THE STATE OF THE LIBERIAN CHILD

Written December 31, 2009

Today, as 2009 comes to a close, education, healthcare, sanitation, safe drinking water and basic environmental services are luxuries not rights for many children in Liberia. Children are born into a country filled with miserable poverty, squalor conditions and rampant diseases that are preventable. Nearly a million children go through life on a daily basis in a serious struggle to survive, finding their way through life unparented, abandoned, neglected, malnourished, impoverished, uneducated, and discriminated against. For many, childhood, as a time to grow, learn, play and feel safe is in effect meaningless, denying them true joy of living altogether. Many children never get to see their fifth birthday due to preventable diseases and squalor living conditions.

Corruption, patronage, mismanagement, squalor and harsh environmental conditions still exacerbate conditions of poverty amongst children across Liberia. These conditions cause many parents to abandon their children to institutions, orphanages, the streets and adoption. Children’s progress in Liberia has come a long way from the widespread hardship they experienced during past two decades; however, far too many children still lives in chronic poverty without equal access to opportunity for better health, education, and future success.

Since 2006, the Sirleaf administration has devoted between 14-20 per cent of the national budgets to basic social services -- health, education, nutrition, sanitation, waste collection and clean water -- that benefit children most. This author believes that the Sirleaf administration needs to invest at a bare minimum 30 per cent of the country’s annual budget to basic services affecting children and promulgate targeted policies to enhance and improve their lives.

Additionally, the Sirleaf administration must forged new alliances with all civil society groups not only with those that are supporters and allies. But, also with those who are critics and detractors, and who by their standing can objectively offer constructive alternatives to assisting the administration tackle preventable diseases, provide safe drinking water, promote adequate toilets, and encourage proper hygiene promotion at every sector of the Liberian society.

This author calls on the Sirleaf administration to establish an independent department of children services and seek to build a children’s hospital catering specifically to children health issues. Additionally, the administration needs to review and strengthen children’s rights through the enactment of laws, which gives children explicit recognition as individuals. The rights of children as individuals, rather than members of a family must be expressly stated in national policy formulation under this administration. In order for children to take their rightful place in today’s Liberian, the Sirleaf administration must find the political will to fundamentally root significant social transformation that specifically benefits children and their families.

The State of the Liberian Child in 2009

One in four children in Liberia falls prey to death before their fifth birthday due to preventable diseases such as measles, diarrhea, and malaria. For instance, diarrhea is the leading cause of preventable death amongst children says UNICEF, and WATERAID. Yet, this gigantic killer of children is systematically neglected by the Ministries of Health and Social Welfare (MOH), in favor of the reckless and bogus policy of the Department of Social Welfare that depicts adoption as child trafficking, which it is not.

Over 75% of them struggle with daunting and dehumanizing social challenges resulting in 25% of them dying before age 5;

Over 40% of them do not have safe, accessible drinking water;

Over 19% of them die from diarrhea and infectious conditions caused by waterborne diseases;

Over 75% of them do not have access to adequate toilets;

Over 36% of them die from malaria and other poverty-related illnesses;

Over 85% of them have no access to adequate waste management or hygiene practices;

Over 37% of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition with 7% of them suffering from acute malnutrition, causing stunting in nearly one-third, and leaving 1 in 5 underweight.

Over 500,000 children in Liberia are not in school. UNICEF says, of those enrolled in school, 42% of them sit on the bare floor without desks, or properly trained teachers to provide appropriate instructions, and adequate books to learn from;

Over 230,000 children are unparented, orphaned and abandoned with no strategic planning from the Ministry of Health and others on critical children’s issues except for the sensational, reckless and bogus claim that Intercountry adoption is child trafficking.

