wfn.org | Tough Times for Liberian Students

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3030 notes).

Note 3029 by UMNS on June 24, 1996 at 16:21 Eastern (5361 characters).

SEARCH: Africa University, Liberia, students, civil unrest

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                   http://www.umc.org/umns.html
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT: Linda Green                           315(10-31-71){3029}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             June 24, 1996

War, worry and waiting fill the lives
of Liberian students at Africa University

                        A UMNS News Feature
                         by Andra Stevens*

     Roving groups of young fighters on the streets of Monrovia,
Liberia's capital city, shooting in all directions ... people
running for cover ... nothing but carnage everywhere.

     Those are television pictures on the evening news at night.
On one night, the sight of it was too much for Sangay Jorgbor.
Mute with worry, she left the student lounge in tears.
     Sangay is one of five Liberians studying at Africa University
in Zimbabwe. She is in her first year of the four-year Agriculture
and Natural Resources program at the United Methodist-related
institution. For her and her fellow Liberians, the newscasts are a
double-edged sword. A glimpse of the familiar brings no comfort
but instead, heightens their fears.
     "Monrovia is my home. My whole family and my friends are
there and I can't reach them. I don't know what's happening to
them," Sangay said. "It's hard to sit waiting for word and
worrying all the time that bad news is coming." She is the oldest
child in a family of six and the first to study abroad. Before
this latest round of intense fighting, she called home almost
weekly.
     "What we see on the news is really bothering us," said 21
year-old Artemus Gaye, a first year theology student. "I've hardly
had a good night's rest in the past two and a half months and it's
affecting my health." The first week of June, he received word
that his family home had burned to the ground. Thankfully, no one
was injured.
     Fellow theology student Vivian Johnson describes herself as
"confused and disturbed" and says she has not been able to
concentrate on her studies the past two months. She came to Africa
University to train for a ministry in pastoral care and
counseling. Like Sangay, she is first-born in a family of six.
Since her father's death, her mother, a seamstress, has had to
care for the family on her own. She is worried about how her
family is coping with the violence and uncertainty in Monrovia.
     Their anxiety is always there and the students say it makes
studying and course work much more difficult to get through. The
dean of students and the clinic staff have tried to respond to the
students' health issues while others in the community have tried
to lift their spirits.
     "During exams I didn't think I'd make it," Sangay said. " I
would sit in my room crying and friends would come in to talk and
say leave it to God. It was so hard to find comfort."
     All five Liberian students are United Methodists sent to
Africa University by their annual conference. For a time, they
relied on the United Methodist Church in Liberia to help them keep
in touch with their families. That lifeline was cut when the
fighting in Monrovia forced the Annual Conference to move its
headquarters to neighboring Guinea.
     Like the Rwandan and Burundian students before them, the
Liberians are turning to the University community for comfort,
nurture and prayerful support as they try to make sense of their
situation.
     Individuals in the community have opened their homes,
offering hospitality and making the Liberian students a part of
their families. The students come and go from the home of the Rev.
John Sie Mee Russell, a Liberian himself and a lecturer in the
faculty of theology. 
     Other staff members, like the executive secretary to the vice
chancellor Nyaradzo Madzongwe, have organized meals and other
activities outside the University to take the students' minds off
their troubles.
     More difficult for the University though, has been the
question of an institutional response to the plight of the
Liberian students. These students were given full scholarships
when they entered Africa University last year. Funds for their
scholarships were donated by the Pacific Northwest and Oregon-
Idaho Annual Conferences. 
     This year, Africa University's Development Office in
Nashville gave priority to finding scholarships for them. They
have been assured that their tuition, room and board, medical and
other fees plus a monthly stipend of $11.11 ($100 in Zimbabwe
currency) will be paid for the 1996-1997 academic year.
     The Africa University community continues to pray for an end
to the war in Liberia and to civil unrest and violence in other
parts of the continent. 
     "It's so hard for us to single out students from a particular
country when we have so many coming from troubled situations,"
said Anthanasius Mphuru, dean of the faculty of agriculture and
natural resources. "Here, we remember and lift up the Nigerians,
Sierra Leoneans, Zaireans and Angolans in our midst a well."
                              #  #  #

     * Stevens is the director of information for Africa
University. 

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