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‘Bush wives’ among the victims of Sierra Leone’s civil war

Women scarred by Sierra Leone's civil war take sewing classes at the center set up by Justice Renate Winter, president of the special court trying war crimes cases. The women have been left scarred by their abuse and are ostracized by their families.

Women scarred by Sierra Leone’s civil war take sewing classes at the center set up by Justice Renate Winter, president of the special court trying war crimes cases. The women have been left scarred by their abuse and are ostracized by their families.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

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An Austrian judge presiding over war crimes trials tries to help some of the many women abused in the long civil war - some were forcibly taken as ‘wives’ by the fighters. She hopes sewing classes can help them earn a living, and some pride.

Justice Renate Winter's Legacy Project

A women learns some sewing skills at Justice Winter’s center, designed to help give victims a future. The next class, also the final because Winter is leaving the country, will also include three men, in acknowledgment of their suffering.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

Learning a skill in Sierra Leone

Sarah Koroma, 32, laughs with her fellow students, victims of war who have become friends, while learning to sew with teacher 79-year-old Victoria Wilson, right, in Freetown.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

Sewing class in Sierra Leone

Zainab Bangura sews under the watchful eye of sewing instructor Morlai Kalokoh at the center set up by Justice Renate Winter in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone. During the civil war, when Bangura was 14, fighters took her mother and killed her father. Bangura was forced to marry one of the rebels, but managed to escape a year later.  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

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Sierra Leone training center

Victoria Wilson, 79, teaches Christiana John, 55. John, who was held captive for six months, beaten and raped, sees the class as a way to break away from that past, “to stop thinking about my status” and to have a career — to open a tailor shop, perhaps with some of her classmates. “I’ve been starving for too long,” she said. “And this is food for my life.”  (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

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