A recent interview with an M.S.F. (MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES/DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS) charity worker in their magazine Dispatches caught our eye because the worker was from Liberia. She had had to flee to Cote d’Ivoire from the Civil War in Liberia in the late 1990s similar to one of our trustees, Father Sam Ofia, who, in his biopic, talks of having to flee Liberia in 2002 when the war flared up again.
The interviewee talked about life in Liberia:
“I saw my parents take care of other children, both orphans and children from other villages….. This is how society in Liberia works – everyone takes care of someone. I grew up with these children and saw them as my siblings. We shared food and clothes and my parents paid the school fees for all of us.”
The interviewee worked for M.S.F. initially in Cote d’Ivoire caring for malnourished children and then in other parts of the world.
When the situation in Liberia calmed down she returned and continued to work for M.S.F. on a vaccination project in her hometown of Harper (where some of our young people attend college). She has also worked in the hospital built by M.S.F. in Monrovia.
The interviewee talked about her plans for the future:
“I want to open my own little pharmacy in Liberia. The supply of medicines is very poor in the area I come from, and I want to be able to give something back to the community where I grew up.”
