As the children of Liberia strive for education and better health delivery system, and vulnerability to danger among pressing national challenges, a group identified as the Children Protection Alliance of Liberia at the end of a two-day symposium has recommended to the Liberian Senate and the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf led administration for the establishment of a department for Children Services at the Ministry of Youths and Sports.

The group believes that the establishment of the children services will help government to have more attention and will safeguard issues relating to children. The symposium, which was held at the conference room of the senate wing at the Capital Building, brought together senators, students, religious leaders, individuals from diverse political and professional backgrounds, spent two days discussing the plight of Liberian children.

The Children Protection Alliance is a non-profit coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), advocates, providers and rights groups organized as a consortium entity, working under one banner to secure the rights and needs of children in Liberia, by campaigning for their protection, rights and treatment within Liberian context.

Speaking to this paper in Monrovia the group said, by ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Liberia made a clear and resounding commitment to its children. Although children born in Liberia since these conventions were promulgated have grown up cloaked and protected by the rights enshrined in them; adding, many challenges still remain regarding the protection of children's rights in Liberia.

The Alliance will launch a National Report Card in 2010. The Report Card will be the first of what will be an annual publication, which grades the Government - just like a school report - on whether it is keeping its promises to the children of Liberia. Holding children's rights makes economic sense. Cuts in education and health services that directly affect children are a false economy. For example, for every dollar spent on early education, is a direct investment in the economy and manpower development.

Not only that, but investing in early childhood and early years education can prove to be effective in the long-run in promoting social skills, improving the life chances of children born in disadvantaged communities, and in reducing criminal activity.

"The Alliance's message is clear: the Government cannot victimize children in its budgetary outlay. It should not roll back on valuable progress and hard-fought commitments to children, and it should not make children pay for a crisis they didn't cause".

"Until Liberia achieves the vision of these conventions, and begins to provide children with access to equal opportunity, and treat them with respect and dignity, our journey and struggle to safeguard children's rights continues" said Mr. Francis Nyepon Executive Director of the Alliance and Chief Organizer of the symposium.

Mr. Nyepon emphasized to participants that Liberia's children really needed our championship and to believe that there are many ordinary Liberians out there who dare to care about Liberia's children is most heartwarming. He prayed that Senators would enjoy reading the comprehensive report and find it a useful, living document that will enrich their work in promulgating laws to protect and strengthen children's rights in Liberia.

Mr. Francis Nyepon, Executive Director of the Alliance, indicated that as parents dealing with children issues, they are impatient regarding the treatment of children in Liberia because a child born in Liberia today is born into a country filled with miserable poverty, squalor living conditions and rampant disease. Today, in 2009, it is fair to say that throughout Liberia, children are seen and not heard.

Education, healthcare, sanitation, safe drinking water and basic environmental services are luxuries not rights, and corporal punishment is the norm. Many children living in Liberia are un-parented, orphaned and abandoned. Many more children never get to see their fifth birthday due to preventable diseases, diarrhea and squalor conditions.

The Alliance along with its parent organization, the West African Children Support Network (WACSN) noticed the gap between the rhetoric and the reality of children's rights in Liberia. Today, Liberia is striving to implement good laws and policies regarding children, adding that they applaud the Sirleaf administration for the direction, but the ability to implement fundamental rights issues lags shamefully behind.

"This we must all endeavor to do something about immediately. We must ensure that Liberia comes into compliance with the objectives of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015", said Mr. Nyepon.

Meanwhile, the Symposium organizers stressed that the 2009 Children's Act does not sufficiently promote cultural diversity and domestic context. The Symposium organizers maintained that the challenges presented in the Children's Bill are exacerbated with cross-cutting issues such as the right, obligations and privileges of the child, and henceforth, necessitates further deliberation to ensure that diverse views are heard from a broader spectrum of the Liberian society.