By P. Lincoln Nyanrue Jr., elincoln1986@gmail.com
The youthful generation of a nation is the bedrock of nation building and development. But Liberia does not seem to be the best place for young people. The Country’s unemployment continues to widen with the youth taking a lion’s share of the menace, and researchers on Liberian youths say lack of required skills is exacerbating the youth unemployment.
Unemployment is said to be on the increase in Sinoe County, as the youth called on the central government and non-governmental organizations to remedy their situation.
Young people who constitute Liberia highest population density are engaged into self-employment due to lack of required kills and the unavailability of jobs, a LISGIS 2008 population and housing census said.
This was actually seen recently when our Liberia Southeastern Correspondent based in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County, visited Greenville, Sinoe County.
Our correspondent met a group of young people who are into “rock crashing” (a group that breaks huge rocks into smaller pieces for building purposes) in Bannah Community on the outskirt of Greenville City.
The President of “Rock Culture”, Albert Morgan this is the only means of them earning living.
Mr. Mongan said he and his group members have been crashing rock for over a decade in Monrovia and other parts of Liberia and have moved to Sinoe County in their bid to find jobs with the companies operating there. But he noted that over three years now they have not been successful.
He indicated that proceeds collected from their work are used to pay their children school fees and address other domestic needs.
The president of “Rock Culture” disclosed that some of them have knowledgeable in some career areas like carpentry, plumbing, pastry and driving, among others, but they are finding it difficult to get these skills applied because there is no opportunity.
Mongan failed to say how much a wheelbarrow or pickup load of crashed rock is sold, However, he pointed out that prices are negotiable and even blamed citizens of the county for not actually utilizing their products for construction purposes.
Sinoe County is one of the counties in Liberia that has social agreement with logging, mining and agriculture companies.
Some of those companies are the “Golden Verrolum Liberia”, which is in palm production with over two thousand acres of lands and the Atlantic Resources Limited, a logging in the area that is hiring skilled and unskilled Liberians to receive a dollar a day for survival.
All efforts were made to contact the county leadership especially the development superintendent on some of these matters at the time, but all efforts proved fruitless due to his absence in the county and other official engagements upon arrival in Greenville.
