‘Seeing Children Sitting On The Floor In School Pain My Heart’
Madam Bessie Worlo Nathan, a female politician in Maryland County
.... “Seeing the stage that Liberia is on and my people still drinking creek water and wall water pains my heart," Nathan said. "Seeing children going to school and sitting on the ground or running home for a seat was unthinkable. These are the reasons why I entered the race, and I prayed the representative-elect would look in that direction.”
Bessie Worlo Nathan, a female politician in Maryland County, said she ventured into politics to bring relief to school kids who often have to sit on the floor to take lessons during classes due to the lack of chairs in many schools.
“Seeing the stage that Liberia is on and my people still drinking creek water and wall water pains my heart," Nathan said. "Seeing children going to school and sitting on the ground or running home for a seat was unthinkable. These are the reasons why I entered the race, and I prayed the representative-elect would look in that direction.”
Nathan is one of two women against eight men who contested for the District Two seat in Maryland County. Despite electing Africa's first female president, female representation remains at 11% as of today. This is thought to be largely due to finance, which is a stumbling hurdle for women's survival in a democratic process. Regardless of how hard they work on various projects and initiatives in their various towns and districts, their prospects of being elected are slim. Many women do not work to be economically self-sufficient and do not know how to secure sources of support.
On the other hand, Liberia's elections law bars external sponsorship; therefore, men take advantage of the financial difficulty to "buy the electorates" in the dawn minutes when these women have spent all their little savings on developing the people and the community.
“Women don’t have support, so it is giving us tough times to win an election,” Nathan said. She continued, “If people can come in and give women support, a lot of women will go into the house. You can’t go into the race and not have money; our people want T-shirts, they want lappers, they want money, and you have to register yourself, print flyers, print your billboard, and other things before you finish the small money you have. At the end of the day, we don’t have much money to do what the people want before you can go into the house.”
Nathan believes that more awareness and education are required to close the gender gap in the legislature and throughout the country. “We need to spread the message out to the people, telling them if Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf can become president, women also can take part in those areas. We have to explain to them, but on the other side, we look at the poverty rate, the people are suffering. If somebody comes and says I will give you this amount of money for you to vote for me, they will not want to go to somebody that does not have it.”
Nathan's political career began in 2011 when she and others campaigned successfully for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's second presidential bid. “I have been campaigning for people, most especially in the last presidential elections for Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.”
“I was one of those who ran her campaign in Maryland County, and I also ran a campaign for Senator J. Blabo Browne. But it pains my heart when the rightful things are not done, and that’s why I also decided to contest myself.”
Nathan was born in Barclayville but hails from Grand Kru County and attended the St. Stephen High School in Grand Gedeh County before fleeing to Maryland County during the Second Liberian War and remaining there to this day. She is the third of 14 children born to Mr. and Mrs. Peter Worlo.
Before entering politics, Nathan spent over 25 years bringing women together, working with them, and providing them with small loans. The goal is for them to be self-sufficient and independent in running their homes and families and venture into other things of their desire.
“Now in Liberia because of the hardship in our country, when you are contesting, everybody wants to bring all their problems to you for you to solve, and we, the women, don’t have the resources to do that. Even our friends' women, because we don’t have much to give them, prefer voting for people who will give them loans, give them T-shirts, lappers, and other things, and we are not equipped to do those things.”
Nathan thinks women themselves are not ready to have their voices heard in the national legislature. “Women that are supposed to empower us to go into the house, some, because of envy, most of them are not willing to give their support to their fellow women.”
Editor’s note: This reporting is supported by the International Women’s Media Foundation and NDI’s VAW-PM Program.