-The accounts of Morris and Oretha
By: Christiana Mabanda
Margibi: In market squares and streets, children as young as five are frequently spotted escorting their parents or other family members with disabilities as they seek their daily bread.
This is a typical behaviour for this group of kids, whose existence and means of survival depend mostly on begging. For the Zugbo family, this is different. To support her 60-year-old grandma with a disability, the 11-year-old sells cookies. Ever since she turned five, she has taken on this responsibility. “I bath her, dress her, and feed her,” Oretha said that’s caregiving.
Being the only surviving members of their aged grandmother’s family, Oretha and her brother Morris feel compelled to give back to their grandma, who they claim has been taking care of them since their mother passed away in 2016.
She uses traditional herbs to help pay for her grandmother’s medical expenditures because she is unable to pay for them with the little money she makes from her little cookie company. “We cut some leaves and boil them for her to drink. Oretha said, “Things are not easy to carry her to the hospital.”
Children whose parents have disabilities encounter ongoing obstacles in their educational journey, as well as restricted availability to health care, sustenance, and overall well-being support. In contrast to Liberia, parental incapacity is now a legal basis for terminating parental rights in many U.S. states. Given that the majority of children born to parents with disabilities lack formal education or occupational skills, Liberia does not have a program specifically designed for their offspring.
Since they were raised to be breadwinners, Oretha and her brother Morris have never attended school,therefore getting daily meals is a top concern for them.“I want to go to school, but my grandmother has no hand. Morris said, “I feel bad when I see my friends going to school.”
Morris began cutting palm in Abou Village at the age of eleven to assist his sister in obtaining basic social services for the family. He said, “We are suffering. We want the government to help build schools in our village to help us the poor people children get an education.”
Ma Washee expressed her sadness that her grandkids must participate in activities ten times their age amidst all of this, but she acknowledged that she had no other choice. Washee, in contrast to many others, was not born blind. After her daughter, who was her only source of income, passed away in 2016, she became blind.
“When it started my daughter used to carry me for treatment, we left on it she died and nobody was there now to help me. She said, “My condition continues to get worse until today I am blind.” Ma Washeecontinues, “My grandchildren are not in school because of this. I feel so bad.”
Other children besides Oretha and Morris take up the burden of caring for their parents or other family members who are disabled. The ten-year-old SaviorKollie left school to go beg for food on the streets of Monrovia with her blind mother.
Savior had struggled since her uncle abandoned her mother and turned to gambling, casting doubt on her aspirations to become a prosperous bank manager. “I couldn’t continue school anymore because my mom and I had to hustle daily to find food. She said, “I have been out of school for the past two years.”
She is not only depressed about missing class, but she also finds it awkward to beg for food, even though she has no other option. “Seeing my friends attending school makes me cry, but I also feel bad for my mother’s condition,” she said.
The sad reality:
A 2022 UNICEF survey estimates that 126,702 children in Liberia are living on the streets without attending school. During a press conference on June 12, 2024, Liberia’s Gender Minister Horace-Kollie referenced a UNESCO data that shows a significant percentage of children in Liberia who are not in school, citing poverty, gender-based discrimination, violence, conflict, and displacement as contributing factors.
The UNESCO’s stats revealed that 20% of children between 6 and 11, 30% of children between 12 and 14, and 60% of children between 15 and 17 years are out of School. The Education Sector Plan 2022/23–2026/27 highlights the continued challenges in ensuring all children have access to quality education. However, in the 2024 National budget under the Ministry of Education’s “Subsidy” allotment, over a million dollars was earmarked for private universities in Liberia. This allocation comes from a total Ministry of Education budget of $48,498,456 million, with $1,516,750 specifically designated for private and other institutions.
However, this scintillated dissension among stakeholders, with contrasting views on the allotment of said financial support for private institutions, while public learning institutions (High schools, colleges, and the state-run University of Liberia (UL) continue to face numerous challenges while hundreds of children remain out of school. Liberia, like many developing nations, grapples with a myriad of challenges within its educational sector that hinder the delivery of quality education to its citizens. One of the primary challenges facing Liberia’s educational sector is the lack of adequate infrastructure and facilities.
During the first term of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, she mandated a free and compulsory primary education policy as part of strategies to restore quality in Liberian classrooms. The policy provides the opportunity for parents to send their kids to school no matter the economic situation. However, not much has been done to effectuate this law.
