Monrovia- July 1, 2022: The hurdles associated with At-Risk youths (Zogos) has reached a climax with the intervention of the national government and development partners of Liberia in a consummate bid to rehabilitate youthful Liberians who stand the risk of losing their future to drug addiction and criminality.

The move by the government and its national and international developmental partners was raised to the highest national pedestal when Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), Samuel D. Tweh Jr, told dignitaries and participants gathered at a one-day fundraiser for At-Risk youths held at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex that government is prepared to give ‘zogos’ a systematic comprehensive and structural response to their problems.

Minister Tweh Jr, made the statement on Thursday, June 30, 2022, when he provided the key objectives of the government’s plan to raise 13.9 Million United States Dollars to rehabilitate, train, and empower ‘zogos’ to become useful citizens.

He said the hurdles of ‘zogos’ were necessitated by the fourteen years of civil war and near neglect by the Liberian society.

Minister Tweh Jr, averred that ‘zogos are a mere reminder of the Liberian civil war adding, they are the vestiges of the fratricidal war.

“Zogos steer us in the eye daily, Min. Tweh Jr said. “We either are too slow or may have turned a blind eye to the emotional psychological and psychosocial dysfunction of the war,” he stressed.

The MFDP Boss intoned that although the government continues to address structural challenges to the economy including roads, infrastructure, electricity, and human capital development, the government and society have not devoted the same measure towards zogos.

However, he acknowledged that although there have been some programs targeted at zogos by the government and some development partners, it has not profited them because according to him, it has been a scattered program.

Min. Tweh asserted that the initiative to rehabilitate ‘zogos’ by the George Weah-led government is intended to deal completely with the hurdles associated with ‘zogos’ and mainstream the menace completely.

He called for reassessing the drugs law that will enhance the capacity of the national government to eradicate drug abuse and substance usage in the Country adding, that it will help in the process of rehabilitating zogos.

“If we failed to fail to make a dent in the drug and substance abuse space and its addiction to At-Risk youths, it will be difficult to make progress,” Min. Tweh Jr. said.

Min. Tweh Jr, then assured the gathering that monies raised by the government and its development partners will be used to develop comprehensive programs to address the multiple and varying aspects of zogos.

He said some of the resources garnered will be used to modernize the youth rehabilitation center in Benson to a state-of-the-art technical and vocational school while other funds will be directed towards the National Risk Youth program as well as the psychosocial program amongst others.

The Liberian Finance Boss then promised the government’s commitment to the process of rehabilitating zogos by putting money in the national budget for programs that will positively affect zogos, while its development partners will embark on a structural and sectorial approach that will make the process completely successful.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Resident Coordinator Neil Scott used the occasion to recount the U.N. transformation program that targeted zogos when he referred to the Social Economic and Empowerment for Disadvantage youths (SEED) project that rehabilitated about six hundred zogos.

He promised the U.N. unflinching support for the government’s effort in the process of rehabilitating zogos.

The official fundraiser brought together Liberia’s development partners including the United Nations, the European Union, foreign embassies representatives, the private sector, civil society actors as well as zogos amongst others.

The National Fund Drive for the Rehabilitation and Empowerment of At-Risk youth is under the theme: “ Reclaiming Our Youth for a better Liberia”.