On December 26, 2004, Sri Lanka fell victim to a monstrous natural disaster that plagued the entire country in a swarm of destruction. As the Tsunami devastated most coastal areas of the island within the span of a few hours, hundreds of lives were lost and families were torn apart.
Alia Whitney-Johnson, then a teenager, came to Sri Lanka for the first time as a tsunami relief volunteer. During her visit, she encountered a home for girls who had survived sexual abuse, because she was assigned to the shelter to assist with relief work. Many of the girls, all of them under 18 years had been rejected by their families due to stigma and prejudice. Often, they are placed in these protective shelters during their court cases, if they have had the courage to take legal action against the perpetrators, but they are also isolated from their families and communities, and lack the necessary life skills to transition back into society.
Moved by this encounter, Whitney Johnson went on to launch Emerge Lanka, a safe-haven organization helping young girls to recover from trauma using an unconventional way, in 2008.
The idea behind Emerge Lanka is to give survivors of sexual abuse a chance to reclaim their lives, says, Mumtaz Aroos Faleel, the organization’s country manager.
The organization implements a jewellery-creation program where the girls make handmade jewellery out of beads, handpicked by themselves, which has proven to be a therapeutic program. They have also been able to earn savings which they could later use in their lives outside the shelter homes. Up to date, the organization has worked with over 920 girls throughout their years of operation.
Whitney-Johnson was a jewellery maker herself, and after realizing that the victimized girls were not receiving any counselling or any such thing to uplift their spirit, she came up with the program to empower the girls and bring them happiness.
The establishment was first known as an organization that makes jewellery, as opposed to the actual focus, which was to empower survivors of sexual abuse. With a large focus on the girls involved and generating more savings for them to be used for their future, the organization was in operation initially with the help of small donations and volunteers that helped make the mission and vision of Emerge Lanka a reality.
Emerge Lanka is a registered organization at the Department of Probation and Childcare Services in Sri Lanka, identified as an organization that works exclusively with girls from ages 10 – 18 who are either at risk or are survivors of sexual abuse, and who have testified in court. The organization works with the most under-resourced shelter homes in Sri Lanka, that house survivors of sexual abuse. However, a sizeable amount of shelter homes in Sri Lanka house both, children who are in conflict with the law (juvenile offenders) and children in contact with the law (witnesses and survivors), which makes it challenging to implement the kind of healing programs Emerge Lanka has initiated. Such shelter homes accommodate an array of children who are survivors, from children who had run away from their homes to children who have been rejected by their parents, abuse survivors, to children with physical, mental and learning disabilities. There are also a few homes that house only survivors of abuse with which Emerge Lanka directly works.
“The fundamental idea behind the jewellery making is that the beading process is therapeutic”, states Faleel. “Each piece is made with unique beads and designs, and while making them the girls just forget about their surroundings and go to a corner and do the beading, thus developing a therapeutic effect on them”.
The overall idea of working with an array of colours, feeling happy for the fact that they were able to create something beautiful, freedom of choice and creation; all of it put together has formulated a tool for them to continue their healing journey from the trauma they had gone through. The organization hopes the skills they learn in the shelters would help the girls with livelihood support when they reach adulthood.
A percentage of survivors of sexual abuse, unfortunately, result in the conception of a child, even at the very young age of 10 – 12 . In such situations, the child who endures the pregnancy is not given the option of abortion as it is an illegal practice by the Law of Sri Lanka. During such cases the girls’ whole lives become affected at a tender age and many are forced to halt their education as a result.
When it comes to education, the organization has implemented four Core Programs that help the girls to overcome the trauma and learn necessary life skills, to function as strong adults in society. The four programs are: Bead-to-Business program (help girls to learn to initiate and handle their own small business by engaging in jewellery making), Life Skills program (teaching the girls basic skills needed to survive in society as independent adults), Mentorship program (pairing up with mentors and role models who teach the girls different topics such as, the importance of mental health, responsibility, and so on), and Re-integration program (helping the girls to move in to society as independent adults while connecting them with external resources).
At Emerge Lanka, the girls’ mental health and stability is kept at a constant check. With the help of a number of specialists in the field of psychology, including professional counsellors, a qualified clinical psychologist and supervisor, the girls involved at Emerge Lanka are constantly on watch and their wellbeing ensured by these professionals.
The inspiration the organization has today with their work is very much the same they had 12 years ago when Whitney-Johnson met the very first girl. Emerge Lanka sees themselves as educators, where they provide the girls with education, more awareness and more life skills, which have proven to be very valuable to them when they go out into society in the future.
Children at the growing age of 9 – 12 learn social interaction and how they need to go about their daily lives by learning such skills from their parents, family, teachers and peers. However, their world becomes shattered when the people who are supposed to be taking care of them are actually causing harm to them, which results in them being removed from society.
“We are living in a culture where violence prevails at a constant pace. We are ignoring that there is violence, that there are violent perpetrators among all of our children. We need to be out there and protect our children. Not doing that in my opinion is a huge injustice towards humanity and not doing that will have a major negative impact on their lives. They should not live a life that is defined by their past” states Faleel.