Africa-Press – Liberia. Greenville, Sinoe County- The Platform for Dialogue and Peace (P4DP) in partnership with UNDP and Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), has set up four peace and learning centers in four districts in Grand Gedeh and Sinoe Counties as part of an effort to contribute to reconciliation and social cohesion in that part of the country.
The centers established as part of the initiative were Zleh and Toffie Towns in Gbarzon and Tchien Districts, in Grand Gedeh County as well as Butaw and Greenville in Sinoe County, respectively.
They received equipment such as chairs, solar panels, microphones, and several consignments of stationery for use by the centers.
According to the P4DP Program team, the intervention was in line with the National Reconciliation Plan of 2020.
Speaking at separate occasions in the counties, P4DP Program Manager, Mr. Kennedy Berrian, said that the Platform for Dialogue and Peace is working under the auspices of a project which is being funded by the UN Secretary General’s Peacebuilding Fund through the United Nations Development Programs (UNDP) dubbed as ‘Delivering Peace Dividends in Liberia: Consolidating Local Reconciliation and Social Cohesion Opportunities in Grand Gedeh and Sinoe Counties’.
He said that the objective of the project is to work with local community members in fostering peace and social cohesion.
He indicated that the new resource centers are intended to empower the youth and women in their districts through self-help initiatives which will promote the messages of reconciliation and social cohesion among the youths in the communities.
He urged the audience to utilize the centers efficiently to improve social relations and promote tolerance and commitment to ensuring peaceful presidential and legislative elections in the counties in October.
Said Berrian, “This approach will help to strengthen relationships and reduce potential conflict triggers.”
Also speaking, the facilitator of P4DP Mr. Clement G. Weaye framed peace as the absence of disturbance, stressing that “peace denotes a community in which all exist irrespective of religious or political persuasions, whereby everyone is free to go about his or her normal life affairs without any physical, emotional and psychological problems.”
He admonished young people to look at themselves as players in the peacebuilding framework.
“The youth that world is struggling with transforming youth into taking positive actions, especially in post-war countries such as Liberia where youth are challenged in many forms. “Unemployment is high, substance abuse is very common, addiction is high among youth, peer pressure sweeping away precious future leaders and so forth”, he said.
In separate responses, the youth leaderships of the Sinoe and Grand Gedeh expressed their gratitude for the support provided by P4DP and its partners.
The president of the youth in Tchien District in Grand Gedeh, Doe Manyeah said despite the numerous challenges faced, and the different competing interests which sometimes tend to divide them, as leaders, they will ensure to use the tools to provide unity in the four clans.
In Greenville, Sinoe County, the head of the women’s groups Mary Sarynenneh highlighted the positive contribution that the youth are making in Liberia’s post-war development process.
According to her, young people are playing a significant role in shaping the development agenda, thereby calling on local authorities to involve the youth in decision-making.
Meanwhile, the P4DP team was able to engage local authorities and citizens about the reported alleged illegal migration of Burkinabe nationals in Grand Gedeh and the farming activities carried out
As per the findings, land encroachment-related conflict was induced by the economic value offered by cultivating cocoa, yam, plantain, pepper, bitter balls, and other crops by the Burkinabe farmers.
The P4DP team noted that before the coming of the Burkinabes, local farmers had limited knowledge, skills, and farming technique to produce these crops for commercial purposes but with the arrival of the aliens and the support of Burkinabe farmers many local citizens are turning toward farming.
“We can now grow and harvest plenty of crops and sell to take care of ourselves and our children. The Burkinabe cocoa farmers by themselves don’t have a problem, they came to look for money and a living. They don’t just go brush bush or farm. It is we Liberian landowners that ask them to brush and plant the crops.
“What brings the confusion is Individuals and families are encroaching on each other’s land because everybody wants to make some arrangement with the Burkinabes farmers to plant crops because these guys can work fast”, indicating that “the Burkinabes are peaceful, once you notify Burkinabe farmers that they are brushing portion of land that would spark confusion, they will stop and wait for you the land people to settle it,” said Olivia Neewary, a female farmer who hired several Burkinabes as laborers on her farmland.
Also speaking a member of the AMENU Farmers Group, Dasley Geneyan said
Burkinabe farmers frequently
undergo threat and harassment from Liberian security personnel at community checkpoints and movement in between communities.
Geneyan claimed that local hosts extort money from them in preparing documents that will legitimize their stay in the country but provide fake documents in most cases.
Geneyan added with the Burkinabe farmers in local farming, abandoned lands are now important, more urban to rural migration for farming, youth that once live languishing in cities, such as Zwedru returning to communities thus competition for land ownership.
Said Geneyan, “No more wasteland due to the presence of Burkinabe farmers. The land now has economic value and increased”.
For More News And Analysis About Liberia Follow Africa-Press
