Through Their Eyes

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One video about rape resulted in an immediate increase in the number of women who sought out ARC’s field staff to report assaults and seek counseling.

“Because of the training and education, people are not afraid now to come and report cases to law enforcement or aid organizations,” says Albert Pyne, a Liberian ARC staff member who is a trainer for the project.

The video format also allows women to play important roles as community leaders. If they don’t want to appear on camera, they can conduct interviews and work as camera operators and project coordinators. But for some women, choosing to tell their stories on camera becomes an empowering and important part of the healing process.

In the first video created in the Lainé camp, Kumba, a young woman in a brightly patterned dress, determinedly tells how she was forced at age 13 to marry a much older man. When she was 16, Kumba explains, she became pregnant. Her abusive husband rejected her, and so did her mother when she tried to return home. The community scorned her:

“So I was just all around in the community. Anywhere I pass, they drive me [away]. Anyone want to beat me, they beat me . . .

“I never had nowhere to go. Then I [was] left sleeping in the darkness. I [was] alone. I delivered [the baby] in the darkness. . . . Who it ever happen to? But it happened to me. Because why? Forced marriage.”

Through Our Eyes participants have now created more than 20 videos with titles like “Rape Is a Bad Thing” and “Wife Beating Is Not Good.” Although the titles sound simplistic to Western ears, messages like these are rarely heard in public in these communities.

Because television is still rare outside of the Liberian capital of Monrovia, the videos attract large audiences who pay close attention. Lured by the opportunity to use technology, men are also eager to become involved in the production process.

“Sometimes it’s hard to get men involved in women’s issues,” says Kamara. “But when you bring technology into it, all of a sudden men feel like they’ve got a role.”

With a grant from the United States Agency for International Development, ARC plans to continue the Liberian program and implement similar programs for refugees living in Pakistan and Rwanda over the next three years. ARC is also forming programs in Thailand and Sudan and plans to hold a workshop for people involved in all the programs.

“It’s been successful in ways we’ve never imagined,” Kamara says. “It’s taken on a life of its own.”

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