Decontee: Who are you?
Oretha: My name is Mrs. Oretha Bundo She, the Vice president for the Female Journalist Association of Liberia (FeJAL). I was born in Cotton Tree, Firestone, unto the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bundo, my mother’s name is Fatu Bundo and my father’s name is Saah N.H Bundo. We are from Foya, Lofa County.
Decontee: How was your childhood days?
Oretha: I was living with my parent attending the James Tokay High School where I started my high school education at three years of age when my parent went up interior after receiving a message that my grandmother was sick and she needed to see my mother. My parent left me with a lady, we moved to Buchanan when the 1990 war came. After the war, I started school again. I was in the 3rd grade class when we moved to the BTC Barracks. The lady I was living with met an army man and so we started living in the barracks where I started school again and I was in the 4th grade class.
Unfortunately for me, the lady I was living with, left the man and left us there because she never considered us as her children, and being the only girl living with the man knowing that I was not his daughter, he told me the only way he would take care of me is when he has sex with me. At that moment, I experienced sexual harassment when I was around the ages of 12 and 13 years. It became a continuous process because I never knew any of my family members and I had nowhere to go and I was going to school while I was with him, I was just there and he did whatever he would do. After some time, a lady who always came to sell at the barracks saw me and she said she was looking for someone to help her, the man agreed and the woman took me with her.
I then moved with the woman at the ELWA gas station and I started attending the Highway Christian Fellowship School. This woman used to bake all kinds of bread, and as a child living with her, I would wake up at 4:00 AM to help bake the bread and go sell it before going to school. So, I always used to be late for school. One morning the school’s principal asked why I always went late to school and asked who I was living with. I told him that I was living with my mother and he said he wanted to meet with her. I took him to my house and he asked her why I was not going to school on time, knowing that I was a clever child; he appealed to she and her husband to allow me to go to school on time and that is by 7:00 am rather than 8:00 am. After the principal left, the woman and her husband beat me so badly and the next morning I went on to sell again before going to school, so I could not stop being late. The principal called me into his office again and he said to me that, he knew that those people were not my parent, and I confessed to him that they were not my parents and I did not know the whereabouts of my parents, and that I was even beaten because of what he told them. The principal made the school dean understand that it is not my fault for going to school late every day so they can allow me to enter class without much punishment. After a long period, the lady started going out of time to buy cold bags to sell. In that time her husband asked me to sleep with him, and if I did not agree he would put my things outside, and I begin another sexual harassment. When she came back from out of town, I told her about it and she got vexed with me and told me that I wanted to spoil her home. It came a time when my aunty started putting me on a man to get money for the house. I got so tired of life and I ran away to a friend of mine whom I met when I used to go sell bread around. I moved to her house and we started living together. My aunty put my name on the radio that I was missing when we heard the announcement the girl said we should go back and inform my aunty that I am safe and I am staying with her. We went there including the man I was living with in the barrack to settle everything. During the meeting, I said that I never wanted to stay with the woman anymore, so the man told me that he never had a place in the barrack but I should move in with my friend and when things settled, he will come for me. I started staying with my friend thinking that I was free from sexual harassment. My friend’s boyfriend told me he wanted to sleep with me, and I said no because he was loving to my friend who I consider to be my sister. The man said if I did not agree he would put me outside because he is the owner of the house. One day he planned a trip for he and I to go somewhere for something and he told his girlfriend and she agreed. When we reached where we were going, he told me to enter the room for something and when I entered, he locked the door and raped me in the house and I started crying. People came around and said what he did was not good. He said nothing will happen and when we got home, I told his girlfriend and she got vex with him and blasted at him.
