By Gabriel I.H. Williams
According to reports, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai is scheduled to convene a diaspora conference September 26-28, 2025, in Washington, D.C., USA. In light of the pending presidential diaspora conference, this article seeks to underscore the very important role of Liberians in the diaspora in helping to accelerate the redevelopment of post-war Liberia.
Liberians living in the diaspora (resident in other parts of the world) are estimated to be more than 500,000. Most of them fled Liberia during the country’s civil upheavals. They represent mostly the country’s middle class.
Besides international humanitarian assistance during the civil war, Liberians in the diaspora remitted hundreds of millions of US dollars to support families, friends, and other causes in Liberia. Also during the scourge of the Ebola pandemic, diaspora Liberians mobilized resources to aid the government and international efforts in combating the deadly disease.
In order to better understand the sacrifices many Liberians in the diaspora are quietly making to improve the conditions of the Liberian people, this article begins by highlighting two diaspora Liberians as an example.
And here is the first example: During the early part of this year, 2025, I received a very disturbing phone call from a young unemployed single mother in Liberia, who had suffered a stroke about two years ago and was in desperate need of assistance.
I listened to her tearful story of how hardship and stress due to caring for her child as a single mother resulted in a stroke that paralyzed her dominant right side, including her hand and leg. Upon listening to her, I comforted her with a promise to help her seek medical treatment.
Immediately after, I called Dr. Catherine Turkett Kamara, a medical professional from the US, who is working to make a difference by providing critical medical treatment to stroke victims in Liberia. A longtime very good friend of mine, Dr. Kamara operates the SALT Rehabilitation Clinic on the Old Road in Monrovia, which is Liberia’s first post-war trauma rehabilitation center.
Without hesitation, Dr. Kamara offered to treat the young lady free of charge, while I only had to pay for the prescribed medications that were obtained from a pharmacy. Following about three months of medical treatment, the young lady regained the use of her right leg and arm in June. The young lady, a dropout student of the AME University in Monrovia, called me last month (August) in a joyous mood to report that in addition to regaining the use of her limbs, she has also started a new job.
Originally named Cathrine Turkett before marriage, a daughter of the Township of Arthington in Montserrado County, Dr. Kamara is a notable example of the significance of the Liberian diaspora in the rebuilding of post-war Liberia. She is an American-educated medical professional, who fled Liberia during the civil war.
Upon visiting Liberia following the end of the civil war, she said she was so disturbed by the alarming rate of stroke that she decided to do something about it. This is how she courageously set out to invest her resources, time, and expertise to establish the SALT Rehabilitation Clinic.
Without fanfare, she has also established a not-for-profit humanitarian organization, the Olaitan Luke Akanle Autism Center, which recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU) to help create awareness about autism in Liberia. The center provides services for children with Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, and other developmental disabilities.
Another member of the Liberian diaspora who have worked tirelessly to serve the common good of the Liberian people is Mrs. Christiana Bendu Hunter, former president of the Association of Citizens and Friends of Liberia (ACFLI), the first African oriented organization in the California state capitol Sacramento, whose members include Liberians and non-Liberians.
Sis Bendu or Auntie Bendu, as she is popularly known in the wider African community, is also an embodiment of how diaspora Liberians can network or coordinate with non-Liberians or friends of Liberia abroad who are interested in contributing to the common good of Liberia.
For example, during my tenure at the Information Ministry before being posted to Washington as a Liberian diplomat during the administration of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, I had an interview on Capitol Public Radio, the Sacramento branch of the National Public Radio (NPR), which has more than 1,000 member stations across the US.
My 2006 interview, in which I emphasized the health and educational challenges facing post-war Liberia, led to the establishment of a text book project for Liberia that saw the shipment of 14,000 textbooks to Liberia, which were distributed to the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS), as well as various public schools across Liberia, through the Education Ministry.
Casey Robbins, then a 9th grader who listened to the interview with her parents, was inspired to launch the textbook project for Liberia, through which the San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento supplied 14,00 textbooks to Liberia.
