AFRIPAD Wants Youth Shun Violence

By Sallu K.Swaray

12 May 2011

The Executive Director of the African Foundation for Personal Growth and Professional Development (AFRIPAD), Daniel A. Maxwell, has cautioned the youth of Liberia not to engage in post-election violence.

Speaking in an interview with this paper over the weekend, Director Maxwell said his organization was dedicated to engaging the youth positively in order to help them handle problems amicably.

He said AFRIPAD would explore every means available to educate young people about the danger and consequence of violence on their future and the stability of the nation.

Following more than a decade of devastation, he said, Liberians would not afford another civil disturbance that would have negative effect on its recovery efforts.

He pointed to the results of post-election violence in Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Uganda, among others, and noted that what was happening or has happened in those countries was not something that Liberians would wish for their country, which is still smarting from the devastation of war.   So far, he disclosed, his organization has talked with more than 300 young people from several communities in Montserrado County about shunning violence. He said the campaign would move to Kakata, in Margibi County, within a week’s time with the same peace theme.

In keeping with the difficulty associated with the task of engaging the youths against violence, Director Maxwell said he would appreciate it were the international community to provide funding and logistics to enable his team take the message to more young people across the country.

Though intended to prepare young people for the October elections, Mr. Maxwell said the drive would continue beyond the October since it was crucial to preparing Liberia’s youth, which comprises a large ex-combatant and unemployed population.

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