By Staff Writer
Bong County District #4 representative aspirant has vowed to advocate for budgetary support to the Community Watch Forum across Liberia if elected.
Dr. Emmanuel Urey-Yarkpawolo disclosed that it is frustrating to see grown up men and women continue to volunteer especially when they are providing security for their communities.
He wounder for how long security officers will volunteer if nothing is given them for services they offer.
He believed that members of the community watch forum are offering services just as the Liberia National Police and as search they too need to have a share of the country resources by placing them into the national budget.
Dr. Urey Yarkpawolo was speaking over the weekend when he remarks at the monthly gathering of the Community Watch Forum held in Farvey town, Zota district.
He said as a political group within the district it is their responsibility to meet different groups within the district and know issues confronting them citing some of the many constrains that are faced by the community watch forum within the area.
Team Urey Yarkpawolo provided a cash donation, rice, fish, and other sup kind for the gathering.
Team Urey-Yarkpawolo District Coordinator , Joshua T. Gbarnah in Pictures with CWF Members
Statement below
“We gathered here today to watch and participate in the meeting of the Community Watch Forum as we did with the last meeting, we attended in Gbarnga-Siaquelleh. Thank you for your invitation.
I would like to speak with you briefly on the theme: Budgetary support to the Community Watch Forum as a requirement for sustaining national peace and security. The Community Watch Forum of Liberia is an offspring of the Community Policing Forum that was established by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the Ministry of Justice in 2004.
Even with the lack of financial and material support, the Community Watch Forums of District Number Four, Bong County, and Liberia, have done a remarkable job by preventing and stopping crimes. Findings from a recent study by the US-based MIT Governance Support Lab indicate that the Community Watch Forum program improved relations between police and citizens, strengthened social norms and mobilized communities to participate in preserving their own security.
The study further states that there was a 40 percent reduction in overall crimes as a result of the intervention of the Community Watch Forum.
The Community Watch Forum members are making these achievements with no monetary and material support. These are men and women who volunteer their time and risk their lives to do the work of the Liberian National Police and therefore, need the necessary support from the National Government.
This is why I promised the Community Watch Forum members in Gbarnga-Siaquelleh, and I am promising you here again today that when I am elected as Representative for District Number Four in the 2023 elections, I will advocate for budgetary support for the Community Watch Forum.
Even as you work without pay, you should have the necessary tools and security gears to support your work.
National budgetary support to the Community Watch Forum is as important as provision of quality education, quality health care delivery, modern agriculture, provision of electricity and land deeds for our people, which are our other platform initiatives.
Ladies and Gentlemen, meetings of this nature, where Community Watch Forum members interact with community members are very important. This is why we are supporting the meeting today with two bags of rice, a cartoon of fish, some oil and other soup ingredients. In addition to that, we are making an initial financial contribution of 5,000.00.
We are prepared to work with you and call on us any time”.
