by Christine Ennulat, ChildFund International Liberia’s 13 years
of civil war ended in 2003. Nine years later the effects of war
linger. In post-conflict societies, children are the ones who
suffer the most as their parents struggle to rebuild shattered
homes and livelihoods. Often, children come to be viewed as
burdens, or even commodities. They became at risk for
exploitative child labor, domestic violence and other abuses.
Healing has been slow. Liberia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy of
2008 includes a statement that speaks volumes: “A whole
generation of Liberians has spent more time at war than in the
classroom.” Some years after ChildFund began work in Liberia in
2003, staff began to realize that, despite the ongoing
rebuilding of Liberia’s decimated education system, young
children ages 5 to 8 were not enrolling at the rate they should,
and those who did were not staying in school. In May 2010,
ChildFund began a program called Participatory Research and
Learning (PARLER) to identify the obstacles to scho