Camp for Peace Liberia (CFP-Liberia) was established in 2005 by a group of visionary youths with the goal to transform the lives of young people through community based education and awareness in response to the manifest need for sustainable peace and development. CFP-Liberia was incorporated in 2010 as a non-profit organization with an overarching goal to contribute to the development, empowerment and self-sustainability of young people in Liberia. It focuses on the promotion of the culture of nonviolence, reconciliation, promotion of education, and creating awareness of accountable governance and social transformation. It creates opportunities for young people to be equipped to deal with their Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and to participate socially and economically in Liberia’s post-war development. CFP also provides micro-credit to enable youth establish their own enterprises. To focus on its vision, mission and goal, CFP is supervised by a management team comprising of 75% young people including a vast number of volunteers who offer activities through a network of trainers.
CFP believes that human resources are the most valuable assets of any nation, and that conflict threatens not only the development initiative of youth, but also the social fabric and the stability of national security. Preventive and rehabilitative strategies should be prioritized at all levels in society; and young people have an important role to play in assisting government in the implementation of its national development drives.
Camp for Peace Liberia (CFP) offers youth the following programs:
War Affected Youth Rehabilitation Program
This program targets former child soldiers and ex-combatants who require re-integration into peaceful society but experience exclusion as a result of their having being forced to participate in conflict. The goal is to be rehabilitated to full economic and social participation, transforming them from an ongoing challenge into becoming a considerable asset to their communities.
Non-violence and Peace Education Program
This program promotes the culture of peace and non-violence in schools and communities. Under this program, youths are trained as peer mediators and teachers trained as counselors in active non-violence, conflict resolution and transformation.
Empowering youth through micro-finance
This program gives young people access to financial services and training to holistically build their capital and pool saving that can be converted into small loans for business. With training and support, they become important resources and change agents for youth-centered economic and social justice by increasing access to education and microfinance, enabling them to realize their potential and lift themselves out of poverty. This program also provides young females with materials and expertise that could help them to generate sustainable income through projects.
HIV/AIDS Education and Awareness Program
The objective of this project is to increase awareness and provide services on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) like HIV/AIDS amongst young people thus reducing the incidence of STIs including HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy. The program is also designed to provide information, education and services to young people. A multi-facted approach including mobilization, training and sensitization are used to achieve the objective. This is done through mobilizing youth, conducting workshops/meetings to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS and its prevention, training of women and youth educators in various communities on counseling for responsible sexual behavior who will in turn educate their peers. Young female youth are exclusively trained and sensitized to educate peer-groups in various communities.
Peace Camp Program (PCP)
This program organizes and hosts peace camps for young people of all ages irrespective of their social, political and religious backgrounds. These camps will help them play an active role in conflict transformation through training seminars and workshops, focused on understanding and enhancing the roles of young people in peace-building and conflict transformation. It also leads cooperative action projects to engage youth and benefit their communities.
