Published: November 7, 2025
Gwee Town, Todee District – Sitting quietly in front of her family house in Gwee Town, not too distant from the Presbyterian Todee Mission, forty-two-year-old Bendu Johnson stares at the bandaged stump where her right hand once was. Her voice trembles as she recounts the day her life took a devastating turn — the day a machine at Arrow Alliance Group, a wood processing company operating along the Kakata–Monrovia highway, severed her hand.
“It all happened so fast,” Bendu recalled, her eyes filling with tears. “I was cleaning around the machine when it caught my hand. I screamed, but before help could come, the blade had already cut it off.”
Before that dreadful day on November 12, 2024, Bendu was a strong and hardworking single mother of three. She was the sole breadwinner for her children and her ailing mother, whose fragile health often demands medical attention. However, since the incident, life has taken a painful turn. She now depends on a US$120 monthly stipend from the company — a sum that barely keeps her household afloat.
“My mother is sick most of the time,” she explained softly. “When she falls off, I have to carry her to the hospital. I take credit to pay the bills, and after that, there’s nothing left for food or my children’s school.”
Following the accident, Bendu was rushed first to the Barkolleh Health Center and later transferred to John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital, where doctors amputated her right hand to save her life. After her discharge, she says, the company abandoned her, leaving her to struggle on her own. It was only after her son raised the matter with the Ministry of Labor that Arrow Alliance arranged for a nurse to provide home treatment.
Now undergoing a three-month medical review, Bendu remains uncertain about her compensation and her future. “They keep telling me to wait until I’m fully recovered,” she said with a sigh. “But I don’t know when that will be. I was told I might get US$4,000, but is that enough for a lifetime without a hand?”
When contacted, Varney Passaway, the manager of Arrow Alliance Group, confirmed the incident but maintained that the company will fulfill its obligations once a certified medical report is submitted. “The company will take full responsibility in paying Ms. Johnson’s disability benefits upon the completion of her medical treatment and after a certified medical report is delivered,” he said.
It can be recalled in 2024 Passaway, clarified that Bendu was not a full-time employee but a contract worker, and therefore not covered under the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation (NASSCORP). He also suggested that the accident resulted from her own negligence. “She didn’t turn off the machine before cleaning it,” he stated. “Our safety rules are clear, but she failed to follow them.”
At the factory, some of Bendu’s coworkers tell a different story. Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, several workers alleged that the company provides inadequate safety gear and that injuries on the job are not uncommon. They claimed that most of them earn just US$3 per day, an amount far below Liberia’s legal minimum wage for private-sector workers.
Under Liberia’s Decent Work Act of 2015, particularly Chapter 30, every employee or contractor injured in the course of work is entitled to compensation and proper medical care. The law obligates employers to ensure safe working conditions and to take full responsibility when workplace accidents occur.
For Bendu Johnson, however, those legal assurances still feel like distant promises. Each day, she sits outside her small house, watching her children play without a day in school, uncertain what tomorrow will bring. With one hand gone and her livelihood shattered, she dreams only of a fair settlement and a chance to rebuild her life.
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