Building a home away from home - WWWA

Mary Tal is a refugee from Cameroon and the Project Director of Whole World Women Association (WWWA), a refugee women focus group based in Cape Town.
The group is a safe space for refugee women from all over Africa to come and share their experiences, gain skills and information about issues affecting women, especially refugees. With all the stories that have been written by the women themselves, WWWA has managed to publish a story and poetry book called 'Living on the fence'.

When Mary explains the thought behind the title of the book, she mentions that as refugees they are forever thinking of where they come from and the country they are in, in other words they are neither here or there hence living on the fence.

South Africa is a country known for its hostile environment towards refugees (foreigners) especially black Africans. “Often I'm asked why I chose to come to South Africa and not other countries that are closer to Cameroon or asked when am I going back and why other people managed to stay behind if the country is as bad as I say it is”, explained Mary.

Whole World Women Association also offers refugee women information on HIV/AIDS through a five day workshop where they can learn about how HIV is transmitted and how to protect themselves. For those living with the virus there are also counselling session on how to live positively with the virus.

Other programmes that are offered are writing skills and the Healing of Memories Project which aims at helping women deal with their past experiences of trauma, war, violence and Human Rights abuses. In this programme, women get to confront their past and find ways of dealing with them in order to be able to move on and rebuild their lives.

WWWA also works with surrounding communities on issues affecting women especially refugee women.

There are three staff members and twenty volunteers who work at the centre. They also undergo training on how to articulate the issues of refugee women to their constituencies and on how to deal with the women that they serve.