Liberia, Buduburam Refugee Camp, and Center For Youth Empowerment: At a Glance
From 1989 to 2003 the tiny West African nation of Liberia was involved in two separate civil wars. These wars were brutal. They would capture the attention of the world and would become synonymous with such terms as "child soldiers" and "tribal warfare." Thousands of innocent civilians were killed, beaten, and imprisoned. The luckier ones fled the war torn country in search of peace. Their search ultimately scattered thousands of refugees across Sub-Saharan Africa and into government sponsored refugee camps in neighboring countries.
Above: The faces of war. To learn more about Liberia and its Civil Wars, click here for a list of good links.
One of the biggest refugee camps was the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. By the end of the second war, over 40,000 Liberians called the chunk of land outside of Ghana's capital city home. Many of the refugees had been living there for over a decade. The children knew no other home but Buduburam.
Above: Life at the Buduburam Refugee Camp, Ghana. To learn more about the Buduburam Refugee Camp click here for more links.
Despite no running water, limited electricity, cramped living conditions, and the diminishing support of the UN, Buduburam was successful in some of its aims. Most Liberians were able to build permanent shelters, some could even send their children to Liberian schools, and a handful of small, Liberian-run organizations began to address the many problems facing the post war society. Most of these organizations sprouted up in the camp UN withdrawal in 1997. From education to post traumatic stress, these organizations worked together to build a brighter future for their country in a foreign land.
Above: Children at the Buduburam Refugee Camp. To view an excellent slide show of the camp, click here.
One of these organizations was called the Center For Youth Empowerment (CYE). They dealt with education in a broad sense. They established training schools for young Liberian women, sponsored Peace Reconciliation classes for the youth and for the entire refugee community, and in 2006, CYE took over a school after a local church could no longer afford to keep it going. They immediately initiated a school feeding program which attracted hundreds of hungry children. International volunteers were recruited to teach and to organize activities for the children of the camp. There work would be felt by thousands of the young refugees in the camp.
Above: Children of CYE. To see a You Tube slide show about CYE, click here.
In the summer of 2007, GWF visited Buduburam Refugee Camp for the first time in order to further develop a youth travel program. Our hosts happened to be the directors of CYE. We were immediately impressed by their work and seeds were sewn for a future partnership. We would return to the camp again that summer and left Ghana vowing to help them at some point in the future. A few months later, GWF and friends were able to purchase five sewing machines to donate to the Women's Sewing School. The future GWF-CYE partnership was looking bright.
Then things turned bad for the refugees in Ghana. An ongoing dispute between UNICEF, Ghana's government, and the refugees of Buduburam, led the refugees to protest. This angered Ghana's government, causing armed forces to storm the camp and arrest hundreds of Liberians, mostly women and children. The relationship, after more than 15 years of relative peace and cooperation, had soured between Ghana and the Liberians. The Liberians were given less than six months, fifty dollars and one suitcase to pack all their belongings (16 years of belongings) and head back to Liberia. Families were forced to leave all of their possessions in Ghana and return to a land that was foreign and depleted. Things were bleak.
Above: Liberian women protest for human rights outside of the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana. To read an article about their forced exit from Ghana, click here.
Luckily, CYE had been planning for this day from the very first rumors. Once in Liberia, they were able to acquire a ten year lease from the government for a new school building. Many of their staff would find their way to the new school and children, slowly, began to enroll. However, the problems facing the new school are enormous. The school's roof leaks and needs to be replaced. Desks, chairs, and other educational resources, had to be left behind in Ghana. Teachers salaries are difficult to pay as many of the parents cannot yet afford to pay any tuition. Yet CYE perseveres.
Above: Center for Youth Empowerment at the Buduburam Refugee Camp. To learn more about the Center for Youth Empowerment organization, click here.
In September, some of CYE's prayers were answered when a teacher at Canton High School (MA) - "Home of the Bulldogs" - wrote to GWF wanting to help in some way. After a couple of weeks, a fundraising effort was formed. Over a dozen students agreed to train and run in a local marathon (Providence) in order to raise funds that would address one of CYE's many needs. They would name this fundraising initiative, "Bulldog Nation for Liberian Education." Their goal is to raise enough money ($3000) for CYE to purchase enough desks and chairs for all of their students. These very basic learning resources will help improve the education at CYE Elementary and Junior High in profound ways. GWF hopes to continue to work with dedicated students and educators throughout America to address the many needs of CYE and the LIberian youth.
Below you will find two e-mails from Slabe Sennay (Director of CYE) to GWF. These e-mails shed more light on the many obstacles facing the organization as it returns to its home country for the first time in over a decade.
Fri, 5 Sep 2008:
In this e-mail you will read...
*About CYE's first days in Liberia,
*The many needs of CYE.
Dear GWF,
I am highly gratified to inform you that we have been officially accredited by the Government of Liberia to operate as a Non-Governmental Organization, and also the lease agreement as you were early told has been signed and currently at the probate court for probating as required by law.
Registration of students at the moment is ongoing and hopefully classes will commence on September 29, 2008. We are behind schedule as pronounced by the Ministry of Education because of some renovations being done on the building,
With the NGO accreditation certificate and the school building secured, I am now proceeding to the Ministry of Education to begin the registration process of the school which will eventually lead to the giving of a Permit to operate. However,we are starting the school while the registration process is pending .This, accordingly, is accepted.
