The top United Nations envoy in Liberia, Ellen Margarethe Løj challenged Liberians to collectively and individually take actions that will nurture and sustain their hard-won peace. 

Speaking at a ceremony on 6 December in the port city of Buchanan during which she decorated 700 Ghanaian soldiers with the UN Peacekeeping Medal for their dedicated service to the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), Ms. Løj stated "I would like to once again urge Liberians to uphold the eight years of hard-won peace through their actions," the SRSG stressed, "Peace is something we must preserve and maintain through our daily activities as individuals, as a group, as a community, and as a nation".
 

Noting that Liberia had made tremendous progress in the quest for peace and stability, the Special Representative of the General (SRSG) called on Liberians, to always amicably resolve all their differences in order to chart a promising future for the country.

"Differences and disagreements are unavoidable; but they can be resolved through dialogue, reconciliation; and by focusing on the common goal of moving Liberia towards a brighter future for the next generation," she emphasized.
 

Ms. Løj, who is also the Coordinator of the United Nations Operations in Liberia, charged Liberians and the international community to be ready to deliver to build Liberia for a better future," pointing out that, "Tomorrow's Liberia will be the sum of all our actions today."
 

Turning to the Ghanaian peacekeepers, SRSG Løj praised them for winning the hearts and minds of local communities with humanitarian services such as providing teaching assistance to high schools, conducting free medical services, offering vocational skills to prison inmates, and adopting an orphanage. "They have demonstrated that peace building should come hand in hand with peacekeeping," she added.
 

She noted with delight that among the 700-strong Ghanaian battalion, were 61 women, who were in the frontline of duty side by side with their male colleagues, saying, "The battalion clearly demonstrates that security is for women as well as men." 
 

Ms. Løj also hailed Ghana's 50 years outstanding contributions to peace and security in Africa and across the globe, noting that, Ghana is a valuable partner of peace in the region. This, she said, was evidenced by the active involvement of a number of prominent Ghanaians including former President John Kufour and ECOWAS chief Victor Gbeho in the recent elections in Liberia.
 

Among the dignitaries present at the medal-awarding ceremony in addition to senior Military and Civilian UNMIL personnel were Ghana Ambassador in Liberia, Kenneth Asare Bosompem; the head of the Ghanaian delegation to the ceremony, Commodore Timothy Samuel Appiah; Armed Forces of Liberia Chief of Staff, Major-General S A Abdulrahman and Grand Bassa County officials.