27 August 2008
Liberian children deserve the opportunity to attend school, the top United Nations envoy to the West African nation said today, calling on families to make their children's education a priority as the country rebuilds after years of civil war.
"All children - girls and boys - need an equal chance," Ellen Margrethe Løj, the Secretary-General's Special Representative, said at a ceremony commissioning the Banjor Community School in the country's northwest.
The school was recently rehabilitated by Nigerian peacekeepers, serving with the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), who contributed their own money to give the facilities a much-needed facelift.
They provided furniture, painted and renovated the roof and ceiling, and built perimeter walls and exit gates.
The blue helmets' efforts are "a small, but very important contribution towards the efforts being made by the Government," Ms. Løj said.
She paid tribute to the local community for its efforts to keep the school open during the past 12 years, although she noted that they were unable to prevent the region's heavy downpours and stifling heat from having a deleterious effect on conditions at the school.
"Schoolchildren and their teachers need an environment that is conducive to learning, to growth and development."
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