Today, Liberia is not on target of meeting most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 as agreed to at the United Nations in 2000. The MDGs set a framework for how the world could see the end of extreme poverty by the world’s poorest. The eight MDGs reflect an understanding of the devastation caused by global hunger and poverty and aim for a world that is free of such suffering. MDGs are to reduce hunger, provide access to primary education, and provide access to clean water; prevent children from dying of poverty-related illnesses, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Under the Sirleaf administration, Liberia has the means and the knowledge to protect and develop the lives of its children and diminish enormously their suffering. However, the administration must now muster the means, garner the political will and apply the practical knowledge, which exist on the ground, to make good on its promises to the children of Liberia. This author believes that the Sirleaf administration should affirm children's rights by improving children’s health, education, sanitation, water, and hygiene as critical stimulus to improving the prospects for their success. This is the test and yardstick from which to measure the kind of leadership that needs to be demonstrated in 2010 for the sake of the children and not for politics, patronage, party, ethnicity or family connection.

About The Author

Francis Nyepon is Country Director of the West African Children Support Network (WACSN) and managing partner of DUCOR Waste Management in Liberia. He is a policy analyst and Vice Chair of the Center for Security and Development Studies, and serves on several boards of humanitarian, environmental and human rights organizations in the United States and Liberia. He can be reached at fnyepon@gmail.com.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM WACSN-LIBERIA

WACSN celebrates 14 years of providing humanitarian assistance to Liberia in 2010

Dear Friend:

As 2009 draws to a close, WACSN looks back on a proud history of providing humanitarian assistance to Liberia by supporting children in an effort to reduce poverty and improve families’ livelihood.

Peace, health, education, access to opportunity, and above all, the knowledge and love of God, are holiday gifts WACSN wishes on all Liberian families this year and many more years to come.

These are the adversities many ordinary Liberians endure each day. Many dream of a job to provide for their families, some wish for productive skill sets to improve livelihood, while others wish for food to feed their children.

This year as you celebrate the holidays, you can make the dreams and wishes of many ordinary Liberians come true by giving the ultimate holiday gift of HOPE – by choosing to support WACSN.

Your prayers, and the generosity of many of you, have made our success possible over the years. If you’ve been a supporter, we say “thank you." If this is your first introduction to WACSN, we hope you consider a tax-deductible donation to WACSN in this new year to help enrich the lives of children.

Bogus Charges against WACSN in Liberia

This year WACSN came under unwarranted and unprecedented attacks after 14 years of dedicated services to helping children and their families in Liberia. Although the Probate Court of Liberia ruled in favor of WACSN and found the government negligent in removing children with a court order, the politics of patronage and ethnicity interrupted the lives of innocent children. Many well meaning individuals presented distorted or confused views of international adoptions as a form of child trafficking to sensationalize public opinion on adoption in Liberia.

Erosion of Children’s Rights in Liberia

This year WACSN organized a symposium on the rights of the Liberian child because of the recently passed law in the lower house of the National Legislature. The symposium was intended to inform Senators of the upper house of the National Legislature where the Bill awaits deliberation before final passage into law. But, the intent of the symposium, ‘to promote children’s rights’, got misunderstood and taken out of context for political and personal reasons. Some organized groups saw the symposium as interfering with their turf and tempering unjustifiably in areas where only they should be heard on. WACSN is not deterred by these and other self-centered acts so long as our focus is on promoting the welfare of children and protecting their fundamental rights.

WACSN Reorganization

This year we are restructuring WACSN to enhance our circle of services to children and their families. We are building a new website, organizing new programs and projects, and setting up two new boards of directors in Liberia and the United States to guide us as we move forward with vigor, resilience and determination during the 2010 new year.

WACSN 2010

Throughout the New Year, we intend to focus more on our Spirit of Truth Pastoral Network as a springboard from which to leap into action spotlighting missions, adoptions and orphans. Our center of attention will be community driven with a focus on local Churches to provide basic services to enhance livelihood and living conditions of the people. Wouldn’t you come and join us as we endeavor to enrich the lives of children and their families through the power of Jesus Christ?

Warmest wishes for a wonderful holiday and a prosperous new year.

Francis W. Nyepon

WACSN-Liberia

Country Director

LIBERIA CHILD RIGHTS SYMPOSIUM REPORT

On Friday, November 13, 2009, the First Annual Liberia Child Rights Symposium was held at the Capitol Building in Monrovia, Liberia. The symposium was organized in part by the Child Protection Alliance of Liberia (CPAL) which was founded by WACSN in 2008. We believe this event helped make great strides for the children of Liberia and the issue of adoption. To view a report of the symposium, please click on the icon to the left.

