Liberia, Oct. 12 -- Summary

By Augusta S. Lafalay, senior reporter with New Narratives

WEST POINT, Monrovia - When school lets out here in this informal settlement on the seashore, 15-year-old Stanley does not go home to rest or study for the next day. He picks up a bundle of plastic bags and walks towards the traffic, selling until dark. He then carries whatever he makes back to his mother and grandmother.

His classmates see him out there and laugh at him. He has cried over it before, he says, but he keeps coming back because the family needs the money. His mother sells cooked creamy wheat in a wheel barrow but her income is not enough to cover their needs.

"I want people to know me as a student, not the boy selling plastic bags in t...