It ranks fifth on the list of the “World’s Worst Places: Top 10 Places You Do Not Want To Visit” - West Point is a suburb of Monrovia, located on a peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, and is described by locals as Liberia’s worst slum. It may well be one of the worst in the world.
We visited the community with a group called Business Link, a local non-profit trying to help women and children affected by the Ebola crisis. They pay school fees for children, and help survivors start small businesses.
The community is set on West Africa’s striking coastline, the contrast of beauty and squalor difficult to grasp even as you’re standing on the beach trying to take it in. The beach is littered with garbage, maggoty fish and other goods are offered for sale, naked children can be seen bathing. There is little access to clean water. We’re told there are some toilets but residents have to pay to use them, so almost no one does. Instead, they urinate and defecate on the streets and on that beautiful beach. Well-known for high rates of crime, they are crammed into very small spaces, 15 to 30 in each home, some so close together we literally had to squeeze between them walking single file. The number widely reported is 75,000, but the organization we are here with says so many are unaccounted for that the number is actually more than 300,000. When the Ebola crisis was at its peak in the summer of 2014, West Point was quarantined for 21 days - no one was allowed out.
In truth, we were a little nervous about going there, especially with so much television equipment. We weren’t sure how people would react, what they might say or do. Of course there were people who didn’t want their pictures taken - we run into that regularly, even in Canada - but when stopped, no one gave us any issues. When we explained what we were doing, they allowed us to continue. The children smiled wider than I have ever seen children smile, and in a classroom of 50 students, nearly all of them were orphaned by Ebola.
The people from Business Link were incredibly kind and so patient with us. Their executive director, Edwina Vakun-Lincoln, is a force to be reckoned with and clearly an angel to so many in this community. As we walked through the community together, she tells me she thinks it’s important for us to see this because it is the heart of the country and no one should live this way. As she walks away wearing our microphone, we overhear someone ask her who we are.
“They’re Canadians,” she replies. “Sometimes God works in mysterious ways.”
I am so grateful we got to spend some time, however brief, in this seemingly forgotten community.
