Building Liberia for the future

Chief Executive, Mark Chambers, of Building Schools for the Future ICT partner, Ramesys, is about to embark on a very different sort of re-building project in Liberia.

Mark and his wife, Tara, are joining a group of 12 headed for the capital city Monrovia in Liberia, West Africa, to work on a range of projects that support the local population. The trip is scheduled for the 30th April to the 7th May 2008, and is a Samaritan's Purse International Relief project.

Mark and Tara Chambers have volunteered to take part in very practical ‘hands on' activity in the only capital in the world without clean running water or electricity as a consequence of 14 years of civil war. Mark Chambers said: 'I have no doubt we are all going to be profoundly shocked and upset by what we see and hear. But as a group of people we have been fortunate to date, and we live comfortably in the UK. We are looking forward to having this small opportunity to provide some help for others who are struggling so badly.'

Around 200,000 people were killed in Liberia's civil war and many thousands more fled the fighting. The conflict left the country in economic ruin and overrun with weapons. The Foreign Office's travel advice is clear, ‘don't go outside the capital and don't leave the group'. Corruption is rife and unemployment and illiteracy are endemic. The UN maintains 15,000 soldiers in Liberia in one of the organisation's most expensive peacekeeping operations. A transitional government steered the country towards elections in 2005.

The team of 12 will live and work with their hosts for 8 days, helping with water and sanitation projects for schools which have to survive on an annual budget of £250, including the cost of the teaching staff. Many of the students are orphans or have previously been child soldiers. On average each person has to walk 4 miles a day for clean water.

Improving living standards, commentators say, is likely to be the key to resolving the underlying and bitter ethnic tensions.