| Author: | Wayne Schoenfeld | ISBN: | 9780991390212 |
| Publisher: | Wayne Schoenfeld | Publication: | January 9, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords Edition | Language: | English |
| Author: | Wayne Schoenfeld |
| ISBN: | 9780991390212 |
| Publisher: | Wayne Schoenfeld |
| Publication: | January 9, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords Edition |
| Language: | English |
Liberia’s love/hate relationship with the United States has been expressed in a variety of ways over the past two centuries. Tribalism, racism, a staggering divide between rich and poor, institutionalized corruption, poor education—all contributed to a revolution resulting in complete anarchy. After fourteen years of unthinkable brutality, the complete destruction of the nation's infrastructure and foreign confidence, and the horrific public torture and assassination of the country’s president, a cease fire was signed.
For the last ten years it has been held together by as many as 16,000 UN peacekeepers. Whether or not the issues that gave rise to the civil war were resolved is unclear. The war lords that ran a campaign of terror across the country are still powerful. A generation of child soldiers are still wounded in heart and soul. The gap between poor and rich is one of the highest in the world. Liberians acknowledge that, in spite of efforts to improve education and universal schooling, corruption and poverty continue to hold back the nation's greatest natural resource: its children.
This is the story of a humanitarian medical mission in which twenty-one physicians, nurses and support volunteers from the United States, the Netherlands and Canada traveled to Monrovia Liberia. Arriving in mid-September, 2013, they traveled under the auspices of Rotaplast International, under the medical leadership of the organization’s co-founder and medical director, Angelo Capozzi, MD. Early mornings running into late nights the team worked tirelessly on burn patients, victims of violence and tragic accidents.
Liberia’s love/hate relationship with the United States has been expressed in a variety of ways over the past two centuries. Tribalism, racism, a staggering divide between rich and poor, institutionalized corruption, poor education—all contributed to a revolution resulting in complete anarchy. After fourteen years of unthinkable brutality, the complete destruction of the nation's infrastructure and foreign confidence, and the horrific public torture and assassination of the country’s president, a cease fire was signed.
For the last ten years it has been held together by as many as 16,000 UN peacekeepers. Whether or not the issues that gave rise to the civil war were resolved is unclear. The war lords that ran a campaign of terror across the country are still powerful. A generation of child soldiers are still wounded in heart and soul. The gap between poor and rich is one of the highest in the world. Liberians acknowledge that, in spite of efforts to improve education and universal schooling, corruption and poverty continue to hold back the nation's greatest natural resource: its children.
This is the story of a humanitarian medical mission in which twenty-one physicians, nurses and support volunteers from the United States, the Netherlands and Canada traveled to Monrovia Liberia. Arriving in mid-September, 2013, they traveled under the auspices of Rotaplast International, under the medical leadership of the organization’s co-founder and medical director, Angelo Capozzi, MD. Early mornings running into late nights the team worked tirelessly on burn patients, victims of violence and tragic accidents.
