Lanyom Grace has nine children. With her first husband she had six, but her husband was later killed by the rebels during the war. She is now remarried and has had three more kids with her second husband. She digs sorghum and cassava on her own.
When the war began, she saw so many people killed. She came from a family of two girls; both of them could not go to school during the war. They witnessed their parents being burned in their own home! She met her first husband from her sister and was married young. Her husband died in 2002 and she was forced to take care of her kids on her own. “I felt the problems of this world!”
She feels free now that the war is over and she has joined the group! She sees lots of changes, “good changes, like kids in school!” Lanyom is even in a literacy class herself! She can now read and write her own name. She dreams of her kids excelling in school and wants to continue learning herself. She hopes to study mathematics so that she can do business. She works alone now and her second husband is not united with her. She wants to reunite the family so they can work as one.
Lanyom says the group helps her forget her problems. She feels good going home at night knowing she has something to look forward to. Sitting as one in the group and using their hands to make their beads makes her happy! She hopes to make enough money in order to get an ox plow so she does not have to dig. She wants to get iron sheets and rings to construct a home. She feels this development will bring happiness! She feels “there are problems and struggles everywhere you go,” but she is free now and wants to be reunited and grow!