Local Liberian-American to Return to Liberia as Part of Humanitarian Assessment Mission

American Refugee Committee
Friday, 22 August 2003

A team of humanitarian workers from the American Refugee Committee (ARC) will be traveling to Liberia to conduct an assessment of needs in the wartorn country. Among the mission participants are a volunteer health care worker from Minnesota's Liberian community and two ARC staff members.

The team will depart from Minneapolis on Sunday. They will interview health care workers, government leaders, and refugees in and around Monrovia to learn the most critical needs following the decade-long war that has devastated the country. They will focus especially on health care and water sanitation needs.

"I have mixed emotions about returning to my homeland," said Nyeba Manston, a local public health nurse who was born in Liberia and is part of the ARC assessment team. "I am eager to see what we can do to start a rebuilding process in Liberia, but I also realize that the needs are so acute. A decade of war has had a devastating impact on families across the country, and people are without food and shelter."

Minnesota is home to one of the largest Liberian populations in the United States. Manston came to the United States in 1992 and moved to Minnesota in 2000. She works as a nurse in Minneapolis, and is also pursuing graduate studies at the University of Minnesota. Other members of the team include Huy Pham, ARC's Director of International Operations and Alan Waller, security specialist. Pham, himself a refugee from Vietnam, worked in Liberia for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer.

The assessment team will return to Minnesota in mid-September.

The American Refugee Committee began working in Liberia in 1999 and ceased operations in 2002 due to security concerns. At that time, ARC was one of the largest international NGOs in the country, operating in Lofa, Bong, Nimba, Grand Gideh, and Monserrado. ARC's programs in Liberia aimed at helping former refugees and homeless youth reintegrate into Liberian society by providing small loans, vocational skills training and trauma counseling. ARC currently works in 12 countries with refugees and displaced persons caught in the crossfire of civil violence, warfare, and other disasters.

For more information, or to contact American Refugee Committee, see their website at: www.archq.org