By: Lebah Sorie Gibateh
Manteneh Kargbo, a forty-five -year-old woman is one of twenty-three (23) women who have been engaged in stone mining at a quarry located at Serekoliya Road, one of four stone mining sites that have been established by women in the outskirt of Mongo Bendugu Town since 2018.
Speaking to Politico, she said they resorted to stone mining in a bid to support their homes adding that a good number of them are single parents while those who have husbands are mostly too old and economically constrained to fend for themselves and their children.
She said that Crop Farming has become a costly or expensive enterprise that they hardly afford since the young men they used to hire for labour are now fully engaged in timber logging which she said pays them more than what they get from farming.
“Even when some of us decide to embark on vegetable farming, cattle normally graze on our crops if we do not fence the field, which equally involves money,” she said.
She also explained that cattle’s rearing in the community has further discouraged them from crop farming and left them with no option but to turn to stone mining.
The women said they are assisted by one Abu Bakarr Kamara, a local power- saw operator who cuts down the logs they use to heat the rocks at minimal costs making them easier to break. The women mostly do these jobs with no protective gears from possible fragments.
Walia Kumba, one of the stone miners shared her experience of sustaining injury on her left fingers with a hammer while breaking the stones into tiny pieces.
Though stone mining could be seen as an intensive work for women, yet the increasing demand for granite by building Contractors to execute public and private construction projects has, however, kept these women employed for the past two years, and they have been able to meet some of the basic needs of their children and families.
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