In March 2003, we returned to Liberia to assume our assignment at Ganta United Methodist Mission Station. We arrived in the capital, Monrovia, excited about going to Ganta (located in rural northeastern Liberia, about 165 miles from Monrovia). On March 29, 2003, rebels overran the town of Ganta and other towns and villages throughout the country. Many residents were killed. Others fled to Guinea as refugees. Some became internally displaced people, fleeing for temporary residence in safe urban centers within the country. Everybody else ran to the “bush” (forest areas) for safety. There, they erected makeshift huts out of sticks and thatch.

 

We stayed in Monrovia to wait it out, but early in June, rebels attacked Monrovia. On June 9, the missionaries in Liberia were evacuated to safer locations.

 

This marked our fourth “abrupt” departure from Liberia during the past 12 years of civil unrest. Twice we’d asked and were temporarily assigned to work with Liberian refugees in the Ivory Coast. This most recent time, we requested a temporary assignment to work with Liberian refugees in Guinea.

 

Life in a Refugee Camp

Our work in Guinea provides assistance in meeting the food and medical needs of Liberian refugees located in four refugee camps.

 

To date, over 100,000 Liberians reside in refugee camps in Guinea.

 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in concert with other international humanitarian agencies such as Médecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), and Action by Churches Together (ACT), does everything possible to provide shelter, medical care, food, and education to the refugees. As we traveled to the camps, we met refugees living in 25 x 35 ft tents on the bare ground. They were given nylon mats and blankets to sleep on. As many as 50 people are assigned to a tent. Each family (depending on its size) is assigned to a designated space measured by square footage.

 

Each refugee family receives a monthly ration of food. This food ration contains enough bulgur wheat, corn and soybean meal, beans, and vegetable oil to last an individual for two and a half to three weeks—if that individual eats only one major meal per day. Refugees must find creative means to supplement their food rations.

 

This is the situation that many Liberian families find themselves in as refugees in Guinea. Their lives have been traumatically disrupted. Liberian refugee parents are mainly concerned about making sure their families have enough food to last them through the monthly cycles of rations.

 

Educational Needs                        

Yet even in the midst of their refugee existence, Liberian parents are concerned about the educational opportunities available for their children. International relief organizations provide educational opportunities (grades K-12) for Liberian children living as refugees in Guinea. For many children, this marks the third or fourth disruption in their education during the past 12 years. This educational opportunity for Liberian refugees in Guinea is a blessing. When we served in the Ivory Coast (1992-94), only elementary school education (grades K-6) was provided by international relief organizations. The United Methodist Church assisted in providing junior through senior high school education for more than 1000 youth and young adults.

 

Liberian children attending refugee schools in Guinea are thankful for the opportunity to attend school. In some countries where they lived as refugees, either there were no schools or their parents had to pay school fees for their children to attend local private schools. For others living as internally displaced persons within Liberia, schools in the area were closed for long periods of time.

 

A United Methodist grade school in Diecke, Guinea, provides education for more than 300 rural Guinean children as well as an English program (recently organized) for more than 200 Liberian refugees living in the town. Two United Methodist-supported day care centers and feeding programs in two refugee camps offer two meals a day and Christian-based play and educational activities to more than 100 children. A local United Methodist church in N’Zerekore, Guinea, offers an adult literacy class in its community. All of this has been made possible because of funds donated by United Methodist churches in Germany and the United States, and through Stop Hunger Now, an international hunger organization based in the United States.

 

Eager for School

Attending school is a very high priority for most Liberian children. They see education as a way of ending the cycle of poverty that has lowered the quality of life for themselves and their families over many generations.

 

Access to education does not come easily for most Liberian children. The government of Liberia is unable to provide public school education for all children. The majority of the population lives in rural villages, while most of the public schools are located in the country’s few urban centers or large rural towns.

 

Church-related schools seek to assist the government in providing educational opportunities for the general public. These schools charge a tuition fee based upon the earning capacity of the village or town in which the school is located. The United Methodist Church operates more than 100 schools in Liberia, mostly in rural villages and towns.

 

If there is no school in a rural village, when children reach the age of 10 or so, they leave their villages and travel to large rural towns or urban centers for the opportunity to attend school. If there is no relative or extended family member living in that town, the children hire themselves out to work in people’s homes in exchange for a place to sleep, one meal a day, and the opportunity to attend school.

 

Our Greatest Hope

On the average, most Liberian children have missed at least two to three years of schooling during the past 12 years of civil unrest. One can imagine that these upheavals in the lives of young children, youth, and young adults are bound to cause emotional trauma that affects their performance in school or even serves to discourage them from attending school.

 

But on the whole, Liberian youngsters will tell you that their greatest hope in life is to begin or continue their education. For most, the sheer determination to attend school exceeds the physical and emotional traumas of continuous civil unrest. After prolonged periods of civil unrest, whenever there is some semblance of peace in Liberian communities, schools are the first institutions to reopen.

 

Liberian children work to find ways to attend school, and those who achieve this privilege are always seeking ways and means to remain in school. Their worry is that their schooling may be interrupted by civil unrest or the lack of funds to pay for their school fees. (rural school fees average $40 per year, while urban schools average $125 per year.)

 

God’s Love for Liberia

Many have asked us why we choose to serve in a place of such great upheaval and civil unrest. We say, How can we afford not to be here doing whatever we can during this time of great need? The spirit, determination, and courage of Liberian Christians and all Liberian people are infectious.

 

Liberians believe that our Lord will provide for their needs. And our Lord does! God continues to move the hearts of committed, responsive, and faithful Christians to respond to the educational and other needs of Liberian children, youth, and adults. Liberian Christians pray for opportunities that will provide a better future for their families. Christian-based education is key to making Liberia a peaceful and prosperous nation, as God intends it to be. We challenge every Christian to do all that is possible to make a difference in the lives of the less fortunate in their communities and the world.

 

As you read this, we will have returned to Liberia to take up our assignment at Ganta United Methodist Mission Station. Herbert will serve as Mission Station Superintendent and also as Acting Hospital Administrator. Mary will assist the church in developing a Continuing Education Program and help with some of the administrative work at Ganta Mission Station.

 

Keep us and the people of Liberia in your prayers.

 

 

* Herbert and Mary Zigbuo are United Methodist missionaries assigned to Liberia. The Rev. Herbert Zigbuo, a native of Liberia, served as principal of both Ganta United Methodist School from 1988 to 1992 and the Methodist Refugee School in Danane, Ivory Coast, 1994 to 1996. Mary Zigbuo, originally from Bolton, North Carolina, has served as school counselor, student activity coordinator, teacher, and women’s organizer. Herbert and Mary are the parents of seven children.