Risking It All to Feed the Children: Liberian Women Exercise Right to Trade Without Fear

Sep 8, 2025 | Front Page Africa
Front Page Africa
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 Eighteen years ago, Saybah Fomba left Liberia for Sierra Leone, braving the uncertainty of her first cross-border trading trip. Nearly two decades later, the once timid girl who trembled at border posts now stands tall as the leader of the Montserrado County Chapter of the Association of Women in Cross-Border Trade (AWICBT).

“We have to make sure no woman feels powerless again,” she says with quiet resolve.

The AWICBT was founded in May 2010 after a baseline study by UN Women Liberia in November 2007. This was around the same time when Fomba at the Bowaterside border she was stopped by two male officers who demanded to search her. Before she could consent, their hands were inside her blouse and trousers, rifling through her bag.