Please be informed also that one of the ten classrooms will be used as our offices in the mean time.
Again and Again, I must salute you for your support, advice, sacrifices and good intentions that facilitated the provision of services to the Refugees at the Camp and now in Liberia . I personally, along with the entire crew of CYE, extend our profound gratitude and sincere appreciation to you and do hope that our relationships will grow more and more to benefit the greater society in post conflict Liberia years .
Through donations and contributions made by some of our volunteers towards our transition process, we were able to pay for the first three years and did some renovations as per the lease agreement.
According to the lease agreement, the renovation of the school has to be done in three years time, under this arrangement, we provided three thousand united state dollars to the Administrator of the estate and the balance three thousand dollars to be used for renovation purposes which is expected to be done in three years time with relevant source documents of said renovation given to them as per the agreement.
I will be sending you an attachment containing the lease agreement and the NGO certificate on tomorrow as I am finding it hard to get it attached now. I will be returning to Ghana either on September 10 or September 15 for our final exit. I will be there for a week or two.
We most humbly appeal to you for our partnership to be extended to Liberia. The challenges are many here, hence, we need you more than ever before. We need the scholarship program and many of the programs to improve our newly established school in Liberia.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Yours,
Slabe Sennay
Sat, 15 Nov 2008:
In this e-mail you will read...
*About CYE in Liberia,
*Overview of problems facing Liberian youth today,
*Overview of CYE's aims and objectives in addressing the many problems facing the youth.
Dear GWF,
I write to salute you and all members of Wisdom Foundation for your support, concern and unflinching determination to uphold our prevailing relationship which serve as a benchmark to achieving our goals of serving humanity.
Our transition process came to a logical conclusion on September 13, 2008 after we transported all of our sewing machines and other equipments to Monrovia. All of our buildings used to host our major programs were turned over to some sister organizations operating on camp at the moment. Notably, among them include the CYE School Building and the Vocational Skills Training Center. Presently, we are exerting all efforts for the opening of the Franziska Troegar Sewing School in Monrovia .
Most interestingly, the sewing machines and equipments arrived safely; I will furnish you all details as to what condition is required for the re-opening of the sewing school in my subsequent email.
The Center For Youth Empowerment (CYE) as you are fully aware was organized by war-stricken Liberian youths who fled Liberia during the height of the war for fear of persecutions and inhumane treatments associated with the civil upheaval. Having in mind that one day, we would return home to contribute to the rebuilding of our war torn country, Liberia , we committed ourselves to establishing a stable and peaceful environment for the refugees of Buduburam in Ghana by providing educational and vocational opportunities, as well as, conducting peace education within all our programs throughout the camp. While we are committed to maintaining these programs on the camp for as long as possible, we felt it was necessary to begin establishing our organization in Liberia .
At the Buduburam Refugee Camp, prior to transferring of our activities to Liberia , we put into operation the following activities at the Buduburam Refugee Camp gear towards the achievement of our goal and objectives as an institution, they are as follows:
- The Center For Youth Empowerment Elementary and Junior High School
- Peace Education and Peace Building Activities at The Camp
- Computer Literacy Program
- The Women Sewing School
- The School Of Beauty Care
- Child art Program
- Children Recreational Activities
- The Scholarship Program
- Violence against women campaign and HIV/AIDS
For our two months of operation after assessing the current situation, we observed that the violence of the civil war disrupted many lives, and while Liberia may be experiencing relative calm today, the lack of social infrastructure, such as education, continues to disrupt the lives of Liberians. The children have been particularly impacted by this disruption; a dark shadow is cast over their lives. Parents, friends and family were either killed or separated from each other; many children lost their supportive network in the throes of war. We also observed many children roaming the streets begging or selling good for petty-traders. Having no place to stay, many sleep in street corners and open market places. Tribal hatred, stereotyping, lack of clean drinking water, and serious environmental issue, (Agriculture, etc.) are some of the many problems still facing Liberia's youth. The war has left many children vulnerable, not only are their futures at risk, but also, the security and development of Liberia is greatly undermined.
Having realized the above just stated and the unavoidable task of healing the wounds, contributing our quotas to the peace building process of Liberia, we have decided as part of our intervention strategies to work in the area of education which include and not limited to academic education, vocational skill training, peace education, peace and conflict resolution training, and environmental awareness.
Currently in Liberia, we are running The Center for Youth Empowerment School System (it runs from Nursery to six Grade). The school has the total enrollment of two hundred and fifty students, plans are also underway to begin our peace education program and training in peace and conflict resolution as well as the women Empowerment Program starting with the sewing school. In subsequent time, we will start the other programs as well as creating new ones.
I believe that CYE, with support from generous and concerned individuals such as you, has a great capacity to provide hope and stability in Liberia. Specifically, we see a growing impetus in the area of education, agriculture and environment, training in peace education, conflict resolution, mediation, conflict prevention and management and women empowerment programs, so that collectively the peace can be sustained and serve as a benchmark for economic development. We can provide the same touchstone of stability and support to the returnees and vulnerable Liberians as a whole. It is the greatest hope of CYE that we can establish appropriate activities in Liberia so we can help to address these issues.
Hope to hear from you very soon.
Very Truly Yours,
Slabe Sennay