A little bit of context

 Donating funds to this project will provide education to some of the poorest children in Gardnersville, Liberia in Western Africa.

This project is changing lives, not only for the children but the whole community. Children are messengers for their parents, teaching them about the benefits of other lifesaving skills such as good nutrition, hygiene and sanitation.

The school is a focus for the community where they can meet and learn about issues such as family planning and the prevention of mosquito borne diseases through the benefits of a school counsellor and mixed gender teachers.

Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world has suffered greatly from the lasting effects of a 14-year civil war ending in 2003. Only a few schools remained open during the conflict, mainly in urban areas, leaving thousands of children out of school. The conflict also destroyed or damaged close to 60 per cent of school buildings, including water and sanitation facilities which are key to keeping children, especially girls, in school. Teachers fled the country or took up other forms of employment.

In 2012, just as the country was getting on its feet again, Ebola swept through the country, decimating the population, leaving 70% of all people under the age of 30 years old.

Liberia is more prone to disease with a heavy annual rainfall and very little sanitation. Testing of fresh water by the WHO in 2012 found E coli in 58% of samples. The heavy rainfall also contributes to many mosquito borne diseases that have an extreme effect on pregnant mothers and children under 5 years old.

Our approach

The school in Gardnersville currently caters for young children but our vision is to build a dedicated facility to allow these children to enter higher grade schooling.

Why Education?

The International Bureau of Education reports that ‘there is a close connection between illiteracy and poverty at all levels–global, national, and subnational; the countries with the lowest levels of literacy are also the poorest economically.

Poverty breeds illiteracy by forcing children to drop out of school to work, and these illiterate people are forced to stay on the lowest levels of the work force and thus remain in poverty.

Thus illiteracy in turn reinforces poverty, and poverty is cyclical in families. Women and girls are especially vulnerable to the cycle’.

How you can help

 The school seeks to provide a roadmap out of poverty via education by the following:

• Providing local and safe education where children can be walked to school
• Providing a good quality of education where the majority of children pass their term 3 benchmark exam
• Providing a gender inclusive environment for education
• Including children with a disability and diverse ethnicity
• Providing a hot lunch when funding allows
• Providing a toileting system and wash facilities
• Providing work for skilled teachers, male and female and the local community
• Providing a safe forum where parents can meet and discuss local issues
• Providing a female school counsellor to combat tribal superstitions which may lead to harm of young women within their family
• Providing health education to help instill good hygiene practices

Join us and donate today