* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Fadimata Walet Haiballa, 49 years old, is a Tuareg widow with three children—one boy of five and two girls aged seven and 20—from Gao in Mali. Her husband was killed in this year’s bombings in Agelbock, Mali. She’s Muslim. Back in Mali, she would trade in honey, rice and glass objects. She says she and her children fled the terror brought by militia rebels and sought shelter across the border in refugee camps.
Photo credit: Helen Blakesley/CRS
In her own words: “Our lives have changed completely. Back in Mali, before all this, we were in our beautiful houses, we lived in good conditions. We didn’t know fear; we didn’t have the (beating) sun. I had the father of my children with me. Now we’re here in the dust, with the sun, we’re thirsty and we’re surviving on minimal food. So a lot has changed. Above all, my work, my job, with which I could support my children. That’s all gone now.”
Photo credit: Helen Blakesley/CRS
“Our biggest problem is not having anything to do. Myself as an example, I was independent from my husband, my parents, because I worked, I had a job, I was useful, I supported my children. But today, I am useful to nobody, not to myself or others. Us women’s morale is very low, as we can’t work. We have our children on our backs, but we can’t do anything for them.”
“There are no moments of joy since coming here, because to have joy, you need to feel pleasures…and there aren’t any. We’re confronted by problems – the sun, the dust, not enough to eat, how can we have joy? We’ve been here under the sun since January. I ask myself why.”
