Now, humanitarian assistance cannot come soon enough for the hundreds of thousands of Liberians displaced by the war — in the capital city alone, some 300,000 people, with at least another half million people scattered throughout the rest of the country.

Desperately needed are the very basic of necessities to even begin making life bearable: plastic sheeting, blankets, toothpaste, cooking utensils and of equal importance, food and clean drinking water. And with a peace accord signed, local and international members of the global alliance, Action by Churches Together (ACT) International can now, once again, after the fighting, respond by delivering this much-needed assistance.

The ACT members working in Liberia comprise the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC), Lutheran World Federation's World Service (LWF-WS), Lutheran Church of Liberia, United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), along with local partners Concerned Christian Community (CCC) and YMCA Liberia, as well as Christian Health Association Liberia. A Norwegian Church Aid water and sanitation team is also on the ground, helping with assessments of needs in this vital area.

After weeks of not being able to assist people due to the fighting and insecurity, it's a daunting task, but one that gets done, step by step, day by day. CCC and YMCA Liberia's offices were both looted, whereas displaced people desperate for shelter and security occupied UMCOR's office in Monrovia. Today, Monrovia alone still has some 110 centers crammed with the displaced — all live under the most appalling conditions imaginable. The heavy rain bucketing down every day only adds to the misery of people who have lost everything they owned to looting and now living side by side in cramped quarters, each family staking out a small area in which to sleep, cook, eat or just lie quietly. A pall of depression hangs over these centers, although, unimaginable, given the circumstances, there is laughter too.

Slowly trickling back, the residents of Jahtondo and Sawegbeh — two of several camps managed respectively by LWF-WS Liberia and CCC — found upon their return that the relief items that had been distributed during the lull in fighting, were all taken, looted by soldiers on both sides, rebels and government. The loss of the plastic sheeting that covers the roofs of their houses was the most devastating for many. Made of no more than a frame from tree branches and mud bricks for the walls, the houses simply cannot withstand the pouring rain, breaking up or dissolving as the weight of the water in the mud bricks drags the walls down. Mana Kone, whose wife had turned their small shelter into Ma Sondo's African Food Center, wants people to see the damage inside his house. Walls crumbling, thatched roofing collapsing, the inside of their shelter is a mess of clumps of mud and damp. In spite of his despair, Mr. Kono is cleaning the small patch-garden in front of his home. He looks up and says, "Please remember my house, A1056 Jahtondo."

Thomas Wise, co-chair of Sawegbeh Camp and one of the leaders who represent the residents, said the rebel soldiers came at 8:00 in the morning, setting fire to several shelters as an example to anyone who might have thought of resisting them. "You don't think," he said, "you just run." Everyone in these camps has a terrible story to tell. All you need is the time to listen. It is a chilling list of horror: people beaten up, threatened with their lives, women and children raped, young girls and women abducted by rebel soldiers, and desperately hungry, people forced to eat leaves and in some instances in the city itself, dogs.

With the ACT members' emergency assessments all but completed, distribution of basic food and non-food items have already started. Material aid sent by ACT members in Europe and North America are going to the most vulnerable people — women and children and the elderly. The small humanitarian relief parcels contain a blanket or quilt, a bar of soap, a towel, a toothbrush and toothpaste, BP5 high protein biscuits and for mothers with babies, a layette, which includes clothes for the little ones.

Standing patiently in line in the downpour at Tubman High School, now a center for the displaced, a few lucky enough to have umbrellas, the rest soaked, people lined up to receive their parcels —- a small token perhaps given the vast needs, but for some 14,000 thousand people here on Saturday, a start.

With more ECOMIL soldiers arriving daily, with a peace agreement in place, with relative calm having been restored to parts of Liberia, one can only hope that this very fragile peace will hold, spread throughout the country and that "people will recognize the foolishness of war," says CCC's Patrick Ackatia. "We are tired of running."