Careysburg, Montserrado County – Careysburg residents in Montserrado County are poised to benefit from several basic social services that have been lacking in the community.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
One could hardly believe that residents within Careysburg, one of the oldest settlements in Liberia, just few miles away from the nation’s capital, Monrovia, would lack basic social services like pipe-borne water, schools, healthcare, etc.
But with the intervention of ‘Change for Liberian Children and Youth (CLCY), a not-for-profit organization established by an American Navy personnel and a native of Careysburg, Barn D. Anderson, the community is poised to benefit from some basic social services.
Born and raised in Careysburg, Henderson fled Liberia in the early 2000s due to the civil war and went to the United States where he went to school and later joined the US Navy.
After several years, he returned home and, as he put it, could not believe the hardship being experienced by his people.
“When I returned, there was no safe drinking water, children of school going age were not in school and the community was lacking of basic social services,” he explained.
“So, I immediately began constructing hand pumps for the people to get access to safe drinking water and later the construction of the modern guest house worth US$60,000.”
He said the building is intended to house aid workers who have agreed to come to Liberia to render basic humanitarian services to the people.
Launch of ‘Change for Liberian Children and Youth (CLCY)’
Speaking to a team of reporters in Careysburg recently, Henderson said because the needs of his people are numerous and in order to help them on a broader scale, he and his friends in the United States decided to launch “Change for Liberian Children and Youth (CLCY).
CLCY seeks to help underprivileged children gain access to school by providing scholarship, financial aid, training of teachers and nurses and establishing vocational institutions for the young people.
In addition, he said CLCL will create avenues for students to get an international scholarship at universities and colleges in Canada and the United States and return home to impact others.
He said like many of the children and youth of the community, he was once surrounded by poverty and lack of opportunity.
Henderson: “Growing up here in Careysburg, I never had anything. My parents never had anything to send me to school. As the result, I didn’t go to school early. I suffered. So when I had the opportunity to travel to the United States where there are so many resources, and with the access, I have to help my country, Liberia, I decided to help the youth on a larger scale by establishing this organization.”
He continued: “We started on February 4, 2017. I met with several kids, who told me that they wanted to go to school. I met teachers who told me that the schools here have broken down and they wanted me to help rebuild them. So, being an individual, I have limited resources. I cannot do all alone, so I decided to establish this organization to provide a larger help across the board.”
Henderson said his dream is to see Liberian youth having access to quality education and opportunities by traveling abroad to study and come back to impact others and help build their communities.
Residents’ Appreciation
Residents, who spoke to reporters thanked Henderson for his immense support to the community and called on other natives of Careysburg to follow in his footsteps.
“I am very happy that Daniel came back to assist us and his community. This community has more than 22,000 people. Before the construction of the hand pump, people used to fetch water far-way. But now our people have access to safe drinking water. We are calling on all philanthropist organizations to help Daniel. We need more support,” pleaded Rev. James Z. Wolubah, a member of Careysburg City Council.
Josephine Payvah added: “When I came into this community few years ago, there was no safe drinking water for us, but when Daniel came, he built this hand pump for us. We used to get water from the creek and drink, which used to make us get diarrhea and other sicknesses.”
A smiling Bendu Suah of Frank Town, a suburb of Careysburg was also full of praises for Henderson: “Most often we used to go to the creek to draw water even though it was dirty. We used to still drink it because we had no choice. We filtered it and drank it. We always came down with diarrhea and malaria. But now with the hand pumps built for us by Daniel (Henderson), we now have safe drinking water.