{"id":4645,"date":"2011-08-07T10:47:40","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T17:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stirringthefire.com\/blog\/?p=1221"},"modified":"2014-05-14T15:30:58","modified_gmt":"2014-05-14T22:30:58","slug":"interview-with-at-risk-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philborges.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/07\/interview-with-at-risk-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with At-Risk Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of Foundation for Women<\/a> (FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. A longtime supporter of Phil and his work, Kevin Castner is traveling with him and reporting back to us from the field.<\/em> They are also, along with the WTYSL<\/a> team, helping young women leaders attending a “Women’s Leadership Conference” put on by FFW make a movie for their community. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the worst day of my life again\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m going somewhere better later\u201d\u00a0 Two T-shirts I saw today.\u00a0 I guess they could be a kind of metaphor for life in Liberia.\u00a0 Today is really bad but things are improving.\u00a0 This could also apply to the lives of the three young girls and their \u2018savior\u2019 that we met today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sebastian of What Took You So Long<\/p><\/div>\n

Our young women decided they wanted to make a film that could help other at risk Liberian women decide against living a life on the street or losing hope and giving in prostitution.\u00a0 They really wanted to meet girls who were prostitutes or who had been prostitutes.\u00a0 Sebastian Lindstrom has a contact that works with at-risk girls in West\u00a0Point, one of the very worst neighborhoods in Monrovia.\u00a0 He has arranged for his contact to see us today with three of her girls.\u00a0 The girls did not want to be photographed.<\/p>\n

Katie Meyler shows up punctually at 11am at Foundation For Women HQ.\u00a0 She brings with her Princess (13), Musu (15) and Abigail (12).\u00a0 What do child prostitutes look like?\u00a0 These three are waifs, rail thin.\u00a0 How could they be sex objects?\u00a0 Really, how could they?<\/p>\n

We meet in the conference room and our young women don\u2019t know quite what to make of the three younger girls.\u00a0 At 15, Musu is only two years younger than \u2018our\u2019 Asalyn Browne.\u00a0 Our girls seem a little unresponsive; I think they were thinking that there\u2019s been a mistake, that Katie had just brought three at-risk girls, but not prostitutes.\u00a0 I leave to ask Emily Peal a question and come back to gospel music.\u00a0 Katie has found the universal Liberian ice-breaker.\u00a0 All the girls join in and Wilhelmina Miller, 24, from Totota in Bong, in particular turns out to have a wonderful, powerful voice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Asalyne Brown<\/p><\/div>\n

Phil decides to take everybody out to the gazebo next door.\u00a0 The gazebo has a conical thatched roof and a round concrete wall underneath.\u00a0 Everybody will be more relaxed and the light and angles will be better.\u00a0 The 14 women sit inside with their backs to the wall while their bare feet make a circle in the middle.\u00a0 They do another round of gospel singing and then Katie speaks a powerful poem<\/a> she wrote in New York, earlier this year, when she heard Abigail went missing back in West Point.\u00a0 She holds Abigail\u2019s hand while she recites and Abigail hides her head.<\/p>\n

Next, our girls have a lot of pent up questions.\u00a0 \u2018How old were you when went on the street?\u2019 \u2018How much did you earn?\u2019\u00a0 \u2018How many men did you have to sleep with?\u2019 \u2018What did your parents do?\u2019 \u2018Did you feel bad? \u2018Were you ever raped?\u2019 \u2018How does it feel?\u2019 \u2018Where did you find customers?\u2019 \u2018Did you ever get sick?\u2019 (Yes) \u2018Are you willing to change\/do you want to go back to school?\u2019 (Yes) \u2018Did you use condoms?\u2019(surprisingly, yes)<\/p>\n

These young, pretty, underage girls sold themselves for $1-2US (in her poem Katie refers to Abigail as a \u2018$2 hooker\u2019) to whomever wanted their services at a video store where they also slept (on the floor).\u00a0 They have been beaten.\u00a0 They did run away from home.\u00a0 Their lives have been hell.\u00a0 As stories come out of them, though, they sometimes laugh or point at each other and grin.\u00a0 I wonder \u2018what can be so funny?\u2019 but these girls, sadly wise way beyond their years, are still children.\u00a0 They deal with reality and find humor or fun where it is possible.\u00a0 Or use humor as a defense mechanism.\u00a0 Whatever they tell us, Katie tells me later it is a mix of fact and fiction.\u00a0 She says after months of caring for them she is only now, she feels, getting pretty much the whole truth.\u00a0 When the world has abandoned you, uses you and beats you, why tell anyone the truth?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Martha Daniels<\/p><\/div>\n

Martha Daniels, 31, from Congo Town, Monrovia speaks up.\u00a0 She says she has a similar history.\u00a0 She never knew her biological father.\u00a0 She grew up with a stepfather.\u00a0 She was beaten.\u00a0 She says \u2018I am not from a rich family, but I do not sell my body.\u2019\u00a0 Martha just graduated from university, with help from a Foundation For Women scholarship.\u00a0 But it took her ten hard years.\u00a0 Lack of money forced her to quit school in 2001.\u00a0 Then the war forced her to flee to Ghana for five years.\u00a0 Then she came back, found a job and began to save some money to go back to school.\u00a0 She persevered.<\/p>\n

One of the three young girls (I cannot bring myself to call them prostitutes….to me they were raped, by men and by circumstances) says she needs to get out of West Point.\u00a0 She says she cannot really change until she is living somewhere else, because so many people in West Point know she is, or was, a prostitute and therefore treat her badly.\u00a0 Theresa Tyee, 27, from Red Light in Monrovia offers this advice, \u201cSay I was a prostitute, but now I\u2019m not.\u201d\u00a0 Emily Montgomery, 20, from far away in Sinoe, says, \u201cGet off the streets.\u00a0 Go back to your parents.\u201d\u00a0 Both these comments are well meant, but following the advice could be impossible, or dangerous.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Emily Montgomery<\/p><\/div>\n

We have a few more site visits up next.\u00a0 Check back to learn more about FFW’s work!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of Foundation for Women (FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. A longtime supporter of Phil and his work, Kevin Castner is traveling with him and reporting back to us from the field…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,22],"tags":[136,137,215,216],"class_list":["post-4645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-documentary-training","category-stirring-the-fire","tag-foundation-for-women","tag-from-the-field","tag-kevin-castner","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\nInterview with At-Risk Girls - Phil Borges<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.philborges.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/07\/interview-with-at-risk-girls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview with At-Risk Girls - Phil Borges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of Foundation for Women (FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. 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