The 14 years Liberian civil crisis also greatly affected my entire family and left me with a lot of experience that I still remember. Most especially, growing up and schooling as a refugee child between Ivory Coast (La Cote d’Ivoire) and Ghana.

However, having acquired little education, I took the decision to return home from Ghana to Liberia passing through Ivory Coast (La Cote d’Ivoire) where I had a stop in the Nicla Peace Town Liberian Refugee Camp, Guiglo. In the refugee camp, my eyes could not believe to see thousands of Liberian refugee children not going to school. But being involved into early sex and marriages couple with very hard labor, just because UNHCR and its partners have stopped all their support including health care and primary education due to donor’s fatigue since 2004.

My mind changed from continuing to Liberia and decided to find durable solutions to the issues affecting the children, and which could also affect the future growth and development of Liberia if many children don’t acquire education and/or skills and return home one day as men and women after few years. With strong support from my wife (Precious L. Philips), the elders, youths, parents/caregivers, women leadership and the adolescent children themselves of the refugee camp, the idea of organizing ourselves to provide free primary education to all Liberian refugee children living in and around the camp was agreed upon, and that gave birth to the community based nongovernmental organization by the name of Africa Children Initiative for Self Empowerment (ACISE) on June 16, 2005. With the existence of ACISE in the refugee camp at the time between 2005 ̶ 2011, more than 1,000 children benefited free early childhood development (ECD) and primary education in the hopeless refugee camp. Moreover, many of these children were immediately integrated in the Liberian school system using ACISE Student Progress Report Documents; while a total of 682 GBV cases including rape, domestic violence, child trafficking; sexual exploitation & abuse were resolved with appropriate actions taken.

The dream and vision must live on. Having returned to Liberia in 2011 along with many other Liberians including children and women who immensely benefitted from ACISE Education/Training and Gender Based Violence (GBV)/Social Protection initiatives and programs, the Founder (Lyon Bennie Kpaye) and other volunteers deemed it necessary to buttress the Government of Liberia (GOL) effort in catering to the basic needs of its citizens and residents including children, women and people living with disabilities.

Today, the Africa Children Initiative for Self Empowerment (ACISE), a Not-For-Profit, Non Political, Children and Women Rights Based, Civil Society and Non-Governmental Local Organization with its headquarters (Head Office) in Niao Community, on the Martha Tubman Memorial Hospital (MTMH) main road is collaborating with GOL along with its agencies/line ministries and other humanitarian organizations to protect, educate and empower children, youths and women in the areas of Education/Training, GBV/Social Protection, Agriculture/Livelihood and Environmental Protection/WASH with mainstreaming Good Governance in communities and schools.

The credo of ACISE is Education/Training. Because we are with the strongest conviction that quality education/training and life skills assure a bright future for a CHILD and everyone. Join Team ACISE “Educate, Protect and Empower Today’s Children; So we Don’t Punish Tomorrow’s Duty Bearers”. Email: lyon.kpaye@aciseliberia.org