Editor's note: Journal Staff Writer Philip Marcelo will be traveling to Liberia in August to report on that country's progress 10 years after the end of a devastating civil war. This is the latest installment of an online and print series called "Rebuilding Liberia: The R.I. Connection." The project is funded by the International Center for Journalists, in Washington.
PROVIDENCE, R. I. -- Back in April, a woman who runs a nonprofit organization focused on women in rural Liberia paid a visit to Rhode Island.
Esther Dahn heads up the Liberian Concern Women Development Association, founded in 2000 during the heat of the country's second civil war.
She spoke at a gathering at Top of the Bay Restaurant in Warwick organized by her cousin, Vonyee Dahn, a Pawtucket resident active in the local Liberian community.
Esther Dahn said she was in the U.S. to speak at the United Nations in New York about the country's continuing problems with child rape. She also was visiting states like Rhode Island that have strong Liberian communities in the hope of raising money for her organization.
Like other advocates, Dahn said domestic abuse and sexual exploitation on women is still too prevalent in the country.
But unlike the war years, it's not strangers that are perpetrating the crimes, she said. It's often someone known to the women -- a friend, a relative, a husband. The problem, Dahn said, is compounded by an ineffective judicial system and victims reluctant to step out of the shadows for fear of retaliation or public shame.
She says many in the Liberian community in the U.S. are still not aware of how serious the problem is back home.
Winston Gould, president of the Liberian Community Association of Rhode Island, counted himself among those.
"I was very shocked and disappointed to know that," he said after the event. "We have a female president, yet the rape of these young women -- toddlers, even -- is getting bad. These women are crying for help. They want justice and the system is failing them."
Dahn said her organization helps teach young women -- and some young men too -- skills to make them more self-sufficient.
It offers classes on how to sew or tailor clothing, as well as classes on pregnancy, adult literacy and other life skills. It also teaches participants how to best cultivate staples of the Liberian diet like cassava and rice so that their families do not have to be dependent on purchasing those things in the market.
Nearly 5,500 women and youths are enrolled in the organization's programs. Its motto: "Women don't just sit there, do something positive."
As her cousin Vonyee explained: "She tries to make people self sufficient. Especially the people that come out of the war with nothing. They're poor. Worse than before. And she's brought them together. The women and children that were raped and tortured and have no mother and father."
Since that April event, Vonyee and other women in the Rhode Island Liberian community have formed a local chapter of the organization to help raise funds and supplies. They also hope to raise awareness within the expatriate community about the issues women still face in Liberia.
Meanwhile, I've been in contact with Dahn and she's offered to meet at the organization's Monrovia-based headquarters. I'm also hoping to see the group's work in rural communities.