United Nations Radio

Liberian student

PRESENTER: Liberia's government and UNICEF are building the nation's first child-friendly school in the border town of Ganta. The high-tech school is part of a multi-million dollar peace-building initiative, as Ruby Ofori reports.

WILDTRACK: Child reading

NARRATOR: Salome Gaye, a six year old reading from one of her social studies books. Salome and 270 other children will be the first pupils at the Charles Boyu Elementary and Junior High School.

WILDTRACK: Six year-old girl reading

NARRATOR: Mathew Flomo, the UNICEF Education Officer in Ganta, explains why this will be a school like no other in Liberia.

FLOMO: Ganta has been ideally selected and it should be serving as a means to be able to prevent conflict and try to cement the peace that exists. There will be a resource center. That will have Internet facilities in there. Then will be have a solar panel that will be working there and there will be a mobile clinic. There will be a playground. That's what makes this different from other schools.

NARRATOR: Ganta was chosen because it is a border town close to Guinea. Like other border towns in Liberia, the flames of war were fanned in Ganta by cross-border disputes between local communities. The new school is meant to prevent conflict from happening again by providing a community centre to foster peace.

FINLEY PITT: This is the community centre you can see here. They're building the formwork for the stage.

NARRATOR: That's Finley Pitt, an Australian architect hired by UNICEF to supervise the building of the school. Her description of the community center suggests a building that is literally designed to bring communities together.

FINLEY PITT: These three buildings are contained under a very large roof. It's a parasol roof that sits above the structures of each of the individual buildings, so it provides a focal point for the campus, a community gathering.

WILDTRACK: Principal talking to students

NARRATOR: Patrick Dolo is the principal of the St. Lawrence Catholic School. Like most schools in Liberia his pupils are older than they should be.

PATRICK DOLO: I think it's because of the war we went through, and during the war we never had many schools ...but right now we see UNICEF coming in and this is a very good idea. And we are very much happy.

NARRATOR: Experts say overage students are more likely to drop out, or become teenage mums. Mathew Flomo says this is one of the harmful consequences of poverty and war. He says the new child-friendly school wants to change that. Mr. Flomo says UNICEF plans to build 14 child-friendly schools in Liberia's border communities, and 80 throughout West Africa.

WILDTRACK: Exchange of greetings between a teacher and his students.

NARRATOR: For UN Radio, this is Ruby Ofori in Monrovia

Producer: Ruby Ofori/Dianne Penn, United Nations Radio
Duration: 2'39"