|
| About Us | Our Work | Get Connected | How to Give | Resources | Mission News |
|
    |
||||||||||||
| Statement on the Crisis in Liberia | |||||||||||||
The Rev R. Randy Day The United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries is deeply concerned about the chaotic political and military situation in Liberia, a country in which our Church has been actively involved in mission since its founding in 1822. We are saddened by the continuing loss of life through civil conflict and the destruction of basic services in Monrovia, the capital, and elsewhere. We join our brothers and sisters of the United Methodist Church of Liberia in prayer for an end to hostilities and for the healing of their nation. We are also grieved by the severe damage done in mid-July to the Ganta United Methodist Hospital, the only major health care facility in north central Liberia. The hospital had been treating casualties of the war without charge. We are thankful that our medical staff is safe and that Liberian doctors from Ganta have voluntarily lent their skills at other clinics. It appears that the hospital was attacked by forces opposed to Liberian President Charles Taylor. We call upon the United Nations and such organizations as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to speedily stabilize the situation in Liberia. We appeal to those same international bodies to bring to justice Charles Taylor, who has been indicted for crimes against humanity by a U.N. tribunal in Freetown, Sierra Leone. We have been aware for several weeks that the Ganta hospital was again in danger. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) has already identified resources that will make it possible for the Church to provide some medical services in the Ganta area, if the situation stabilizes enough to allow personnel to set up temporary facilities. Ganta United Methodist Hospital was built in 1926 and has served a population of 450,000 from Liberia and neighboring Guinea and the Ivory Coast. It is part of a larger mission facility that includes primary and secondary schools, a demonstration farm, vocational training facilities, and a leprosy and tuberculosis rehabilitation unit. We understand that most of the buildings, except the leprosarium, were badly damaged in mid-July. The central unit of the hospital, called the Stone House, was built with native rock under the leadership of Dr. George Way Harley, founder of the hospital. In cooperation with the Leahy Children of War Fund, a program of USAID named for Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, UMCOR ran a prosthesis workshop on the hospital grounds, providing artificial limbs for the wounded youth of Liberia's previous battles. Today, this full-service orthopedic facility lies in ruins. The Board closely monitors events in Liberia. Our non-Liberian mission personnel were evacuated in early June and are temporarily serving in other refugee and health ministries in West Africa. Six missionaries and eight other persons in a special service category were airlifted to safety. We have a long heritage of mission in Liberia. The nation of Liberia was founded by former slaves from the United States. Methodists were among the first group of founders to land on those shores. The first Methodist missionary arrived in Liberia in 1833.
The General Board remains committed to our strong relationship with the
Liberian Church and to our mission partnership with Bishop John Innis,
the episcopal leader of some 140,000 Liberian United Methodists.
We urge members of the United Methodist Church and friends to support
our emergency appeal for Liberia. The Advance number is 150300.
Date posted: Jul 22, 2003 |
|||||||||||||
