for security. “It’s nonetheless exhausting,” she says, “however we’re stronger collectively.”
Rights on Paper, Change in Apply
Liberia’s Structure ensures protected working situations. Internationally, Liberia is certain by the Conference on the Elimination of All Types of Violence in opposition to Girls (CEDAW). Each affirm girls’s proper to commerce with out concern.
However enforcement stays uneven. Saye Domahson, of the Ministry of Commerce’s Division of Overseas Commerce, acknowledges, “Complaints of harassment come to us. We’re educating girls on commerce guidelines, rights, and protections. It’s a lengthy course of, however change is occurring.”
Indicators of Progress
Since AWICBT’s formation in 2010, girls have organized chapters in all 15 counties. They conduct literacy courses, train enterprise improvement, and mentor younger merchants.
Nationwide and worldwide companions are starting to reply. The World Financial institution-funded Liberia Funding, Finance, and Commerce (LIFT) Undertaking is addressing extortion, enhancing entry to finance, and offering coaching in monetary administration and commerce laws. The Ministry of Commerce runs schooling campaigns at border crossings. Transport associations are below rising stress to enhance security and cut back exploitative prices. Even drivers, usually accused of charging exorbitant fares, acknowledge systemic issues.
Tradition, Braveness, and Continuity
For a lot of girls, commerce will not be a alternative however a lifeline: widows, single moms, and people excluded from formal employment flip to markets. The sector is accessible, requiring much less capital than different companies, however demanding braveness.
The dangers are actual: damaged roads, unsafe nights, and harassment. However so too is the hope. Girls merchants converse of solidarity, of constructing networks throughout villages and borders, of offering for kids and conserving communities provided.
“We’re those who maintain meals shifting,” Fomba says. “And now, we’re additionally those who’re making the principles.”
A Brighter Horizon
The street forward is lengthy and typically muddy. However girls are now not strolling it alone. They’re strolling it in teams, with information, with establishments listening, and with worldwide initiatives backing their trigger.
From plantain sellers in Omega Market to gari merchants crossing to Freetown, Liberia’s girls merchants will not be ready for programs to vary; they’re altering the system themselves.
As Ramon Garway places it, “Whenever you empower girls merchants, you empower total communities. And once you shield them, you shield the financial system itself.”
The ladies at Liberia’s borders will not be solely crossing checkpoints. They’re crossing boundaries of silence, exclusion, and concern, carrying households, feeding nations, and constructing a fairer financial system for West Africa.
