We are former residents, students, and friends of the Back Bush community of Arthington in Liberia currently living in the United States of America and Liberia, West Africa.
In 2016 two members of the association visited the Back Bush community in Arthington, Montserrado County, Liberia while on summer vacation. They were surprised to see so many children playing in the dirt and not in school, on a weekday when they should have all been in school. This is an account of their visit…
As children, we grew up in this community and had to walk about 2 miles to school every day. After talking with some of the community leaders, we walked about a mile to another village and managed to see more than 20 children crammed together in a one room rundown mat and dirt structure trying to learn their ABCs. The only teacher in the room told us that she was trying to give some of the children a head start. She said that the children in this area did not have access to any quality elementary education until they were about 10 years old. We were told that since the 14 years civil war, the children in this part of the country have been marginalized and deprived quality education. We were also told that the only elementary school in the area was about 5 to 6 miles and the little children could not walk that distance until they were about 9 or 10 years of age. We stood in the room speechless for a while not knowing what to do. We were touched after looking in the eyes of those little children. In their eyes, we could see future doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, engineers, scientists, senators, representatives, managers, mechanics and even president yearning for an opportunity to get quality education.