Monrovia — The Federation of Liberia Youth (FLY) over the weekend had a one-day training with several at-risk youths from different parts of Montserrado County to eliminate any potential threat of violence during the October 2023 elections.
Speaking to journalists at the historical Providence Island, where the program was held, the president of FLY Banica Stephenie Elliot said the training with at-risk youths is to know whether they have been involved with the voter registration process, how can they be involved during the entire election process and reject violence.
"We are having conversations with youths from different sectors like the agricultural sector, youths that are out of school, and possibly at-risk youths," she said.
Recently, FLY was in Grand Cape Mount County having conversations with first-time voters about how they can be guided during the electoral period. Also, how they can be a part of the voter registration.
FLY president added: "Most time when speaking about the violence in our country, many people say that young people are the main perpetrators of violence and so we think that among the young people, the at-risk youths are the most vulnerable when it comes to being used to perpetrate violence in Liberia."
Miss Elliot added: "So, engaging the different segments, youths in different categories, especially at-risk youth is very important to maintain our peace before and after 2023."
According to the FLY president, the at-risk youths are willing to listen to them (FLY) because they are all young people engaging young people. She added: "The overall goal is that we will maintain our peace."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"We are having conversations with them to see what they need, and what could be the gap. Probably, it is the weaker point where they may want to listen to someone who will come and say I got one thousand dollars to cause violence," she says.
"So, if they need their capacity to be built or they are doing it because of the money then we are going to know how we can divert their mind from getting money to cause violence till getting money through the skills they learned from the different training we have given them."
Marthalyn Wesseh is an at-risk young from Center Street in Central Monrovia.
Wesseh narrated that because of their condition in the ghetto, they are often used by selfish politicians.
"We the disadvantaged youths, people can use us to cause violence. They see us as a means to earn their living. They feel that because we are living in the ghetto we don't have anything for ourselves so they come and give us money and use us to cause violence at the end of the day, they will not know us again," she said.
Wesseh added: "We are saying that this time around, it will not happen. This election will be peaceful and we will not be involved with violence."
Morris Tweh from the Township of West Point. He added: "The training we are going through is good. Let the FLY extend the project outside Montserrado County."
