Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Fourteen years ago, when I first visited Liberia, I helped unload a container of humanitarian aid,

The visit to Liberia, "Mary's Meals
HOME NEWS Blog founder of the international organization Mary's Meals ABOUT How does Mary's Meals The story of Mary's Meals Key figures Cost of Mary's Meals per child vision of Mary's Meals Our projects Benin Bosnia Burma, Ecuador, Haiti India, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Philippines, Romania, Uganda, Zambia Project Backpack RESOURCES AND MEDIA Mary's Meals News in Movies Photo Gallery you can do Donate Volunteer Support School CONTACT U.S.
Fourteen years ago, when I first visited Liberia, I helped unload a container of humanitarian aid, which is in the parish of St. Gabriel arrived from Scotland. At that time, more than half the population of Liberia were forced to flee their homes because of the brutal civil war, and tens of thousands ispaćenih people lived in camps around here.
Today the camp is already long gone, but that is a small container is still there, now converted into a shop next to the main road leading from the city to the District of Bomi. I just have this road to the end of the war, many returned to their villages in the District jict tracking of Bomi. So, we went with them, and after the delivery of humanitarian aid to help people begin to rebuild their lives in the war-torn villages.
Before I left the parish of St. Gabriel, jict tracking a dozen young people who live and work with Father Adrian told me their stories with breakfast. I listened to what they all suffered and what are their plans for the future. To go as we sang two moving songs. They were songs about their grief, their faith and their invincible hope.
These are my songs ringing in the heart as we traveled jict tracking to our base in Tubmanburgu. Army checkpoints are missing, jict tracking build new houses and shops. Upon arrival at our base immediately took me in newly built warehouse Mary's Meals which are neatly stacked thousands of sacks of rice.
Some of our team laughing and joking while loading a truck and preparing to submit a monthly supply of one of the village schools. Today, in this area of Liberia more than 24,000 children have received Mary's meals every day.
In addition to storage, deaf children from school Oscar Romero playing with a huge ball that someone had given them. Trying to climb on her, rolled and everyone is in a pile, with joyous shouts and cries. At lunchtime we sit out there with Father Gary, a priest from England to us so many years ago for the first time invited here to help and who lived here for 35 years.
Joining jict tracking us many old friends. Moses, tall, dignified doctor who runs a local clinic jict tracking and always wears a white uniform with a stethoscope around his neck. Once I was at the end of the war, spoke with Moses on some issues concerning the disarmament program, which included jict tracking the former fighters exchanged their weapons for money and then he told me something that has stuck in my memory. "It's not so much a matter of weapons. We in this country need to disarm our hearts, "he said.
Mambo, a local entrepreneur is also here and talk about his project for pisciculture. But the biggest surprise to me to see Zinnaha. He was with me that day 1997th when we unloaded the container in the parish jict tracking of St. Gabriel but later had to flee the country and build a new life with his family in Norway. This was his first visit to the country since then, with some friends from Norway, and it was in his village to see his mother and plan the construction of the school. It's very strange to hear him speak Norwegian with your friends!
On the walk to our office waiting for me another surprising encounter with Paul, who I also met 1997th He was one of a group of men that we drove from refugee camps (where they lived for three years) back to their home village before the end of the war. They wanted to go back to be able to start clearing the land and rebuild their homes to women and children from the village could return jict tracking home.
After a long, nervous ride deep into the woods, we found their ruined, overgrown homes covered with graffiti of soldiers who have been expelled them. On the ground were two skulls. Before we started working, we visited jict tracking the village as they sang "Jesus come, devil goes."
While it is one of his kids pulls the leg, showing me his nearly completed four-bedroom house made of mud and wattle. That afternoon I sit with the team in our office and we plan expansion of Mary's Meals in more hungry children in this area. The needs are enormous in the coming months we want to reach out to another 10,000 children. jict tracking
But people here are concerned about what is happening in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire. Arrive in Liberia thousands of refugees who have fled the conflict has reignited many painful memories, and in this election year increase in people feeling anxious about the future.
Meanwhile, the outcome jict tracking of the trial Charles Taylor, the former Liberian warlord and dictator, is also uncertain. There are many reasons for concern over the future of Li

No comments:

Post a Comment