PRESS RELEASE: Liberian Child Rights Symposium, November 13 and 14

The Children Protection Alliance of Liberia in sponsorship and collaboration with FOHRD (the Foundation for Human Rights and Democracy), JPC (the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission), AFLL (the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia), LDI (the Liberia Democratic Institute), FIND (the Foundation for International Dignity), LCC (the Liberian Council of Churches), and NMCL (the National Muslim Council of Liberia) will hold a two day Symposium on the Rights of the Liberian Child.

The Symposium will take place at the Capitol Building under the theme "Looking beyond the 2009 Children’s Bill."

The two day Symposium is an interactive round table discussion aimed at ensuring that the evolving Children’s Bill serves the best interest of the Liberian Child.

Purposed topics for presentation during the Symposium will include: The Protection of the Liberian Child in contemporary Human Rights Practices, Towards a Human Rights Regime for the Children of Liberia, Appraising the proposed Children Law among others.

Speakers at the symposium will address the most pressing challenges facing the Liberian Child. Following the deliberations, participants will convene in group sessions and work out recommendations to strengthen the children’s Bill and advice legislators on the thinking of a broad spectrum of the Liberian society regarding the bill.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is among legislators, policymakers, child rights advocates, Supreme Court Justices, religious leaders, children services providers and the media that are expected to attend.

The Symposium will also see the National Interfaith Council of Liberia, students of the Louise Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia, the National Child Rights Observatory Group, the Liberian National Student Union, Federation of Liberian Youth, Children Services Providers, Union of Orphanages in Liberia, making presentation that would form part of the symposium’s resolution.

The Symposium is being held in association with the following organizations: Adoption Services Providers, Child Advocacy International, National Union of Liberian Orphanages and Children Welfare Institute, Children Assistance Program, Mano River Women Network for Peace, Liberian Girls Guide Association, Boy Scouts of Liberia, Liberia National Student Union, Varsity Christian Fellowship, Christian Health Association of Liberia, Young Men’s Christian Association, and Young Women’s Christian Association.

Sister Pam Gremillion: "Precious in the sight of the LORD are the death of HIS saints."

The Gremillion, Luyken and WACSN families regret to announce the home going of our wife, mother, sister and friend Pam Gremillion. This sad event occurred on Sunday morning October 25, 2009. She was a very beautiful, caring and generous woman who touched the lives of many. She worked with all her heart to find a forever-family for over three hundred Liberian children in America and Canada. She will be remembered most by her greetings in the name of Jesus. Her life was an example of Christ our Lord Jesus whom she loved and adored to the very end. Sister Pam leaves to celebrate her life her husband Charles, four daughters and the entire WACSN family. For those of us who were blessed to know her, her spirit will live on. We love you Sister Pam, but God loves you best.

“You can shed tears that she is gone, or you can smile because she has lived. You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back, or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left. Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her, or you can be full of the love you shared. You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. You can remember her only that she is gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back, or you can do what she’d want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.”

– David Harkins

So we say this now to you Sister Pam: Sail on dear sister, Sail on.


The funeral will be held at Memphis Memorial Park: 5668 Poplar Ave, Memphis, TN, 38119. Visitation will be from 12:00 - 1:00pm, with the service beginning right after.

Spirit of Truth Has it's first visitors....

Recently The Spirit of Truth Pastoral Network had the honor of hosting their first guests to Liberia:
Rev. Sonya Lydford, and her daughter Denise.
We invited Rev. Sonya to write something for the Spirit of Truth blog, she very graciously agreed to do so.