For a few years, the textbook campaign was so successful that Firestone Company undertook the shipment of the books free of charge to Liberia, while a trucking company in California also freely transported the books from Sacramento to the port where the Firestone ships bound for Liberia were harbored.
Madam Bendu Hunter was the liaison of the Liberian community working closely with Casey and her parents, who visited Liberia and were received in audience respectively by then President Sirleaf and Vice President Boakai, in appreciation of the service of Casey, now a graduate of Stanford University in the US.
The two examples are just a tip of the numerous contributions many Liberians in the diaspora are making in the areas of health, education, business, technology, among others. In this light, there is a very serious need for the government to constructively engage with the Liberian diaspora to establish strong partnerships that would enable the government to provide real support to diaspora endeavors for sustainable progress in Liberia.
For example, what can the government do to provide some support for the SALT Rehabilitation Clinic or for the autism program at the AMEU – two very critical areas of medical service in Liberia?
During the official ceremony commemorating the 178th independence anniversary of the Republic of Liberia on July 26, 2025, the National Orator for the historic occasion, the Rev. Dr. Emmeltt L. Dunn, underscored the significance of the diaspora when he made the following plea: “We need you. Not just your money but your ideas, your expertise, your networks. Return if you can. Invest if you’re able. Speak up. Stay engaged. Your love for Liberia is not less because you live abroad. Let it be a bridge, not a boundary. Your journey abroad does not erase your Liberian Identity, it expands it.”
The Rev. Dr. Dunn, Presidential Special Envoy for Partnership and Philanthropy, also called on the Boakai government to “create bold, intentional frameworks for diaspora investment, ensuring that their inclusion is not symbolic but strategic. They must not be seen as outsiders, but as partners in national transformation.”
It was in recognition of the immeasurable contributions of Liberians in the diaspora that President Sirleaf, during her administration, declared the Liberian Diaspora as the unofficial 16th county of Liberia.
When he was Vice President, now President Boakai beat a path to the US, where he enjoyed a very good relationship with the Liberian diaspora. His very strong engagement with the diaspora led to many fruitful benefits from the US, where I served as a Liberian diplomat in Washington during that era.
This is why, given proper planning and effective publicity for broad-based participation, the pending Presidential Diaspora Conference could create the roadmap for a strong partnership between the government and the Liberian diaspora.
However, even though the conference is scheduled to be held in a few weeks, there is yet to be any effective public relations campaign, including media reports, to create adequate public awareness about the aims and objectives of the diaspora conference. Besides a few flyers and other pieces of communication mostly on social media, there is yet to be publicity in the mainstream Liberian media to create adequate public awareness.
In conclusion, while the Boakai government is seen to be making efforts to put Liberia back on the right trajectory towards sustainable peace and progress, much is left to be done to strengthen the government’s weak public information dissemination machinery before it is too late.
It was due to the apparent inability of the government media establishment to effectively articulate the government’s policies and activities that Senator Abraham Darius Dillon and other stalwarts of the Boakai administration recently established a private media outlet, which he said is intended to adequately counter the barrage of falsehood against the government and some of its officials, being spread by certain media outlets.
While Senator Dillion and others have taken a proactive measure to counter anti-government reports in the media, it is also important for their media platform to coordinate closely with the Information Ministry and the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS), so that they do not operate at cross-purposes to the detriment of the government.
Senator Dillon is also highly applauded for his proactive measures to combat drug addiction in Liberia, for which we are interested in helping to create public awareness, as there is a need for the government to create communication strategies to ensure effective communication to the public.
Again, notable endeavors such as the war against drugs should be coordinated with the appropriate government agencies for maximum result. Meanwhile the pending diaspora conference could provide an opportunity for the government, which is waging a war against drug proliferation, to seek the expertise of Liberians in the diaspora, where you have numerous professional Liberian social workers in areas related to drug and other addictions.
About the Author: Gabriel I.H. Williams is a journalist and author. He can be reached at gabrielwilliams028@gmail.com.