I called the man I was living in the barrack and told him that I never wanted to be with my friend again, so if he did not have anywhere for me to stay, he should tell me so I could go wherever I wanted to. He came for me and carried me back to BTC Barracks and took me to a lady who was looking for someone to take care of her children and she accepted me. This woman was very good and she was the first person to treat me like a child after all that I have been through. I explained everything to her and she took me down the waterside and bought clothes for me and took me to the hospital for treatment, and she took me to Gray D. Allison School campus for entrance and paid my school fees and I started school in the 6th grade class. I was with her until the octopus war came. She went out to plait her hair when the war came and I was left home with the children. When the war intensified, the children and I went with one of our neighbors and we were there until the war came to an end. We came back to the barrack, the woman saw us and she was so happy, and life began again. We started going back to school. The woman’s office sent her to Lofa and I was left home with the children. After three to four months, the children and I never had food to eat and were still there. She sent me to one of their fathers who was in the barracks to be helping with food money. He will give us a hundred Liberian dollars every day for food money. After four to five months the woman called me and told us she would not be coming home anytime soon so I should take the children to their fathers and leave the house. I started crying knowing that I did not have anywhere to go. I called the man who took me to the woman and informed him about it and he sent me to one of his friends who had died and only her children were in the house. He told me to go and be with them. When I moved into the house the children’s big brother said if I wanted to stay in the house, he would have to sleep with me every night, and I never had anywhere to go, so I was there and he was having his will. All through, one thing I am grateful to God for is that I never got pregnant even though I was not taking any prevention. One evening I was sitting outside when I met my first son’s father, at that time I was around the age of 16, and he was living behind our house. We started living together and I was going to school. My boyfriend had his place and business running. Things were going well and I luckily got on the sports scholarship while I was going to school. I got pregnant with my first son in June 2004. In that same year, my parent started looking for me and they met me at my boyfriend’s place and my father cried and apologized for leaving me all those years.
But one thing throughout my journey that I took into consideration was my education, with all of the treatment I was going through, you could do anything to me but once I was in school, I was happy. I went back under parental care, and my father sent me to Bong County to my grandfather to continue my education. I started living with my grandfather and my mother took the child with her, after experiencing life on my own, living with a man, I became a child again.
Decontee: How did you start your journalism career?
Oretha: When I reached the 11th-grade class, I always liked listening to UNMIL Radio back then and I will always tell my sisters that one day I talk on that radio. From that moment I developed an interest in journalism, I expressed to people that I wanted to be a journalist and someone recommended me to Radio Gbarnga to practice. I went there and I spoke with Clarence Jackson that I wanted to be a journalist, and he told me to be reporting from the school that I was in. I started reporting and writing happenings on campus and reading news on devotion line. After some times with the help of my French instructor and other people who used to edit my note, I became the spokesperson for the school. Later Clarence called me to Radio Gbarnga to read the announcement on air and it was another journey again. After some time, I changed my school to Williams V. S Tubman grade because my grandfather never wanted me to be a journalist. He said journalists do not have benefits and there is no money in doing journalism, so I should do nursing, agriculture, or other things than journalism. And I told him that in life anything you put your mind to do and you do it to the best of your ability, you will become successful, and that is how he started calling me Elizabeth Blunt. He said I was getting too wild and exposed so he cannot control me anymore I should do what I want to do, so I got a new place and my father pays the rent. That is how I changed my school and I was still in the 11th-grade class. In my new school, I noticed that I was good as an accountant, so I started thinking about how I manage. I went back to Clarence and I told him about it, he encouraged me to open a press club in the school.
I discussed it with the school’s principal and he embraced the idea but he told me to report to him before reading anything about the school on the radio and devotion line. I started reading news from the school weekly on-air and devotion, while in school I was serving as receptionist at Radio Gbarnga doing announcement and request forms, until one day Clarence told me to be producing a program from the market asking marketers about the commodity on the market and the prices. The program was named commodity index and I was also reading the five minutes news on the radio. In 2009 I graduated from high school with honors and started working full-time at Radio Gbarnga. When I started, the station was paying me LD500 and later increased to LD 3,000 and that is what they were paying until I left and came to Monrovia to attend university.
