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You're watching UNICEF Television.

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After school, 16-year-old Mamiewe Kabor goes to the market to help her mother sell fish

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in Liberia's capital, Monrovia.

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At her stall each day, Mamiewe's mother, Elizabeth, struggles to make ends meet to support her

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family.

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Sending her four children to school was always a priority.

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To send the children to school is hard, it's very, very hard.

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In a country where only 26% of women are literate, Mamiewe is one of the lucky few who made it

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to high school.

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The 10th grader says she likes studying, most topics anyway.

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I really love the school and I love, I do well in economics, that's my subject, I do

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well in economics. And physics, physics gives me problems. It's really hard.

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Poverty, social-cultural practices and Liberia's civil war have had a devastating impact on

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education. The war disrupted the school system and traumatised children.

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The war was so bad. During the war you don't have food, no food. I had a problem, my father

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got sick and he died during the war. It was so bad.

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Now that the conflict has ended, UNICEF is helping get more than one million children

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to school.

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Getting an education has been especially hard for girls, who are asked to help around the

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house and are traditionally discriminated against.

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Sexual abuse and exploitation is another problem for girls, and early marriage or pregnancies

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often interrupt their schooling.

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After delivery I get so weak, I'm so old to go back to school. I will be ashamed, my friends

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will laugh at me. I don't go away, I just sit. That's why I want to make a difference.

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Mamiwe says she wants to become an architect, and hopes to get married, but not too early.

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Let's say I want to get married at the age of 24, 25. Looking first, I would like to

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love the man and I would like this man to be more educated. Handsome is out of the question

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because he must be himself.

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As Liberia rebuilds, Mamiwe is hopeful that her education will help her make a difference.

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This is Sabine Dolan reporting for UNICEF Television, Unite for Children.