Members of Middlesbrough Soroptimists recently put together a list of outstanding local women to shed further light on their achievements. Jan Hunter has been speaking to some of those nominated, and in the first of a series of features, she caught up with Susan Mansaray, a charity worker and refugee advocate.

"FROM an early age I saw and experienced women being silenced. When I became a journalist, I was their voice. I had a purpose, but I was robbed of it."

These are the words of Susan Mansaray, from Stockton, who grew up and worked in Sierra Leone, surviving poverty, neglect and abuse as a child to having her own TV and radio programmes for the SLBS, the state-controlled network. She ran programmes for women, giving them a platform to discuss their experiences of abuse and FGM – female genital mutilation.

"I grew up in poverty with no love," she says. "I was ashamed of what was happening around me and I wanted to make a difference to the lives of women. Our culture forbids women to discuss their problems as it brings shame on the family. Men own the women in their lives, and no one is allowed to interfere in family affairs."

Aged 13, Susan came to the UK for the first time. Her stepfather was a lecturer and he brought his family with him whilst he studied for his PHD at Birmingham University. This visit would later help to save her life.

After completing her GCSEs she decided to go back to Sierra Leone, on her own, at the age of 17.

"I was staying with a church member while at school in Birmingham, but I was not treated well," she says. " I needed to leave, so I went back to Sierra Leone in 1991 when I was 17, even though it was the height of the civil war, when everyone was fleeing the country. I attended university and had no support from my family, so I felt very alone. Finding a platform for my voice and for the women who were suffering was what drove me on."

She became a teacher, but decided to go into journalism, believing this would give her a stronger platform to raise the issues she wanted to, in order to help the women of her country.

She did it. She was successful and became a senior editor. Women were listening and talking, expressing their opinions and sharing their stories. But then it went wrong.

"I knew things would go wrong," she says. "The state and the government owned the station and I knew they would try to silence me. It would happen. The managers started wanting to see the topics I would be talking about on air. I agreed to do this, but they couldn't stop me. I was waiting for them to fire me, then I would be able to say why."

She had to step back, but things were happening to her – warnings, and too many coincidences. "I was angry. We were at war; women were being tortured and raped. Young girls were being mutilated by FGM for non-medical reasons, and I knew I was taking a risk to speak against what has been endemic in our culture for generations. It became a political tool. There are myths abounding that if you don't mutilate your child terrible things will happen to you. And the sad thing is there is no justice. No justice for children."

Susan was doing what she wanted to do but it became more and more dangerous for her. She was threatened and she knew her life was in danger. She had to flee the country.

"They would have stopped me leaving so I had to be smart," she says. "I told no one. I acted normal. It was easier for me to get a visa as I had lived in the UK, and I was able to get a letter of support from someone I knew. I bought my air ticket, and went to work the same day, leaving to go straight to the airport. I was terrified I would be stopped, but I wasn't and eventually I arrived safely in the UK."

Susan became an asylum seeker.

"I arrived in London, but despite being a strong woman, because of everything I have been through, and the isolation I felt, I fell into depression," she says. "Where I come from you don't talk about your problems. I made my claim for asylum, but found it so difficult to talk about what I had fled from. People asked me why I didn't go to the police. How could I? The government in my country control the police and there is no protection or justice for women. With the work I do now with refugees and asylum seekers, mental health issues are a big part of the problem for them. The waiting, the uncertainty, the isolation and the fear, the separation from family, and what they have been through to get here. Eventually I sought counselling, and with that came such a liberation as all through my life I had felt responsible for the bad things happening to me."

Susan was sent to Stockton, where life wasn't easy at first. "I don't think some people really understood what an asylum seeker is," she says. "Not everyone was welcoming. I had a life in my country; a good job, but I left Sierra Leone because I wanted to live. I was lucky through my connections as I was able to get a visa and get on a plane. This is where the people smugglers come in. People are fleeing for their lives, trying to protect their families. They will do anything, pay whatever they have, to escape."

While seeking asylum, Susan was not allowed to work, but she was desperate to help others in a similar situation, so in 2011, she set up Purple Rose, a charity to help women's health and wellbeing. Purple Rose became a member of The Regional Refugee Forum North East, and Susan was the first woman in the North-East to campaign against FGM. She became involved in front line training for Cleveland Police, building up trust, as people of some cultures fear the police, because of their experiences in the countries they had fled from, and are therefore afraid to report hate crime. She has strong links with Tees Valley Sanctuary and was asked by Colleen Molloy, communications manager for the City of Sanctuary UK to chair a meeting in parliament to petition for the rights of asylum seekers to work. The City of Sanctuary UK is a national organisation which hopes to create a welcoming place for all those seeking sanctuary from persecution.

Susan is now settled in Stockton with her husband and three children. She is the chair of Stockton's Refugee and Asylum Forum. Her full time job is a project development worker for All in Youth, a lottery funded project which challenges racism. Weekend sessions with non-white young people gives them a safe place to talk about and share their experiences, and her links with the schools means she can share and discuss problems they face with their teachers.

However, Covid has put that on hold for a while, so undeterred, Susan cooks for 100 refugees in her kitchen twice a week which she says brings her great joy, and holds Facebook live chat sessions called Let's Talk, where women whose culture has taught them not to discuss problems are encouraged to do so. Susan will point them in the direction of organisations which can help and she tries to give them hope through all the uncertainty.

Susan is passionate about helping women who have experienced what she has gone through. She is not funded but will work 24/7 to be with people who need her support. She has even set up Let's Talk in rural areas of Sierra Leone in schools where issues such as forced marriage, FGM and child abuse are raised.

"My experiences have made me passionate about helping others," she says." All I ever wanted was to feel safe."

  • For further information on how to donate, contact Justice First in Stockton or email purplerose6611@hotmail.co.uk.