West African Country that Struggled With a 10-year Brutal Civil War

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Profile Essay
Introduction
In a magnificent display of success and having achieved the American dream, Fatima Amina packs her 2017 BMW X1 SUV in a parking slot reserved for the program manager. Amina takes the elevator to her office located on the fourth floor of the Executive Suites in New York City's Grand Central, 34th street. Her office is well organized, with the file cabinet stacked with files and profiles of the next beneficiaries of her ‘mission’ work. The workload awaiting her every morning is overwhelming, but not comparable to the joy and happiness she gets from what she has passionately done for over five years. Amina’s glamorous and enchanting face does not disclose the ordeal she has gone through for the better part of her life, instead choosing to give a new lease of life to the less unfortunate, whose tribulations she shares. Amina’s fascinating and incredible story of grass to grace is deeply moving, reinforcing the fact that the past does not necessarily define the future.
Background
Fatima Amina, now in her mid-forties, emigrated from Sierra Leone in early 2000, after fleeing a brutal civil war in her country. Sierra Leone was engulfed in a bloody civil war between 1991 and 2002, fueled by the so-called blood diamonds that caused death to thousands of people, and forced many others to escape the country. Additionally, bad governance within the same period led to the rise of corruption, inexplicable leadership, unequal distribution of national resources, and judicial abuse (Voors et al. 279). Despite the country’s abundant natural resources, bad governance and endless conflict created an unsuitable environment for Amina and her family to flourish, emigrating from her beloved country remaining as the last resort.
As a young woman, Amina’s future in Sierra Leone was dim and options were running out. The ‘youth crisis’ in a country that was in the brink of economic collapse, caused by high unemployment rates, hyperinflation, and inadequacies of basic commodities, was the recipe needed for Sierra Leone to slide into a decade of atrocious civil war (Engwicht 262). Amani’s dire circumstance and her subsequent decision to escape Sierra Leone to the United States was “the best decision I have ever made in my life, despite being forced by circumstances” (Amina). It is well documented that, during the civil war, young women in their early twenties in Sierra Leone were married off as second or third wives if they were lucky, and if not, they were repeatedly raped and blamed for it (Coulter 83, 224). Given Amina’s unfortunate circumstances and background, her coming to America was not only well-timed but the best decision she ever made to save her life.
Amina was lucky enough to have a relative in the United States where she was accommodated upon her arrival. Her life had taken a positive turn and she was more enthusiastic about her future. It was a whole new life for her, “with comfort, peace, and tranquility I had not experienced for long as I could remember” (Amina). Opportunities for immigrants were plentiful and “soon enough, I found mysel...