My 19 year old daughter Denise and I have had the extraordinary opportunity, and privilege to be a part of WACSN for the past week and a half, changing minds and attitudes about adoption. The public view of adoption is very grim. Denise, and I have spoken in a Palava hut at the University of Liberia, Veritas radio show, Star radio, ELWA radio, and the UN radio. As well as 6 different church settings. We were also able to visit with the families of my adopted children, as well as the pending adoptions. Spanning from Monteserrado County all the way to Bong County. Most recently we have spent time with Senators, introducing ourselves, telling them why we are here, and inviting them to discuss the pros and cons of the Childrens Rights Bill now sitting before them in the senate.
We have experienced the good and the bad of Liberia. This was our first trip, but I pray it won’t be our last. We are looking forward to the adoption of our 3 children still pending the lifting of the adoption ban. Prayer is what Liberia truly needs as many intelligent senators and their constituents have succumbed to such horrific rumors of adoption. To our advantage, America is viewed as a place as good as “heaven” itself.
If you or someone you know from Liberia through any organization, I urge you to send updates. This shows the Liberian parents, their village, and or neighbors, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, as well as the lawmakers themselves….that indeed the Liberian children are alive and well! Even if your children are struggling with issues, and you hesitate to send bad news. It is important to let them know that they are alive, and eating well. Growing, and learning in school. Send photos to show how the children are doing. The Ministry of Health needs these, as do the families of the children. So please send at least two pictures. I believe this will help quite a bit. Also, please do NOT send the parents/families money as it only hurts the purpose by sending everyone the wrong message of adoption. I understand the aching heart that wants to provide for the family left behind, but it is best done by giving to an organization such as WACSN. They can best address much larger, and more critical issues to their survival and well being…… for example water purification, waste management, and adoption.
I’d like to thank all of you for your continued support of WACSN, for Liberia, and the people of Liberia. Pray. Pray. Pray.
In conclusion I’d like to strongly encourage adoptive parents who have had an adoption in process at the time of the ban, to fight for their children! We can contact the American Embassy in Liberia as well as our own states senators. Americans need to make some noise, and make our voices be heard! We have much power, and we need to use it!
With much love,
Rev. Sonya Lydford
If you have any questions please e-mail me at smilenny@aol.com

