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From Camp to Community: Liberia Study on Exploitation of Children

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Save the Children UK, 2006.

The people of Liberia have experienced ongoing suffering over the past two decades as a result of war and displacement. Children have been drawn into this in many ways, such as recruitment into armed forces, separation from their families, witnessing atrocities, rape and torture. Thousands have been driven from their homes into exile into neighbouring countries or camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) within Liberia. This study focuses on children remaining in those camps and those who have recently been repatriated to their towns and villages of origin after the end of the war. Save the Children, along with many other non-governmental organisations, has been working alongside the Liberian government in the IDP camps. During the course of our work with children, Save the Children staff became aware that many children were agreeing to have sex with older men for money, food and other goods and favours. In order to document more closely the circumstances surrounding this issue, and to look at ways to improve Save the Children's delivery of assistance to better protect children against such exploitation, we instigated a study in four IDP camps and four
communities with a high population of people returning from the camps.