Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Ellen Johnson Sirleafis the 24th and current President of Liberia, in office since 2006. She served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d'état, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She placed second in the 1997 presidential election won by Charles Taylor. She won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006, and she was a successful candidate for re-election in 2011. Sirleaf...
ProfessionWorld Leader
Date of Birth29 October 1938
CityMonrovia, Liberia
Liberia just needs to go through this one political transition and it can really take off. Everything's in place now. We cannot afford to put the country in the hands of someone that lacks the experience.
All girls know that they can be anything now. That transformation is to me one of the most satisfying things.
The future belongs to us, because we have taken charge of it. We have the commitment, we have the resourcefulness, and we have the strength of our people to share the dream across Africa of clean water for all.
When I took office, Liberia began to recover from years of neglect. Our people have brought clean water into the heart of Monrovia to children who have never known water from a tap. Efforts are underway to expand water projects as much as possible throughout the country.
Ebola is not just a health crisis. Across West Africa, a generation of young people risks being lost to an economic catastrophe,
I think the majority of the Liberian people want peace.
We all have a stake in the battle against Ebola,
I beg you I no magician. I can't just wave a magic wand.
As more men become more educated and women get educated, the value system has to be more enhanced and the respect for human dignity and human life is made better.
I've been a victor of circumstance.
There is no easy fix or youth unemployment. Partnership between the public and private sectors can make a big difference.
One has to look at my life story to see what I've done. I've paid a heavy price that many people don't realize.
I just think that unless you have that cohesiveness in the family unit, the male character tends to become very dominant, repressive and insensitive. So much of this comes also from a lack of education.
The people of Liberia know what it means to be deprived of clean water, but we also know what it means to see our children to begin to smile again with a restoration of hope and faith in the future.