Section I

Methodology

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I have to make this clear that this is not an academic book in a traditional way meaning proposing a thesis with a line of arguments. It is an academic book considering the story narratives and perspective of developing knowledge.

However, mapping the life experiences of immigrant and refugee women presents a series of transitions and each stage presents numerous challenges as well as opportunities. Every moment, these women must make decisions that will forever change their lives. While every step they go through carries uncertainties, each woman is hopeful that life will be better.

This study captures the journey of 13 women of diverse Sub-Saharan African cultural backgrounds, from their home country to this new homeland, Canada. Their joys and pains, hopes and fears, are narrated from their point of view as experiences of overcoming horrific experiences in two or more different ways.

I chose to use narratives as a knowledge gathering tool because it is an interpretive approach in the social sciences which involves storytelling methodology (Basset & Stickley, 2010). The story of the subject or participant becomes an object of study, focusing on how individuals make sense of events and actions in their lives. In this study, our shared voices have connected us together as women who share similar journeys that have made us strong. In our struggles, we have found a common thread of identifying with one another through the stories and voices that we all share, and we see ourselves as victims and strong in the ways that we have survived our ordeals. We want to build on our traumas and pains for the future generations that come after us for them to know that there is hope even amidst disappointments and trials.

To us as survivors of war trauma, life in our home countries as well as in the refugee camps in different countries of exile describes the women's recollection of pain in both home and country of refugee. Some of the women's fondest recollections are of what life back in Africa was like. Particularly they found strength and support from a community that lived collectively rather than an individualistic life. Life during crisis brings back painful memories of war, flight, and danger. Life in Canada brings up stories of both challenges and uncertainty in a new environment including women's thoughts on what Canada has in store for them especially the challenges of lack of understanding of their trauma from the professionals and from the employers and coworkers.

Focus groups and one interview were organized in conjunction with participatory research action on "What causes the Mental Health Problems in African Women?" Interested participants were sent a letter that introduced them to this project. I conducted the interview and focus groups and transcribed the information. Of the thirteen African women interviewed, all respondents identified themselves as having suffered some traumatic experiences as a result of war trauma and displacement.

However, some of them show some resiliency in dealing with experiences of trauma. Three-quarters of the women who participated in this study identified themselves as currently married; one was divorced, or, in a handful of cases, never married. Almost all (60%) of women were parents. Only 3 participants identified themselves as neither married nor parents. I did not ask participants about their sexual orientation but in the course of the interview and focus groups, almost all made it apparent they were, or had been, married and/or involved with opposite-sex partners.

It is important to note that the participants in focus groups for this book originated from 7 different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, namely: Sudan, Sierra Leon, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this project, three of the participants are themselves counselors. One works in mainstream organization counseling battered women, two of these participants work with NGOs that provide services for immigrant women who are victims of spouse abuse, [unfortunately, one of these counselors was murdered in 2013 while in the course of doing what she loved doing for women, before this book got to be published].

Two participant counselors had a university degree; another one had a non-social work degree from her country of origin, and with her social work degree near completion. The third counselor had a community certificate in counseling. The rest of the women had their education outside Canada. One focus group was conducted in Swahili, one of the widely spoken African languages that I speak, which I later translated in English. Two of the focus groups and one interview were conducted in English. All the focus groups and interviews were transcribed. The core questions were:

• What kind of pre-migration...