Monrovia — The Charity organization, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS)- Liberia, with funding from USAID has donated motorbikes and office equipment to its local partners to strengthen their peace building activities ahead of Liberia's widely anticipated Presidential and Legislative Elections in 2023.
The items, which include four new Yamaha motorbikes, safety jackets and four modern file storage cabinets, among others will strengthen the organizations in the implementation of the USAID sponsored Youth For Peace Activity(Y4P) project in Bong, Montserrado and Nimba Counties .
Benefitting organizations include the West Africa Network for Peace building (WANEP-Liberia), National Commission of Justice, Peace and Caritas (NCJPC) and the Federation of Motorcycles and Tricycles Union of Liberia (FOMTUL).
The items, especially the motorbikes, will assist the organizations in the reaching to hard to-reach-places in the implementing counties.
At the official signing and donation ceremony on Friday, July 22, the Country Manager of CRS, Madam Abena Amedormey underscored the importance of peace and said CRS' goal is to provide a smooth environment for all of its implementing partners given the vital role they are playing to sustain peace in the country.
In addition, she noted that CRS's activities include emergency response support to development programs. According to her, CRS, through USAID understands the challenges that organizations face when working in environments where there are so many issues to deal with amid limited resources.
"We understand that some of the terrains that implementers work are very challenging because some roads are not pliable by vehicles instead of motorbikes," she said.
"As an organization in Liberia, our ultimate goal is, as we grow, you grow along with us and so these donations may seem as items, but we are very much keen on your capacity as organization."
Continuing, she explained that peace building is one of CRS' major areas globally "because without peace, society will not make any strive."
"We do understand the importance to maintain peace, sustaining peace and fighting for peace because everything we do, be it health, education, agriculture, youth empowerment - all of these are not possible if there is no peace in the country. So our goal is to continue to find resources and direct them to local organizations to implement projects," She added.
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She urged the three partner organizations to ensure that accountability and transparency are the hallmarks of their activities so as to attract more funding support to the CRS as it strives to promote peace in Liberia.
On behalf of the befitting partners, Madam Dorthea M. Quiena, who is the Human Resource Manager of WANEP, extended thanks and appreciation to CRS and USAID for the continuous support given them.
She assured the partners that the donated items would be used for their intended purposes.
"For and on behalf of the partners, I want to say a very big thank you to USAID through CRS for this great donation and what you continue to do for us. We will do all we can to implement this project successfully" She pledged.
The Catholic Relief Services has worked in Liberia for several years including the turbulent 14 years of civil war marred by deaths and bloodshed.
In 2016, after intense focus on the Ebola outbreak, CRS progressed from recovery activities and began implementing development programs in community health, peace building, youth livelihoods and urban water, sanitation and hygiene.
