Liberia: Young advocate Abraham Alvin Roberts turns personal encounters with poverty, child abuse and street-selling into a growing call for stronger child protection

Monrovia-At a time when Liberia continues to grapple with the complex challenges of child protection, street-selling, poverty and limited opportunities for young people, Abraham Alvin Roberts is attempting to build a voice around a constituency he believes is too often heard only after something has gone wrong, children.

By: Willie N. Tokpah

For Roberts, the issue is personal.

The young Liberian child advocate, journalist, motivational speaker and communications professional said his advocacy journey was shaped not by theory, but by what he saw around him growing up in Paynesville.

Children selling on the streets, families struggling to provide decent living conditions, young people confronting poverty and limited opportunities, vulnerable persons, including people living with disabilities and facing daily hardship.

Those experiences, Roberts says, gradually transformed his interest in leadership into a determination to speak publicly about the conditions confronting Liberia’s children.

“My advocacy journey was born from the reality I see every day, the struggle of our people, living with disabilities, the pain of poverty and the weight of hardship,” Roberts told FrontPage Africa.

Now, the young advocate wants to take that message beyond speeches and social-media platforms, positioning himself for a future in public service.

A Voice That Started in School

Roberts’ journey into advocacy can be traced to his years as a student. He became involved in student leadership while attending Johnson K. Baysahwala Elementary, Junior and Senior High School, where he graduated in 2024.

It was during those years, he says, that he began to appreciate the power of representation and the responsibility that comes with speaking on behalf of others. After high school, his attention increasingly shifted toward issues affecting children, including trafficking, abuse, exploitation and child labor.

But Roberts did not want advocacy to become simply a matter of speaking. He pursued journalism and media relations training at the Peter Quaqua School of Journalism and MediaAid Foundation, earning a diploma, and later undertook additional public-speaking training through the Liberia Institute of Public Speaking.

For him, the decision to study journalism was deliberate. He wanted to strengthen his ability to investigate, communicate, tell stories and engage the public, skills he believes are essential to the kind of public service he hopes to pursue.

Building Child Shield

Roberts is now a Co-Founder of the Child Shield Initiative, a youth-led initiative focused on protecting vulnerable children.The organization, according to Roberts, has sought to intervene in cases involving children living in difficult circumstances, including children found selling on the streets.

He says the initiative has attempted to help some of these children return to school and access support. But there is a significant obstacle: money.

Roberts says the initiative has not received donor funding and that some of its activities have been financed from personal resources. “We use our personal cash and our own budget,” he said.

He claims that the initiative assisted approximately 300 children from the streets last year. The figure is part of Roberts’ account of the organization’s activities and has not been independently verified by FrontPageAfrica.

But his larger argument is clear, grassroots organizations attempting to protect children cannot sustainably carry the burden alone. For Roberts, government, development partners, communities and families must play a greater role.

The Case That Reinforced His Mission

One incident Roberts said particularly reinforced his commitment to child protection involved a child allegedly beaten by a parent after failing a school test. Roberts noted that he encountered a video of the incident online and decided to follow up.

Through the Child Shield Initiative, he said, he and colleagues met the child, gathered information about the incident and reported the matter to the Ministry of Gender.

According to Roberts, the child was subsequently placed under protective care. The case, he maintained, demonstrated why advocacy cannot stop at raising awareness.

For him, protecting children means identifying abuse, documenting it and ensuring that the appropriate authorities are alerted. “We Keep Taking Children from the Streets,” he indicated.

Perhaps the issue that most concerns Roberts is the continued presence of children on Liberia’s streets. He argued, that government interventions must go beyond removing children from street corners.

His concern is what happens after they are removed. “We keep taking children from the street, then we keep seeing those children sitting on the street,” Roberts averred.

He wants stronger government intervention against child street-selling, coupled with measures addressing the poverty and family circumstances that push children into the streets in the first place.

His position is that enforcement alone cannot solve the problem. Education, social protection, parental support and economic opportunities, he argues, must form part of the response.

Beyond Advocacy

Roberts’ ambitions extend beyond child advocacy. He serves as Communications Director of the BLAZE Movement, Bold Leadership Against Zero Equity, a youth initiative focused on leadership, education, opportunity and social development.

He previously served as National Press Secretary of the Liberia National Children’s Forum before concluding his involvement with the forum in May 2026.

He has also developed experience in journalism, interviewing, public speaking, social-media content production and public-interest communication. Through his digital platforms, including Bold Voice Media, he presents motivational and inspirational content aimed largely at encouraging young Liberians to become more active in their communities.

His growing interest in public service is therefore an extension of what he sees as his advocacy journey. Roberts added that his future interests include justice, education, youth empowerment, child protection, accountability and inclusive development.

A Young Man Looking Toward Public Office

But before entering public service, he says he wants to build the experience, communication skills and understanding necessary to make a meaningful contribution. His philosophy is rooted in the belief that young people should not wait for someone else to solve the country’s problems.

They should participate, organize, speak and, where possible, act. That philosophy has also brought Roberts into conversations with government and development actors.

He recalls participating in a joint year-end review and planning activity involving the United Nations and government stakeholders, which he says provided encouragement for his continued advocacy.