Lovet escaped fighting in Sierra Leone with her mother, Jeneba, and her sister, Juliet. Their mother, terrified of losing her daughters, tied them to each other so they would not be parted on the journey.
So that's how we have to keep holding, we have to keep calling. Mum will call, you respond; you call your sister, she responds and then that's how, even if the rope is cut, we have to keep calling. If you don't answer, we stop straight away. Something is wrong.... We don't want to separate any more.
They spent 15 precarious years in various refugee camps. At any time, they might be thrown into a truck and moved to another camp. Anyone protecting an older person was forced to trek on foot. Jeneba kept her daughters close for safety.
I couldn't go to school, because my mum scared, because so many girls lost their lives and a lot of horrible things happened. Somebody could just get missing, never know where they are, so that's it. That's camp.
They were often hungry. The United Nations provided 1kg of Bulgur wheat per person a month and it was never enough.
Not just hungry, some days we'd go without food. Some days we have to go with just potato, but even that one is a bit hard. Some days we go to bed without food
Now safe in Australia with her husband, Isaiah, Lovet hates it when her children waste food.
Lovet and the children
c 2004, Kuntaya Refugee Camp, Guinea, REPRODUCED COURTESY OF LOVET LAHAI
Isaiah and Lovet’s third engagement
2000, Kuntaya Refugee Camp, Guinea, This is one of four traditional engagement ceremonies celebrated by Isaiah and Lovet. Isaiah’s family is seated in the rear and Lovet’s family in the foreground. REPRODUCED COURTESY OF ISAIAH LAHAI
The Lahai family
2014, Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart, photographer Angelea Galloway, Isaiah and Lovet’s children (in order of birth) Esther, Ruth, Andrea, Isaiah, and Sarah, have a family photo taken in Tasmania. REPRODUCED COURTESY OF ISAIAH LAHAI
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