Liberian Assistance Program

The lights are on at the Tubman School in Gbonkonimah! Thanks to a substantial grant from the Odyssey Foundation that LAP received last summer, the school was wired for electricity and a generator was purchased. Now the school and community can use the building in the evening. Work on other projects funded by the grant continues: new latrines are being dug and the school will buy books for the library.

Gbonkinimah, where Judy taught as a Peace Corps volunteer in the sixties, was recently hit by a major wind storm and buildings were badly damaged -- roofs were blown off houses. We wanted to help and decided to send funds to buy large bags of rice for some food relief. We are grateful to our friends Sampson Sumo and George Vuku who worked to get a delivery of rice to the village to share with everyone as they put their lives back together.

The coronavirus has hit Liberia. The numbers are small to date, but because of the devastating outbreak of Ebola in 2014, people are very concerned. Schools, businesses and markets have closed, and food has become more scarce.

LAP recently sent money to the Barack Obama School to purchase sanitizers, soap and rice. The school in turn divided up 64 large bags of rice to distribute to some 250+ students, along with school lessons to do at home. Here is an Obama student picking up her bag of rice.

LAP is pleased to report that our very first scholarship student, Abbas Sherif, has earned a doctorate in Physics of Space from the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa! His primary focus was on black holes.

He has been awarded a post-doctoral appointment at the University of Cape Town in South Africa that will pay him a starting salary and launch his career in astrophysics.

LAP helped Abbas go to undergraduate school in Ghana when he showed promise as a student in math and science. Liberian by birth, he is the son of former student of Judy’s when she was in the Peace Corps. We have enjoyed hearing about his life and academic interests over the past ten years.

Congratulations, Abbas!

LAP received an unexpected donation from teenagers at the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church of Ft. Myers, Florida. Their teacher DeWitt Salters said that after the class read about the American Colonization Society’s efforts to help former slaves return to Africa in the 1820s, the 14-18 year olds wanted to help children living in Liberia today. They raised more than $1,000! They found LAP on the Internet and decided to send the money to us for our projects in Liberia.

LAP is using the gift for a scholarship that was awarded to a graduating ninth grader from the Barack Obama School for the 2019-2020 school year. The recipient is Harriet Harris (pictured),17, who hopes to become an agriculturist and eventually become the Liberian Minister of Agriculture. The scholarship will cover all three years of her high school studies.

We are very grateful for such generosity from the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church young people. Harriet might not have been able to attend high school without scholarship money.

Elijah Zokruah, our new sewing teacher, is shown here with some of the 11 women in the vocational education "tailoring" program at the Barack Obama School. This year, the school's 7th-9th graders will also be learning to sew.

On March 2, 2019, the Locula Foundation in Liberia launched a micro-finance project that is providing $100 zero percent interest loans to unskilled single mothers in Liberia to start or expand a small business. To date, 12 women have been funded and the project is in urgent need of $3,640 to meet the current demand for the single mothers who have signed up on a waiting list and are qualified for the loans. As the loans are paid back, the money is put back into a revolving fund at the Locula Foundation for future loan recipients. This means that the money you contribute will not only help the initial loan recipient but also future recipients! Please consider donating today!

Click here to support Micro-Finance for Women in Liberia organized by Locula Foundation Microfinance Project https://www.loculafoundation.org/ On March 2, 2019, the Locula Foundation in Liberia launched a micro-finance project that is providing $100 zero percent interest loans to unskilled single mothers in Liberia to start or expand a small business. To date, 12 women have been funded and the project...