My Life & the War in Liberia

By: Gaious Ben

Life thinks of it as place where happiness can be yours and where sadness will always come without choice. My name is Gaious Ben; I am a Liberian by nationality and the first child of Mr. & Mrs. Emmanuel Ben. But quite unfortunately, I lost my father during the war and lost contact with my mother and siblings, which I am yet to know their whereabouts.

I was born into a lovely family that love and see education as one of their first priorities in life. I was sent to one of the best schools in Monrovia (Booker Washington institute) to ensure I become useful to myself, my country and the world at large in future, and everything was working out just fine for me and my family before the war started.
I remember sleeping in my dormitory one particular night only to be woken up by the sound of guns by the military men from one of the warring factions that were recruiting boys from my school to join their group of fighters that was the beginning of my struggle for survival. At the age of 13, I relocated to Fendel to fend for myself, I had it tough and that was the first time I tasted suffering. Among the boys recruited from my
School, the few ones that survived had their legs or their arms amputated, while some female folks were raped, while others ended up in prostitution to stay alive, at the same time some others ended up marrying some members of the ECOMOG soldiers who succeeded in bringing them to Nigeria, Ghana, and other West African countries.

On July 1st, 1991, I finally succeeded in boarding a ship (River Maja) to Nigeria to seek refuge; we were received warmly by the members of the emergency relief agency and taken to the refugee camp in Ogun State Nigeria. Living in the refugee camp was another thug of war, feeding and clothing was always at the mercy of God and the environment that always looks isolated. After some time I decided to visit my country (Liberia) embassy in Victoria Island, Lagos State, with a couple of friends, during my visit I met a Nigerian (Patick Ejekwu) who eventually became my first Nigerian friend. He removed me from the street to his house in Orile-Iganmu and introduced me to a church (Redeemed Christian Church of God, Freedom Hall), which was then headed by Pastor Tony Rapu who by the grace of God transformed my life together with other anointed men of God, with their life changing messages. I have come to realize that there is something for me to start that is destined for me to finish. I count myself as one of the most favored Liberians refugee in Nigeria. Often times I kept going back to the refugee camp to see my folks and help them with the little I have. Recently, I found out that almost all young girls in the camp had left for Lagos and other cities engaging in prostitution, such an unholy act that has no future, due to neglect and frustration, while the male folks are wasting their lives in front of the Liberian embassy at Idejo Victoria Island Lagos and also on the refugee camp. Now that peace has been restored in Liberia, should these people go back with virtually nothing to start with? It’s going to be very difficult as most of these people are ex-fighters in different warring factions with no form of sustenance whatsoever, but if they leave with some level of education and technical training I believe that will go a long way in Restoring the peace and development in the country as well as of them leaving Nigeria while we will help train and educate the rest in Liberia.

That is why we have designed some technical training in the areas of computer training, GSM repair training, hat and bead making, tailoring, Etc, these and some other technical vocations, will be studied by these refugees in a bid to give them a means of livelihood and at the same time repatriate them to their homeland and give them something to fall back on in the period of peace.

My good and kind people, I thank you all for the hospitality over every refugees in the camp and above all beseech you all in the name of the almighty God to be a little kinder by helping in providing foods, clothes, educational materials, beverages, drugs, money, computers, etc. to help with the technical training of all the refugees in the camp so that they can be useful to themselves and the whole world at large. May God bless you all.

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