Liberian returnees beg gov’t for support

Residents of Lutheran Global Village in Zota District are appealing to the Liberian Government to help improve their living standards. The community which is situated between Gbalatuah and Ballerina was established more than four years ago by Liberian returnees who fled to Guinea during the civil unrest here.

The Community has 75 houses with a population of a little over 600. Some of the residents who spoke to our correspondent during the week expressed total disenchantment over their living condition, accusing government of abandoning them.

They lamented the deplorable condition a school they established by themselves, calling on government to make quick intervention. Our correspondent who visited the school campus says the school runs from the Kindergarten division up to 9th grade, but it is in a very deplorable condition.

Instructors at the school are said to be paid through the contributions of Parent Teachers Association (PTA) as part of efforts in ensuring the continuation of learning activities for kids in the community.

The residents said if President George Manneh Weah’s Pro – poor Agenda should be achieved, government needs to look far beyond by helping especially those in the rural parts of the country.

Recently, Liberia Refugees Reparation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) Executive Director Rev. Festus R. Logan said his commission projected about US$2.6 million for the rehabilitation and resettlement of Zogoes and deportees here.

But the Global Community citizens want for a part of the amount to be placed in the budget for returnees.

“We really want government’s support in order to support our children’s education and feed them. We are finding it very difficult in this community with life especially to get food for eating,” Kumba Lahia, a widow who has eight children told our Bong County correspondent in tears.

She said her husband was killed during the war, and she has been left with the responsibility to take care of the eight children.

When quizzed about how she finds food for her children, she said: “I sometimes do contract for others. I cut grass just to have a cup of rice for my children.”

By Joseph Titus Yekeryan in Bong –Edited by Winston W. Parley