Youth education for peace and development: Moving beyond literacy skills

Philip F. Davis currently resides in Monrovia where he works as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for the Christian HIV and AIDS Network of Liberia. He is a graduate of the University of Liberia and a member of the Women’s Refugee Commission Youth Advisory Group.

For a wholesome and functioning society, post-primary education coupled with opportunities for better livelihoods for crisis-affected youth are the appropriate tools for fostering lasting peace and development. To succeed, crisis-affected youth must be equipped with advanced skills beyond literacy in order to stay healthy, enter the workforce, and earn money as a means of living a meaningful life.

I grew up in the war-torn country of Liberia, where the rights of men, women and children were violated through torture and rape/sexual harassment, and where children were used as child soldiers. This transformed them into agents of drug abuse, which was devastating and discouraging to their parents who wanted to see their children become useful in the future. Accepting and living with this situation requires a lot.

Going through the primary stage of my education under sporadic gun fire, which continued up to my secondary level, it became very difficult to pursue this educational venture simply because my parents were incapacitated financially – a situation that led many Liberian youths to becoming child soldiers and illegally take away people’s belongings to aid their families.

In order to pursue both post-primary and higher education, I first had to accept that I had no control over this situation but had to remain focused in my pursuit of higher education. I decided to help my parents to sell some basic commodities as a means of raising funds to address some of our needs. Through the help of God, my parents were able to thrive, and I completed secondary education. However, in the search of higher education I was alone because my parents had to take care of the little ones who came after me.

My struggle and completion of a university education was aided by scholarships. I was a petit trader, which many Liberian youth are presently doing. However, this generates only a little money, meant for daily sustenance, not for rent, school fees or other basic needs. It provides just enough to live and to begin the struggle the next day. Tuition and fees for private universities and schools are very costly, and the vast majority of the populace lives on less than $1USD a day. On the other hand, you must consider their right to education and to better opportunities to improve their livelihoods. The only affordable university is the state university, the University of Liberia, where 95% of students are on scholarship. During the time of admitting students, the University of Liberia gives entrance/test to more than 12,000 students while they only need around 2,500 students. The competition is so tense, but by the help of God I finally graduated from the University of Liberia.

While it is true that I have made it through higher education, the question is not about me in particular. It is about the thousands of youth who have been affected by crisisboth in Liberia and in other parts of the world. These youth are not able to navigate through such disfigured terrain; many are parentless or without strong parent like me. But they have the passion for education, which is their right. And the question now is—what can we do to remedy such situation for a wholesome and functioning society?