Mother of a nation: Liberia's president

But even so, Mr. Moore says the needs are many. Rats eat through schoolbooks because there are no shelves, and Moore has to walk more than three miles to school, leaving his house at 5:30 a.m., because he doesn't have a bicycle.

Alomiza Ennos, the representative for District No. 1, where the school is located, empathizes with the problems of the constituents in her district. But she says even with the president's best intentions, the lack of money and resources make change difficult.

"It's not easy to be a bureau representative in this place," Ms. Ennos says. "When people ask for things, I have to use my own money. Where do you get the money from?"

Some of the budgetary problems stem from the fact that the president's party – the Unity Party – has a minority position in the legislature, with the other parties holding 90 percent of the power. This has made freeing up the money to begin some of her initiatives difficult.

"I don't think the [legislature] had real, real confidence that we'd do the things that we said we'd do," Johnson-Sirleaf says. "But now that it's happening, more and more of them are beginning to say, 'Aha!' "

The United States Peace Corps is one way the president says she hopes to recruit teachers to teach the 50 percent of Liberian children who aren't attending school. She also would like to see the 450,000 Liberians currently living outside the country – a group she calls Liberia's biggest national asset – to return home.

"Most of our talents that are out there in the diaspora, once we get them back, then we have the basic ingredient to be able to move our development agenda," she says.

But the president is aware that there are still many impediments for Liberians wishing to return: a lack of good schools and good healthcare, to name two.

With so many major celebrities focusing on Africa – Angelina Jolie, Bono, Madonna – and Hollywood movies choosing Africa as their subject – "Blood Diamond," "The Last King of Scotland," "The Constant Gardener" – Johnson-Sirleaf says the hot-button issue right now is poverty. "[Poverty] becomes the No. 1 priority, the one thing that needs to be addressed if you're going to really achieve your development goals, and I think that has brought to the forefront a whole new sensitization about how we do development," she says.

Johnson-Sirleaf's suggestion: "You go into a community, and instead of telling them 'We're going to build you a school,' we ask them, 'What is your priority?' Maybe they prefer a well, because they want clean water for their children. Or maybe they prefer a clinic as their first priority. So even if we want to give them a school, let's work with them. And most times they have their priorities right. Most times it is a school because they want their children to be educated."

Whether she is leaving church or driving through the streets of Monrovia, Johnson-Sirleaf often stops to buy children ice cream or ask them if they are attending school. As a mother and the caretaker of her nation, she promised to make the children of Liberia smile again, and so far she has succeeded.

At the end of her first year in office, she says she is surprised by the enthusiasm of the children. "Everywhere I stop the children are smiling and I say 'Hey, that's it, that was the No. 1.' "

Page: 1 | 2