18 Oct After a long and difficult journey, Chris is reunited with his family
Chris is thirteen years old. He left Liberia because of poverty and Ebola. His mother wanted to find a better job to provide for his studies. The promises received upon departure revealed to be false. The man who brought them, left for Libya, Chris was separated from his mother and little brother and was left with a Liberian friend of the man and the mother was stacked in Mauritania with no money and documents.
The first time we met Chris, he had breathing problems and stammered. we were with a colleague from UNHCR who referred us the case. He told us a bit of his story and then said: “I am young but I have already lived many things, I can take care of myself. I can even live in an institute; the only thing I want is to study. If you help me studying I will become the president of Liberia and I will make it a better country.” He saw on the BBC that the trip to the Mediterranean was very dangerous and he did not want to die there. When we started looking for his family, we did not have much more than some incoherent information. Then, thanks to the support of the ICRC, we could contact his grandfather back in Liberia. After sometime, he told us that Chris’s mother was still in Mauritania, but in another city. We could find her and Chris’s little brother. After three months of researches, afternoons spent teaching English to Chris and many visits to the family back in Liberia, we could reunite them today… with a new surprise, another brother arriving. In some weeks they will fly back to Liberia where they will start a new life.