Monrovia – The churches in Liberia represented by the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) in collaboration with civil society groups has launched a method that seeks to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations.
Reported by Edwin G. Genoway, Jr 00231886458910[email protected]
The SDG is a policy set by the United Nations to tackle hunger, engage development and reduce poverty around the world.
And the LCC says it stands ready on its feet to support poor people in Liberia during the launch of “Waking the Giant” Initiative, aimed at giving the poor a helping hand.
“Waking the giant” program will ensure that churches in the country actively participate in the implementation of the SDGs; an agenda sets by the UN to be achieved by the year 2030.
The launch of “Waking the giant” attracted officials of the United Nations office in Liberia, civil society organizations, the government of Liberia and international partners.
The President of the Liberia Council of Churches, Bishop Kortu Brown in a brief remark at the launch of the program said for too long the church in Liberia has allow its giant to sleep.
“The church has not focus on the poor, but waking the giant in us will focus on the poor, it is time that the church finds the poor, go after and help them,” he said.
He said the focus of the church has always being on money people or the rich while the poor has been unattended in past years.
“Waking the giant is a continuation of the gospel of Jesus Christ where he started reaching out to the poor and needy.”
Though it is not clear as to how the church intends to help the poor in its program, but Bishop Brown called on every religious leader and civil society organization in the country to join hand with the church and tackle poverty.
He, however, expressed regret in the circumstances surrounding the “More than Me” Foundation, and called on the government to do all it can to look into the matter.
“You cannot keep exploiting the poor in the name of helping them, let the government look into that matter and provide protection for those poor kids that were being abuse,” he said.
Meanwhile, the LCC president also said the “church is still concern about the missing LD$16 billion” and thanked the US government for providing independent investigators “to get to the bottom of this issue”.
He then praised President George Manneh Weah for declaring tuition free at all public universities and colleges, but urged the Finance Ministry to do all it can to support the president’s dream by making funding available to the colleges and universities.
“The money involve in this tuition free is not yet in the budget, it is a new money being added to the budget of the schools, let the Ministry Finance workout ways possible to keep the president’s dream alive,” he advised.
For his part, the Bishop of the Liberia Free Pentecostal Global Mission Church, Joshua Nagborlor described the “sleeping giant” as the church itself.
“We as the church in Liberia is the real sleeping giant that is just waking up and I am glad that we’re now awakening to continue the good gospel of Christ,” he said, urging Liberians to not give up on the government.
“We cannot give up on them, they are the young people that leading this country, let us not hold against them the way they think. Until we realize why the young people think the way they are thinking, we will not go anywhere, let embrace their ideas and give them suggestions that will improve the lives of the poor people,” he said.