Admire Memuna Barnes, came to New Zealand as part of the United Nations’ refugee programme in 2000. Having previously survived the Liberian war as a young girl, at 14 years old she was then taken captive by Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front rebel. It was over two harrowing years before she saw her family again.

The notoriously violent civil war in Sierra Leone was responsible for the loss of 50,000 lives and the maiming of countless others. Now, more than a decade after it ended, Memuna - who has recently completed her studies in Commerce at Victoria University of Wellington - has written a book titled ‘Survived: The Journey’, which tells of her harrowing experience in the hands of rebel forces.