“Princess” was 19 when she first heard the Rev. Caleb S. G. Dormah, National in Mission, Liberia (Nationals in Mission, Advance #12122L.) preach. Her real name, the one her mother gave her, was buried somewhere between her first trick (or “customer”) at 14 and her first hit of heroin at 15. “You don’t understand,” she said to the pastor, “God left this place a long time ago. If he was ever here.”
“God never left,” Dormah responded. “He’s been waiting for someone to come looking for you.”
The journey out of addiction was hard for Princess, but she took her first steps with Pastor Caleb and stuck with it.
Dormah, a National in Mission with the Liberia Annual Conference whose position is supported by Global Ministries, founded a rehabilitation program for these young addicts, prostitutes, and others who literally live among the dead amid the tombs of a cemetery. They call themselves “Zogos,” a derogatory term that brands them as society’s refuse – that which people throw away.
The rehabilitation program is called “Zogos We Care” and focuses on more than abstinence and getting clean. It seeks to transform lives, to give young adults a second chance.
Called to Service Among Lost Souls
When he launched the Liberian UMC’s At Risk Youth Taskforce, he challenged the annual conference to rehabilitate 1000 young people per year, reintegrating them into their communities. By 2025, the Department of At-Risk Youth feeds hundreds of disadvantaged young people, counseling them and connecting them to rehabilitation programs. While food is welcome in the streets and provides an introduction, the program aims for transformation. Practical trades – such as pastry-making, tailoring, soap production, and detergent-making help participants learn new skills and livelihood possibilities. The rehabilitation center also started the Star Girls program, which focuses specifically on women and girls trapped in prostitution and addiction.
Dormah felt called by God to serve and reconcile the young people of Monrovia’s back alleys and graveyard make-shift homes. He describes these places as graveyards of potential – dumping grounds for Liberia’s forgotten children. But to Dormah, they are holy ground.
Life Re-emerges
While there are many challenges in this work, there are also mornings of joy and celebration. One morning, Princess walked into the training center with a dress she had sewn herself – straight seams, clear lines, a ribbon at the collar. She held it up with trembling hands, tears streaming down her face. “I made this,” she whispered, “I made something beautiful.”
One young man who lived in the graveyard shared this testimony with the pastor: “Drugs took everything away from me. But today, the church came and reminded me I’m not invisible. I want to try again…. I didn’t just eat today, I felt like I existed again. That’s something food alone doesn’t do.”
Another ministry that breathes life back into families is one of reunion and reconciliation. Once participants in the rehabilitation program are clean and graduate from training classes, they are ready to be reintroduced to their families. Dormah carefully plans these first reunion visits and accompanies the family.
“You have to forgive,” he counsels families. “Both ways. They have to forgive themselves, and you have to forgive them for the pain they caused. Bitterness is another kind of addiction, and it will destroy what God is rebuilding.”
Dormah continues to believe in God’s ability to reclaim and transform this community to rebuild the country because these young people have the capacity to excel if they are challenged in the right way, in a way that enables them to see the image of God inside themselves.
“They just need someone to believe they’re worth challenging. Here, they know they are no longer seen as garbage by people, and God has never seen them in that way.”
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excerpt from a story by Christie R. House, consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and The Rev. Caleb Dormah, also a writer, contributed much to this article through his report on his ministry as a National in Mission worker in Liberia.
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