Liberians see signs of hope, restoration May 1, 2004 By Kathleen LaCamera* | A UMNS photo by Joni Goheen. The Bishop Judith Craig Children’s Village outside Monrovia, Liberia, is home to 84 children left orphaned by war. | PITTSBURGH
(UMNS) — Liberian United Methodists say they are daring to hope that
their war-torn country is moving away from destruction and violence. Hopeful
signs include the April 14 reopening of the Ganta Hospital, which
suffered near-total destruction in fighting between government and rebel
forces in mid-July 2003. Founded in 1926 by Methodist medical
missionaries, the hospital and mission compound serves a population of
450,000 in Liberia and the surrounding border regions of Guinea and the
Ivory Coast. The
ratio of doctors to the general population in Liberia is 1 to 1,000;
that translates into 3,000 doctors serving the health needs of the
country’s 3 million inhabitants. Some sources estimate as many as 60
percent of children do not reach age 5. “When
the hospital was destroyed, the people were completely depressed,”
reported Liberia United Methodist Bishop John Innis from the 2004
General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Pittsburgh. “Its
reopening symbolizes hope, restoration, peace and the aliveness of the
church who is the custodian of God’s creation and God’s people.” In
addition to the hospital, the mission compound includes a primary
school, nursing and vocational training facilities, agricultural
production, homes and a church. The hospital had just undergone a major
renovation with the help of funding from the Board of Global Ministries
before the last attacks in summer 2003. Almost every part of the
hospital compound, with the exception of the leprosy unit, was destroyed
or rendered inoperable. Today,
with the help of funds from numerous groups — including United
Methodist churches in Germany and the United Methodist Committee on
Relief — 37 hospital staff are back at Ganta providing outpatient care,
prenatal, maternity and child care, eye clinics, emergency surgical
procedures and short-stay ward care. The hospital’s prosthesis and
orthopedic workshop is not yet able to resume its work. Only
eight months after ferocious attacks on the Ganta compound, Innis says
local people have the confidence to begin rebuilding because the
political landscape has changed and now peace and stability are real
possibilities for Liberia. | A UMNS photo by Joni Goheen. A young girl paints her toenails at a camp for displaced persons at the Samuel Doe Sports Complex in Monrovia, Liberia. | What
has changed is the departure of former Liberian President Charles
Taylor last August and a peace process that includes a 7,500-strong
United Nations peace-keeping force helping to disarm nearly 45,000
soldiers — as many as half of them children. The exiled Taylor, whose
militia is blamed for starting Liberia’s 14 years of civil unrest, has
been indicted for crimes against humanity by a U.N. tribunal. The
Rev. Erlene Thompson, senior pastor at the oldest United Methodist
church in West Africa, says she too sees a confidence in Liberia’s
future she has not witnessed in years. Thompson has been a part of
Monrovia’s First United Methodist Church congregation all her life. “Lots
(of people) are beginning to come home. Some who went away years ago
come to me and say, ‘I’ve come back to help rebuild the church,’” said
Thompson, who also is serving as a General Conference delegate. “People
are rebuilding their homes. … There is more hope now that the U.N. has
started disarming. Our citizens are relieved they are taking the guns
away. And soldiers are happy to give guns up.” In
partnership with the United Nations, the United Methodist Committee on
Relief is opening a demobilization, rehabilitation, disarmament and
reintegration camp in Liberia. Soldiers come to the camp voluntarily,
give up their weapons and begin a process of stepping away from the
violence and fighting that has so defined and, ironically, sustained
their lives. Once
U.N. officials have disarmed soldiers, they are fed, given a place to
sleep and receive counselling and vocational training, including
literacy training. The UMCOR camp has a full-time recreation director
who organizes activities for soldiers undergoing the reintegration
process. They also receive $300 and an official U.N. “demobilization
certification,” which can help smooth the way for their return to
communities and lives left behind during combat. “Soldiers
want to leave but are afraid without proper documentation someone will
come after them and arrest them and worse,” said relief agency head Paul
Dirdak. | A UMNS photo by Joni Goheen. The Bishop Judith Craig Children’s Village outside Monrovia, Liberia, is home to 84 children left orphaned by war. | While
the relief agency has a proven track record with “demobilization” work,
this is the first camp it has undertaken to manage. Its success will
help shape similar efforts the agency has been invited to take on in
Central Asia and Congo in the future. A previous UMCOR literacy
demobilization project in Liberia’s Gbazon Town saw more than 360
demobilized child soldiers graduate from high school and receive
vocational training. Some 13,000 soldiers are expected to be processed
at this new camp.The
United Methodist Committee on Relief is acutely aware of the complex
needs of child soldiers. According to a recent Human Rights Watch
Report, “How to Fight, How to Kill: Child Soldiers in Liberia,” the use
of children as soldiers dates to the start of Liberia’s conflict in
1989. Charles Taylor’s militia became infamous for the abduction and use
of boys in war, and others factions soon adopted this practice. In many
cases, children as young as 9 were kidnapped, sexually abused and
forced to kill or be killed. The use of child soldiers under the age of
15 is a violation of the Geneva Convention. In
the UMCOR camp, child soldiers are separated from adults when they
arrive. In addition to the standard care and reintegration support, they
also receive assistance in reuniting with family members. Many of these
children are eager to return to education, but the cost of school fees
can make such a move difficult, if nearly impossible. This situation is
one that Innis feels the Liberian United Methodist Church could help
change. He hopes that fees at United Methodist-sponsored schools can be
reduced or eliminated through scholarships so child soldiers and others
can get the education they need to keep them from drifting into militia
activities. According to the Human Rights Watch report quoted above,
children with an education are more difficult to recruit. “The
church is the extension of Christ. Wherever Christ was, people were
healed, fed, clothed, redeemed from imprisonment, had demons driven out
of them,” Innis said. “We must continue to be the extension of the love
of Jesus Christ so that people’s lives can be made whole.” *LaCamera is a United Methodist News Service correspondent. News media contact: (412) 325-6080 during General Conference, April 27-May 7. After May 10: (615) 742-5470.
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