BUCHANAN-Following huge turnout at its playgrounds, global steel giant, ArcelorMittal is building three new playgrounds in its host communities.
The playparks already designed by local Liberian contractors will be erected in Camp#4-Nimba County, Zoweinta in Bong, and the railway community of St. John-Frank Dix Town in Grand Bassa County.
Community engagement for the selection of suitable sites in the host communities is ongoing this week and is expected to conclude this Friday.
When the sites are designated by the communities, there will be groundbreaking ceremonies in each location before engineers can move in for site clearing and landscaping.
The parks are expected to include “landscaping, constructing, and installing of equipment like swings, seesaws, slides, monkey bar, jungle gym, and other equipment”.
In December 2022, the company completed and dedicated a modern children’s playground in its Buchanan concession area.
AML also built and dedicated another playground in the mining town of Yekepa, in Nimba county.
Since then, there has been a massive influx of children at two playgrounds initially constructed by AML in Nimba and Grand Bassa Counties.
ArcelorMittal Liberia recognizes that recreational activities are a key part of the development of children and is now on the drive to construct additional playgrounds in its host communities in Nimba, Grand Bassa, and Bong Counties.
Camp 4, County, Zoweinta, and Frank Dix Town are some of the communities most affected by ArcelorMittal’s mining and logistics operations.
They are all located close to the railway which is primarily used to transport ore from Yekepa to the Port of Buchanan.
This will be the first time hundreds of children in these off-city communities will benefit from such playground facilities to help set out for adventures in the open air and make childhood memories forever cherished.
This new AML intervention is highly commendable because evidently, in many parts of today’s Liberia, children are overwhelmed with an abundance of activities and fewer opportunities to enjoy outside play.
Social media, TV shows Video games, after-school activities, and their academic demands are leading to disappearing playgrounds and playtime, especially since the end of the war many families are focused on the acquisition of plots of land to build homes.
Since the end of the war, playgrounds have been increasingly disappearing and replaced by houses, an early childhood development defect ArcelorMittal seeks to help correct.
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