CPE Memorializes Peace in Liberia

MONROVIA -- The Center for Peace Education (CPE), a local non-governmental organization, on Saturday, August 6, commemorated the “Day of Peace” and “Day of Prayer for World Peace.”

The CPE is an organization dedicated to building a comprehensive peace-building program and teaching mediation as a means of achieving harmony and a better life for future generations.

The ceremony was held at the Unity Conference Center (UCC) in Virginia, outside Monrovia.

The program brought together leaders from various religious bodies in the country. It was also attended by Liberian government officials, including Minister of Labor, Cllr. Tiawan Saye Gongloe, and the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICAT), Dr. Laurence K. Bropleh.

In his message at the occasion, Rev. Robert W. Freeman of Gracie Reeves Baptist Church in Gaye town, Old Road, admonished Liberians to exhibit themselves as instruments of peace, having been victims of the consequences of conflict.

The clergyman said Liberians could no longer afford to live in an atmosphere of chaos and instability.

A traditional mother at the ceremony, Mama Tomah Sieh, blessed the country with kola nuts and raw rice which, she said, were symbols of peace and purity.

She also petitioned officials of government to do everything within their power to help protect women and children in Liberia.

Sieh, who also serves as the Executive Director for Women Cultural at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, challenged parents not to relent in giving their wards the recipe for a brighter tomorrow.

She stated that when children of today are better taken care of and given the right education, the risk of future conflict is reduced.

Gongloe, who was the guest speaker at the event, recounted to participants how the 14-year civil war had retarded the country’s development.

Gongloe said Liberia was chosen as a land of liberty so that anyone in search of peace would live here, which was why former slaves from America decided to settle here.

However, he said, Liberia, ‘land of liberty,’ is still struggling to live up to its name.

He explained that conflict does not just mean violence, but also lack of respect for the rights of one’s fellow human beings.

He then advised participants to have mutual respect for one another and to avoid divisions based on ethnicity, which remains a strong recipe for conflict in Africa. Conflicts, Gongloe said, delay solutions and prolong problems.

Rev. Augustine Arkoi, Chairman of the Montserrado Peace Committee, described peace-building as a critical challenge, especially now that the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) will soon leave the country.

He disclosed that with the help of the UN Peace Fund, efforts are being made by the Montserrado Peace Committee to build several peace huts in the county as a way of carrying out social mobilization.

Before officially launching the program, Bropleh admonished Liberians to consider themselves stakeholders in the sustenance of peace and stability in the country.

“We must be tied together in the garment of mutuality,” he asserted.

Some participants in this first peace education program were awarded certificates.

The trainees comprised students and residents in the Virginia community.

The program concluded with the symbolic burning of conflict and the planting of a kola nut tree by Sieh which, she said, symbolized planting of peace in the country.