Story number 1 for 9 Jul 2003

(Liberia)–We begin today in Liberia, where President Charles Taylor has evidently agreed to an asylum deal. Under his legacy of war, a humanitarian crisis birthed. World Vision’s Eleanor Monbiot describes the air of resignation. “People do not believe that Charles Taylor will go quite so easily. They have been calling on an international stabilization force to come in for 18 months. They feel quite abandoned by the international community. But, they do have amazing resilience, and if calm is brought to the city and to the country, they will very quickly be able to restore their livelihoods.” Monbiot says their teams are working hard to meet the mounting physical needs in Liberia, but not to the detriment of spiritual need. “World Vision believes that in everything that we do, we witness to Christ. So, if we are giving out food, by our very actions we are witnesses. In emergency response, sometimes, it is not possible to actually do physical Christian witness work. But, we do work alongside churches.”