-Women Rubber Tappers Rally GoL
By: Christiana Mabande
It’s unarguable that rubber has served as one of the country’s strongest foreign exchange products and primary agricultural export crops for decades.
As time revolves, many rural women are engaging in this backbreaking “man’s” job as an alternative livelihood support to their families risking injury and the development of deformities. “We have to tap as early as 5 AM every day. With no protection the bad thing is anything that happens to you is not the people’s business. Annie said, “It’s risky but again what can, our children need to survive.”
Annie in her mid-30s is a tapper at Bright Rubber Plantation in Margibi county. She started this trade in 2021 to enable her to raise her four kids because she lost her husband three years prior and had no one to assist.
Rubber is one of Liberia’s most important exports, worth about $107 million a year despite falling global prices, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Bright Rubber Plantation started operation in Liberia in 1967 and research shows it has a 63-year concession agreement with the Liberian Government. The farm covers an area of 5,000 hectares, according to the Liberia Land Authority’s 2019 Annual Report.
Female tappers at this plantation are faced with the challenge of working approximately 12 hours a day without safety equipment (gloves, goggles, rain boots, raincoats, and other safety gear), tapping hundreds of trees across many acres, collecting the latex, and washing latex cups among others. “We can put two buckets of the latter weighing 31.7 kg on a stick on our shoulder because there’s no other way to transport it to the storage facility.”
Not only has the company been inconsistent in meeting its obligation to employees but it allegedly offers no housing facility, medical care, and educational programs for employees or their kids. “We erected these huts you see because some of us live four to five hours walk away from the plantation and coming that early hours is risky because you might be rubbed, killed, or raped by evil people.
Annie said, “The company is not living up to the agreement they signed as they should be given two 25kg bags of rice every month but they are yet to do that.”
Annie not being the only one in this life-threatening situation at Bright Rubber Plantation, Esther, aged 45 and a mother of three kids has been reported living with back pain three years after she joined the company in 2018.
Despite the underlying health issues, Annie prefers the task as she can’t go back empty-handed because she would be mocked by her townspeople. “Because there is no school within the area, the kids walk for close to 45 minutes to attend the Firestone school in Division 25.”
With tears rolling down the cheeks of Esther Bendah, she called on the national government that is being headed by Joseph Boakai and other Humanitarian Organizations to come to their aid as the life they’re living is close to death.
Alfred Konah Jr is the Manager of the Bright Rubber plantations, he doesn’t deny any of these claims by the women as he failed to honor three different appointments scheduled by him to respond to the situation.
At one point, Alfred Konah told this fellow he was ill and undergoing medical care, but promised to speak with her when he got back on his feet but that did not happen even after many attempts to reach him after his illness to get him to respond to these concerns, he kept making excuses.
This story was produced under the Female Journalists Association of Liberia (FeJAL) Mentorship Program. Funding was provided by USAID through Internews, under Year 3 of its Media Activity Program.
