Hey everyone,
Sorry it has taking long to hear from me concerning the project. I have been caught up with final year of university and still is currently
Here's the update.
The trip to Liberia was a great success! the project took off when schools reopened in September 2017. All the resources were purchased in Liberia. The team in Liberia decided that the resources will be handed out in two stages. firstly, in a local community; secondly, in three different schools.
The team in Liberia, after calculations, decided to reach out to about 100 children, due to the amount of fund raised (£720). However, things are more expensive in Liberia than expected. Example, 1 school bag is about $5-10 usd, rather than 0.57 cents, as I’d thought before travelling. Therefore, Buying a lot of school bags with the funds, as we had hoped, there would not have been enough funds left to purchase the other resources.
As a result, the team bought an alternative children bags (Look at the recently added pictures); they were appropriate, affordable and big enough to hold all the resources we needed to put in them. We bought, Books, Pens, Toiletries, Clothes, Toys, food, Sweets etc. We reach out to about 100-250 children, thus, exceeding our target of 150 children; which we had set during the fundraising in Denmark. All events were recorded and will be posted on this page soon.
We visited the selected school, kaineeta school. The school has a project called scholarships for Liberia (SFL). They help children who are not in school due to lack of funding attend schools and universities on a scholarship basis. The photos are on the campaign page. The picture with children around me in blue T-shirts are the ‘Scholarship for Liberia’ students of academic year 2013-2014.
The intended SFL children, we had hoped to meet at the school, did not attend this academic year 2017/2018. This is because, according to the Co-founder, the class they usually sat in to learn, as seen in the photos on campaign page, collapsed. Therefore, the school could not take any of them in this year. The class had only one concrete wall, the rest was made of straws knitted together to create a class room for these children.
I do wonder what had become of them? since, there’s no place for them at the school this year. I am wondering this because, it was the school who had encouraged carers to allow these children to attend school. I can only hope, that they are not back in the streets selling. Nonetheless, the good news is, the Co-founder of the school said that, someone donated land to the school for these children; they are presently building classes for them on the donated land. I was very excited to hear this.
she also said, that there are children who are not so fortunate, that are currently attending the school. The TLLP team visited the school and spoke to the children and handed out the resources. We also visited two other schools, a very small church school, which we spoke to the children in 3 different classes, encouraging them to take their education seriously and we handed out the resources. Finally, we visited a school called little Norway. Again, we did not have enough resources for the whole school; the head of the school picked out some children for us; and he filled out one big class room with 50 of his students. Again we spoke to the children, sang and danced, then give out the resources. You can see this in the video which is currently being put together. I will upload it when it is finished.
The school also has a child with Autism, she was such a delight to be with. She took us around the school and showed us the different classes. She joined in the singing and dancing. The head teacher said that, this school is the first to take on a child with special educational needs (SEN). He said that, the country is still yet to catch up to such terms, as they do not yet understand it, neither do they know how to support children with such medical conditions. We hope that in the future, that this project will be able to raise awareness and support schools to provide care and educational support for children with special educational needs.
Finally, the community party. This event went very well. We chose children between the ages of 0-8 years old; due to not having enough resources for all children in the community. The party was held on 16 September 2017 in a little town called Jacobs town. About 200 and more children turned up to the party. We managed to have fed all of them; However, we did not have enough resources to give to all of them. We handed out gifts bags to a total 90 children at this event and spoke to the children to take their studies seriously. Finally, we spoke to parents about the importance of sending their children to school and encouraged them to ensure that their children remain in school and do their school work.
During and after the handing out of the resources, I observed that, the children who did not receive gift bags, fought those with the bags; this broke my heart; because, these are basic things that every child should have, without having to fight for it.
The TLLP says a BIG thank you to all who give and supported this project; thank you all so very much; through your donations and encouragements, we were able to Love, support and aid to young children in Liberia. We believe this is just the start of something greater! We hope and pray you will continue to support this project as it carries on.
The Love Liberia Project stand to help rebuild and bring a lasting and stable change in the nation of Liberia and other under developed countries around the world by providing aid for young children’s well-being, education and their holistic development.
The project next phase!
We aim to return to Liberia next year December 2018. We encourage you to keep supporting this project by founding and spreading the word. Together we can change children and families lives in Liberia and around the world too someday.
The goal for the project next phase, is to raise a minimum o £5000; Please share it on social media and tell you friends and family all about “The love Liberia Project.”
The funds raised will go to:
- supplying schools around the country with educational resources.
- Outreach to towns and village: Speaking to families and encouraging them to send their children to school.
- Scholarships
- Fund teacher training courses
- Support other charitable groups already in the country.
Many thanks
Johnette Brownell.
uk