A Nation Born
Starting in 1822, the American Colonization Society settled nearly 19,000 formerly enslaved and free-born Black Americans on the West African coast. They named their capital Monrovia, in honor of James Monroe, the sitting U.S. president and a supporter of the project.¹
On July 26, 1847, those settlers declared independence, and Liberia became Africa's first modern republic. They drafted a constitution modeled on America's and elected their own president.¹ Along with Ethiopia, Liberia was one of only two African nations to hold its independence through the era of European colonial partition.²
Fourteen Years of War
That promise collapsed on Christmas Eve, 1989, when armed rebels crossed into Liberia from Côte d'Ivoire, igniting a conflict that would not fully end until 2003.³
What followed were two wars that were fought with extraordinary brutality against civilian populations. The United Nations estimated that as many as 20,000 children served in Liberia's fighting forces, some as young as six years old.⁴ An entire generation grew up either out of school or in classrooms so broken they amounted to little more than warehouses for children.
250,000
Lives lost³
75%
Of the nation's physical infrastructure destroyed⁵
1 million+
People displaced (a third of the population)⁵
Ebola, Then COVID
Just as Liberia was rebuilding, Ebola arrived. In July 2014, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf closed all 4,500 of the nation's schools, forcing more than one million children out of the classroom.⁶ They did not return until February 16, 2015, more than seven months later.⁷ Some families never recovered financially enough to send their children back at all.⁸
Then COVID-19 struck, closing schools again. For Liberian children, it was crisis layered upon crisis, in a system with nothing left to absorb the blow.
Where Things Stand Today
48%
Adult literacy rate (global average: roughly 87%)⁹
15-20%
Of children aged 6–14 are not in school¹⁰
46%
Of children do not complete primary school¹⁰
< 10%
Of Liberians have access to safely managed water and sanitation¹¹
36%
Of primary school teachers are unqualified¹⁰
These numbers are the direct inheritance of war, disease, and interrupted childhoods passed from one generation to the next.
Holistic, educational intervention is how that inheritance changes.
References
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Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division. "Liberia, Africa's Oldest Independent and Democratic Republic, Celebrates Its 169th Independence Anniversary." July 2016. https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2016/07/liberia-africa-oldest-independent-and-democratic-republic-celebrates-its-169th-independence-anniversary/
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Encyclopædia Britannica. "History of Liberia." https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Liberia
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United Nations Peace Operations. "UNMIL Background." https://unmil.unmissions.org/en/background
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Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. Child Soldiers Global Report 2001: Liberia. Via UNHCR Refworld. https://www.refworld.org/reference/annualreport/cscoal/2001/en/65148
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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (IRIN). "UNICEF Appeals for $7m to Reopen Schools." 2003. https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/node/214300
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ReliefWeb / USAID. "'We Are Grateful': How One Liberian School Has Battled Ebola." 2015. https://reliefweb.int/report/liberia/we-are-grateful-how-one-liberian-school-has-battled-ebola
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Liberia Ministry of Education et al. "Assessment of the Effect of Ebola on Education in Liberia." February 2015. Via ReliefWeb. https://reliefweb.int/report/liberia/assessment-effect-ebola-education-liberia-february-2015
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ReliefWeb / Theirworld. "From Ebola to Coronavirus: Education Must Not Be Forgotten." 2020.
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UNESCO Institute for Statistics, via World Bank Open Data. "Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) — Liberia." https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.ADT.LITR.ZS?locations=LR
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UNICEF Liberia. "Basic Education." https://www.unicef.org/liberia/basic-education
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UNICEF Liberia. "Water, Sanitation and Hygiene." https://www.unicef.org/liberia/water-sanitation-and-hygiene