ActionAid started working in Liberia during the April war of 1996. After the offices were looted, our staff were forced to flee, returning in 1997. In 2002, we had to concentrate around urban and suburban areas as rural areas were no longer safe.

We began working with a food security project to restore people’s livelihoods after the war. We distributed seed and tools, worked on the development of farm families, and helped women to find ways of making an income. By 2011 we had a big enough presence in Liberia, that we were able to launch a major appeal to help refugees fleeing violence in neighbouring Ivory Coast.

We now work in the following fields: women's rights, HIV/AIDS, governance, education and emergencies.

Child sponsorship in Liberia

Sponsoring children like Oulogbo, right, will help to provide for families as well as funding programmes so that Liberians can rebuild their country. 

Our youth social and economic reintegration programme enables former child soldiers to gain abilities and tools they can use to make a living: basic skills in carpentry, masonry, agriculture, vegetable production or animal husbandry.

• Sponsor a child in Liberia

Safety and security in Liberia

Liberia is recovering from more than two decades of civil war. More than 200,000 people were killed in the conflict and around a third of the population was forced from their homes. In 2003, a transitional, power-sharing government was sworn in and elections are due to take place in October 2005. But the conflict has left the country in economic ruin and with more than 40,000 fighters, including 15,000 children, needing to be disarmed and reintegrated into society.

ActionAid Liberia is working to help people recover from the war. Key focuses are gender; HIV; governance at all levels; youth and education; emergencies and rehabilitation of child soldiers.

How you can help

When you sponsor a child in Liberia, you'll be providing the resources for real, long-term change. You'll get two letters a year from the child you sponsor, and updates from the country programme to tell you how the money you are spending is changing the community your child lives in.

• Sponsor a child in Liberia