Senator John Ballout of Maryland County, in search for peace and the consolidation of regional harmony and progress, has proffered his services in working with youths in the Mano River Union (MRU) community in their quest to make the issue of peace a priority for the region.

He made the commitment over the weekend when he welcomed youths from the MRU countries including Sierra Leone and Guinea who were in Liberia as guests of their Liberian counterparts.

Sharing the essence of peace and harmony in the MRU basin, the Senator told the gathering of youthful leaders that he was delighted in their resolve to collaborate in fetching for collaboration and cooperation amongst themselves, noting that what they have embarked upon was also for the wellbeing of the next generation of youths.

He said he was convinced that the new agenda being set by the MRU youths leaders was not about themselves, rather for the younger generation, adding that because of what they have embarked upon, the next generation stands the chance of encountering what they have encountered.

“What you are doing here is not because of you; I hope this project is for the younger generation. Because of your experience today, that you can commit yourself today, your younger brothers and sisters will not suffer the same consequences you have suffered,” Senator Ballout enticed the MRU youth leaders.

More than that, he prophesied that because of what they have begun, the lives of the next generation of younger leaders will be better, and even went as far as sharing his traveling experience with them.

“I have travelled to countries around the world, and I have not come across any group of people that are more intelligent than you are doing today. What has been lacking is that we have not been able to develop the human resource capacity of our people,” Senator Ballout indicated much to the appreciation of the gathering.

Also sharing his experience on the splendid performance of a young Liberian lady who was asked to deliver a paper on sanitation, he deduced that the only problem that created a huge barrier between the youths achieving their dreams has been the issue of opportunity.

He said, as the girl whom he has great respect for was speaking, given the authority with which she spoke, he came to the realization that she has been given the opportunity to develop her inherent potential, and that her case suggests that every young Liberian has a potential, and excepts he/she is given the opportunity, that potential will not be seen.

By that, the Senator was also suggesting that Liberians need to provide opportunities for their younger ones to be able to make the difference.

“That same lady with all that potential could have been sitting somewhere doing nothing. Everything depends on the quality and opportunity we give our young people. Certainly in you, I see young people with great potentials. What you have embarked upon is a very, very worthy cause,” he said.

Based on what he called worthy cause, Senator Ballout availed himself to MRU saying, “Before I go further, let me commit myself to working with you all of the steps along the way.”

Having listened to the leaders of Guinea and Sierra Leone who spoke with the same passion recounting the experiences in their respective countries, the Maryland Lawmaker, said such was an indication that the problems facing MRU nations and peoples are the same.

“That I can listen to the Guinean delegation speak with so much passion about their country about the difficulty of the situation in Guinea and when they turned the table over to the Sierra Leonean and started by saying that the delegation from Guinea had said everything he had wanted to say, rings a bell.  This goes to say that the problems are common in our region. The challenges are common and therefore, we can simply say, the solution can be common,” the Senator indicated.

Eulogizing the steps the youths are taking, he said it spoke to their determination to straightening the positions of youths in the region, and that it also meant that if they as youths in Guinea, in Sierra Leone or the youth in Liberia cannot be heard, they can certainly be heard through the  network created.

He said the authorities of the MRU nations shared the same concerns with the youths, adding that the visit was just reinforcement.

He said it was easy to go thru war as the case had been with Liberia and Sierra Leone, but that the best thing to do now is to prevent it.

“When you go thru war for whatever reasons and you destroy your country for whatever reasons, you can safely say, your country will never be the same because there are lots of things that happened that will not easily go away. The best thing is to prevent it,” Senator Ballout said.

He used the time to enumerate the successes and gains the Ellen-led government has made and is making in spite of the level of destruction visited upon the country and urged the youths not to relent in getting to the core of the peace initiative.