new schools for Liberia bring hope foR future generations
The civil war in Liberia destroyed the countries educational infrastructure and left a generation of school goers traumatised and forced out of the classroom for more than a decade. Schooling came to a halt as parents feared letting their children outdoors, bombs destroyed schools and still committed teachers had no safe place to ply their trade. Scores of young Liberians were kidnapped and forced to become child soldiers and school for them became a pipe dream.
in 2012, IT’S AFRICA’S TIME” visited Liberia to learn about a unique education partnership between the Global Fund for Education, The World Bank, The Liberian Ministry of Education and Aecom to deliver more than 40 schools to post war Liberia and up-sklill Liberian’s in the building trade over the next few years.
”The wars in Liberia destroyed and arrested social
development to the extent that the infrastructure
was destroyed, the schools were destroyed and so were the hospitals. The current development strategy of Liberia is the agenda for transformation. The main challenges to education remain accessibility. We need additional schools, we need to rehabilitate schools that were destroyed during the civil war and we need to provide properly trained teachers”, says Aneas C Chuma, UNDP Resident Representative, Liberia.
In 2014 the It’s Africa’s Time crew journeyed back to Liberia to gauge progresss. Our guide this time is a remarkable former child soldier, Kelvin, who was kidnapped at the age 10 and returned to school after the war.
Lisa Chait
Journalist and Producer
2 Magazine / Dec 2014