HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS MAKING HEADWAY IN LIBERIA

HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS MAKING HEADWAY IN LIBERIA

NEW YORK, 28 November (OCHA) -– Humanitarian efforts to reach people in need throughout Liberia continued this week, passing two milestones.  For the first time in 14 years, electricity was supplied to central Monrovia, and when a humanitarian flight landed in Voinjama, a distant border town, it marked the first time the airfield had been used in more than a decade.

As part of efforts to help Liberia recover from the effects of years of strife, the European Union is supporting a project to restore electricity supply in Monrovia.  Last week, for the first time in 14 years, the provision of electricity through a diesel-powered generator meant that lights were turned on in Central Liberia.  This milestone was just a first step, as the full process of restoring electricity to the entire capital is likely to take several years.

Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies continued the programmes to bring aid to Liberians in need farther and farther away from the capital.  When the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) landed a test flight at the airstrip in Voinjama, it marked the first time a flight had landed there in nearly 14 years.  Until last month, Voinjama itself, which sits on Liberia’s border with Guinea, had been completely cut off from aid for more than three years.  Now, the ICRC plans to fly supplies to Voinjama twice a week.

United Nations agencies and their non-governmental organization partners are undertaking programmes to meet needs across the range of humanitarian activities.  In the education sector, for example, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has trained some 5,600 teachers in Rapid Educational Response under the Back to School campaign.  The UNICEF continued its support to the Ministry of Education in monitoring of schools where School-in-a-Box kits have been distributed.  The NGO World Vision started the first of a series of psychosocial counselling workshops for 100 displaced teachers and other school authorities from Grand Cape Mount, Bomi and Gbarpolu Counties, at Wilson Corner internally displaced persons camp.  The workshop aims to help enable teachers to better identify and understand the behaviours and problems of traumatized students, and to react to them appropriately.

In efforts to improve water and sanitation services, UNICEF and the NGO EQUIP are collaborating to provide water and sanitation facilities for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nimba County.  An estimated 3,600 people in the town of Bahn and 8,000 people in Saclepea are beneficiaries.  As part of the Back to School initiative, UNICEF is supporting the Government in providing water and toilet facilities to 31 schools in Montserrado and Margibi Counties.

As many Liberians continue to need assistance in getting enough to eat, humanitarian actors undertook activities to deliver food and treat malnutrition.  Last week, humanitarian partners delivered a total of 325 metric tons of food to nearly 20,000 beneficiaries in Monrovia, and in Bong and Montserrado Counties.  In support of supplementary and therapeutic feeding in Ganta, Nimba County, UNICEF supplied Medecins Sans Frontiers with high protein biscuits, plastic mats, blankets, laundry soap, emergency health kits and scales.

For further information, please call:  Stephanie Bunker, OCHA NY, tel:  917 367 5126, mobile:  917 892 1679; or Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA Geneva, tel:  41 22 917 2653, mobile:  41(0) 79 472 4570.

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