In 2011 I took UL Entrance and I passed when I started UL my father said I should do accounting and not journalism, so I was in UL doing accounting and practicing journalism. I went on looking for a radio station to practice instead of looking for an accounting firm to practice, but because I have passion for journalism so I started practicing at the United Methodist Radio producing a Christian program That was when I met Barbizon Harris who tough me editing, adobe, writing the headline and so on. I did not go to school for editing, writing, interview but I learned them from training. Later he left and went to LIB 24 in 2015 and called me to join him at Love FM. I went there and met a few colleagues, after some time Uncle Bah went to UNMIL Radio from 2015 to 2016. UNMIL radio was looking for someone to produce a program and uncle Bah called and told me that he recommended me and I should get ready for interview the next day. I was not well and it was during the Ebola time so I was afraid but, he encouraged me and I went for the interview. I was successful in all of the questions that were asked by Lisa White who conducted the interview. Immediately I started work. I worked outside for two months interviewing people on how to prepare food. It was the first program I started producing at UNMIL Radio. I have been working here from 2016 to the present and things have been good here, the training, mentorship, and human relationships have made the working relationship smooth, and the people who work here are mentors and professional people. I was at the station when the mission took over in 2018 and ECOWAS came and maintained us as staff at the station.
Decontee: What is your position at the radio station?
Oretha: Working here, I have been able to produce three different programs. Food and Nutrition, SGBV fronts, and the Angie Brooks hour. I am responsible for producing these programs, most often when I am producing the SGBV program I usually put my story at the front, and because the program has helped people to move from the state of abuse and say it out, I usually leave my number and I have received calls from many people and help them through.
Decontee: What has been your motivation?
Oretha: My motivation has been self-confidence. I have always believed in myself and that I can make it no matter the situation I found myself in, even when I was going through all those sexual abuses, I knew that one day I would be someone better.
Decontee: What has been your achievement in life?
Oretha: I am 37 years old I am married to a pastor and living in my own house. I have my children and business running for me. These are my achievements and I am still working to do other things and helping people. I have dreamed of having an orphanage home to help people because there are a lot of children who are going through difficulty and their parents are unable to send them to school and they are in the streets selling. I believe opening an orphanage home will help a lot and it has always been my dream of helping them. My husband is a pastor he has a dream to establish his church in the future and I am supporting his dream, because as children of God our faith in Christ is key and we should have Christ in us if we want to live a sustainable life. That is why I always teach my children the bible because nobody can take it from us.
Decontee: How did you become the vice president of the Female Journalist Association of Liberia?
Oretha: I joined PUL in 2009 in Bong County during World Press Freedom Day and got full membership in 2016 when I moved to Monrovia. When I became a member, one of my priorities as a journalist is to look out for people and show concern for others, being in the media and being supportive to your friends is very good. At times I go on the internet and say hi to ten persons a day. Last year I took the initiative to start looking out for our sick colleagues and raise funds for them. And I joined the Female Journalist Association of Liberia the same year I joined PUL. I started taking part in all FeJAL activities. In every organization I found myself in I always found part of activities and provide my services, because to be relevant in an organization you need to provide your services and it is very good. Wherever you call my name, I am there, community service, church activities, social and professional activities I am always there. I was appointed as welfare chairperson in 2019 under sis Siatta Scott’s regime, and last year 2023 I developed an interest in the vice presidency. I needed not to campaign because the services I was providing for the institution and the activities proved that I was fit for the position, and I feel good serving as vice president for FeJAL, because some areas in the institution that were not functioning, we are working on them. Currently, we are working with county coordinators to establish a union of female journalists in various counties and it has been a good working relationship. We have a plan to establish our resource center where female journalists can work as well and we are soon to establish our website also.
Decontee: Can you send an encouraging word to a promising female journalist?
Oretha: To a promising female journalist out there, I want to encourage you to have thick skin, have passion, be committed, be honest, and be true to the story you want to tell if you want to exceed to another level. Your story should not be from the surface only, always follow up on the story you write. It is key because that is what makes you a professional and up-to-the-task journalist. There is a new strategy in journalism, journalism as a business, it is a good one because the money we make is not enough to save and use at any time. I am doing business while I am doing journalism, and whenever I am not coming to work, I will go to red-light to buy the market and go sell in my shop and make money to help my husband sustain the family.
Decontee: thank you for the interview.
Oretha: I am grateful as well.