LIBERIA: Inter-Country Adoption: The Horrible Ripple Effects of False Accusation

The horrible, false accusations with which the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOH) smeared the reputation of the West African Children Support Network (WACSN) in a dispute over bogus charges of child trafficking are having an adverse ripple effect on the image of Liberia in the United States. It can be recalled that several months ago, the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Health, Mr. Joseph Geebro, granted interviews to media outlets in the United States disseminating misleading and ambiguous information about Inter-country adoption in Liberia involving WACSN. In a telephone interview with the Eden Prairie Star Tribune of Minnesota, USA, the deputy minister falsely accused WACSN, a reputable children’s support agency of smuggling children out of the country without proper documentation when in fact; two of the children in question were in the care of the government and the other in the care of a biological grandmother.
The deputy minister was very aware of the fact that the phony charges against WACSN were concocted by his co-worker Lydia Sherman in a calculated and politically motivated move due to the lack of the WACSN president and founder refusal to provides. Notwithstanding, what the deputy minister selectively chose not to mention is the fact that WACSN has been one of the only children service agency in Liberia that provided food, medicine, clothing to orphanages and children during the critical years of the Liberian civil war (1999-2003). According to Dr. Peter Coleman, former Minister of Health, and Madam Diana Davis, former President of the Association of Orphanages in Liberia, WACSN stood in the gap during the critical years of the Liberian civil war when the Government of Liberia was missing-in-action. Many Liberians now serving in government took refuge and sanctuary outside of the country while over 100,000 innocent Liberian children died needlessly.
According to a high level official in the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, who also served in a senior level position in the MOH (2000 to 2006), spoke on condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to speak on a pending matter. This official stated that since 1997, every official in the MOH was made aware that WACSN has been singlehandedly providing generous and extensive services to Liberian orphanages and children irrespective of their ethnicity, social status, religion or class. She reiterated a well-known fact that many average Liberians already know that WACSN gained notoriety during the height of the Liberian civil war when it transported and provided food, clothing and medicine to starving children and families at the war front in Lofa, Nimba and Bong Counties. Rather than Mr. Geebro and Ms. Sherman tarnishing the reputation of this great Liberian Children’s Institution that stood in “the gap” during the critical stages of the Liberian civil war, they should be singing the praises of WASCSN. More than that, they should be joining WACSN in furthering its cause to provide unbridled and unconditional support to poor families and all the Children of Liberia.
Recently, some American adoptive parents expressed serious concern over the manner in which officials at the MOH treated these families when they were prevented from taking their children out of Liberia after obtaining a Court Decree granting them the legal right and permission to adopt several Liberian children. Their concerns were translated to other American families waiting and wanting to adopt Liberian children; including Americans wishing to engage in private investment in Liberia. The customary ugly tactics used by these officials at the MOH against WACSN have far-reaching and long term effects on people who want to help Liberia other than just adopt Liberian children. Since Americans became involved with Liberia through inter-country adoption, many have had a desire to do much more after their adoption experience was completed.
Many in their own way became goodwill ambassadors for Liberia by encouraging others to take a second look at Liberia and assist its people in a positive manner through business, social development and philanthropy. By attempting to ruin the integrity of WACSN, these MOH Officials are also accusing Americans who adopted Liberian children of also engaging in child trafficking. Is this the kind of message Liberia want to send to the international community?
“This behavior is preposterous and could have a negative ripple effect on the people-to-people relations between Americans and Liberians,” say Dr. and Mrs. Kenneth Piety of Tennessee, USA. According to the Pietys, after seeing how the Government of Liberia works through the MOH, many Americans have become very disheartened and disillusioned to think that they could be of any real help to Liberia. Thanks to these two officials in the Department of Social Welfare, at the Ministry of Health, their actions have done Liberia a real disservice. Innocent children, which due to no fault of their own, find themselves embedded in communities that are caught in a cycle of disease, poverty and dehumanizing living conditions. This author believes that Inter-country adoption is
It is sad to see a mother or father who desperately wants another family to parent their child not given that choice. In other words, by Liberian parents opting to have their children adopted freely and justly under the Domestic Relations Laws of Liberia, without remuneration or coercion is not unethical or a crime. The manner in which a few at the Department of Social Welfare have treated Liberian parents and their adopted children speaks volumes to anyone in America desiring to help Liberian families. Many Americans have even questioned the utility value of aid money their government has earmarked for Liberia when it appears that the MOH cannot be trusted with equitably dealing with the least amongst its citizens, the innocent children.
When Judge James Zotaa in “Criminal Court A” ruled in May that the 35 WACSN children were illegally removed from the organization’s compound without a court order, there was nothing done to right that wrong by returning the children to WACSN. This act was in fact an absolute disregard for justice and the rule of law. This author genuinely believes that those in the Ministry of Health need to consider not only the impact they are having on the children they illegally removed without a court order, but also the shame they have brought to our country.
Let us call to order those who have not heard that ‘corruption is public enemy number one’, and are still choosing to perpetuate corruption as a de facto way of life in Liberia. A handful of misguided individuals at the MOH cannot be allowed to bring disrepute upon Liberia. Because WACSN refused to provide inducement when propositioned, is that sufficient reason why the character of this reputable organization be tarnished? Aren’t we all trying to build a new political dispensation where our country would change and evolve into a democratically driven society where the personification of integrity, honesty and a deep sense of purpose and nationalism would be achieved?
The Ministry of Health should reestablish its cordial working relationship with WACSN, other Children Services Providers and Child Advocacy Groups as it once did and collectively work to improve the lot of all Liberian Children. WACSN is a Christian based NGO that works with children, families and community-base groups to strengthen local people. Its Pastoral Network comprises of 800 grassroot churches and 1000 Pastors that promote the body of Christ in Liberia through sustainable development projects and protection of the environment. The children are the future of Liberia. Who will protect and guide them if it does not first start with MOH and Children Services Providers? Where would they be, if we did not nurture them properly in becoming productive and upright citizens? How would we develop our country, if children are not given a positive direction on the way forward to change their attitude, behavior and mindset? Liberians must fundamentally improve the livelihood of those living at the bottom of the social strata, especially the innocent and helpless children.


Francis W. Nyepon