Lawrence Hill learns about the challenges of being a girl in Swaziland

Crossroads honorary patron and award-winning author Lawrence Hill spent the last week in Swaziland where he met Crossroads partners and saw first-hand how the Swaziland ActionGroup Against Abuse (SWAGAA), Gone Rural boMake and the Family Life Association of Swaziland (FLAS) are making an impact.

 

This trip wasn’t Lawrence’s first with Crossroads. During the seventies and eighties, he travelled to Africa three times as a volunteer.  It was during his mandate in Mali that he met a midwife named Aminata, whose strength and perseverance made a distinct impression on him. Years later, when he needed a name for the main character in The Book of Negroes, a woman with a strong will and spirit, he knew that she should be named Aminata. A few years ago, Lawrence and Miranda Hill established the Aminata Fund, which provides vital funds to Crossroads programs supporting women and girls in Africa. 

Lawrence shared some photos and few of his first impressions from his trip. 

 “Swaziland. One of the smallest countries in the world, whose people have teeming hearts.  It's an honour to come here, as an honorary patron of Crossroads International, to support in my own small way the struggles of girls and women to live out their lives free of domestic and sexual assault, and to concentrate on the things we all long for: peace, love, close ties to family and community, the pursuit of individual dreams, work, and at least a modicum of prosperity.”

Lawrence Hill with Girls’ Empowerment Club members and Crossroads volunteer Laura Dowling.

“Here in The Kingdom of Swaziland, there are about  one million people in a tiny country encapsulated by South Africa. Among its chief exports are raw materials: pineapples and sugar. And among its most needy: girls and women, abused regularly in a country with the highest HIV / AIDS prevalence rate in the world.  I'm struck by the courage of the women of SWAGAA and of the girls they help, all committed to what every human being deserves: the right to live in peace, to follow their passions and get on with the business of building their lives.”  

Lawrence with girls from the Ngomane Primary School

”I visited the Ngomane Primary School in Swaziland today, and was greeted by a classroom full of about 80 girls singing their welcome at the top of their lungs. These girls were between the ages of about 6 and 13. Seeing their faces, hearing about their hopes, and watching the dreams on their faces was all the more striking, knowing that one girl out of three is sexually abused in this country before she reaches the age of 18.  I'm sure each and every one of those children draws courage from being in a Girls’ Empowerment Club, supported by SWAGAA.”  

Lawrence leading a writing workshop with Girls’ Club members.

“First question from the media today: what about the boys? Why no empowerment clubs for them? SWAGAA does have an initiative in the works for men, but it seems that each time there is a public discussion about the needs of girls, someone deflects the conversation and turns it to boys. Boys do have needs. All humans have needs. But it remains an uphill climb to convince all people in Swaziland of the crucial need to support girls as they continue to face domestic violence and sexual assault.” (Caption: Lawrence leading a writing workshop with Girls’ Club members.)

“The girls at the Mpala Primary School sang and danced their hearts out today.”

Lawrence Hill at Gone Rural boMake

Lawrence also had a chance to meet the women at Gone Rural boMake, the not-for-profit arm of Gone Rural. With commitment to sustainable social responsibility and Fair Trade principles, Gone Rural has successfully created a business model that empowers rural women by providing them with home based income and skills training.