Blog Posts

8/28/2018

turning the page on literacy

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RESTORE HOPE: LIBERIA Begins a New Chapter with Reading Campaign

RESTORE HOPE: LIBERIA is currently working on two fronts to address the issue of illiteracy in Kolahun.

Fifty seven percent of adults in Liberia are illiterate, according to UNICEF, primarily due to the disruption in education during the civil war (1989-2003). The literacy rate in Kolahun, a rural village, is likely even higher.

Kolahun’s adult women are eager to improve their lives by learning to read, which they know is the gateway to knowledge. They are serious students.

These women are the caregivers of the vulnerable youth that RESTORE HOPE: LIBERIA supports. Many of them are fostering orphans or have taken in children of extended family. They are exceptional, though they are not the exception.

On a typical Friday afternoon you will find them at literacy classes taught by RESTORE HOPE: LIBERIA staff. In the sparsely furnished classroom (which is often a shaded space under a mango tree), the blackboard will be covered with simple words; students will be practicing their reading and memorizing new vocabulary.

Though they may not know the history of Frederick Douglass, the former slave and American abolitionist, they do share, instinctively, his belief in the power of literacy. When they learn to read and write, they will gain the ability to create their own story, and to shape their lives and the lives of their families and surrounding communities.

Underscoring its commitment to literacy is RESTORE HOPE’s belief that books should be in hands, not on shelves. Thanks to The Desai Family, Ray Clark and Family, Darlington Martor and his team at Anything Is Everything, and other donors, RESTORE HOPE: LIBERIA has acquired a significant collection of books.

Children of all ages are devouring them! For a community where books are rare, these are real treasures for the children. During story time, they sit fully absorbed and captivated. It is all so magical.

Starting from the preschool years, the children enrolled in RESTORE HOPE are encouraged to handle books, turn the pages and read as much as they can. Some caregivers will be able to read along with the children, while other caregivers will be strengthening their literacy skills in the process.

At a recent caregivers' meeting, the RESTORE HOPE team stressed the vital importance of regular reading as the foundation to academic success.

The books are currently available to any RESTORE HOPE enrollee or caregiver to check out. Children are encouraged to take them home and read them as much as they’d like.

When the Vocational Education & Training Center is completed, the community library will be set up there to ensure access for all.

The books are also strengthening our tutorial program by giving tutors additional material with which to help students. Tutors will be spending a portion of their afternoons in one-on-one reading sessions with students who need extra literacy assistance.

Meanwhile, RESTORE HOPE: LIBERIA is collaborating with local Peace Corps volunteer, Carson Stacey. He and RESTORE HOPE’s Field Coordinator, James Kpangbai are planning an upcoming reading competition event for the children.

The ability to read infinitely expands one’s world. It gives a depth and fullness to one’s life. We are working to make sure each child masters reading, ensuring a lifetime of greater opportunities.

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8/27/2018

BREAKING GROUND

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Construction begins on the VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
& TRAINING CENTER

The land before construction began.

We believe that something as simple as a roof over one’s head significantly increases one’s opportunities. In the case of Kolahun, it’s a community need, one that RESTORE HOPE: LIBERIA aims to meet.

There is very little infrastructure in Kolahun. Most everything happens under the mango tree, as they say. When the weather is fine, this is a pleasant way to work and convene. When it’s the rainy season and every day a downpour, the usual work becomes difficult, sometimes impossible.

With a generous donation from the Germany Embassy in Monrovia, a Vocational Education and Training (VET) Center is being built in the district, on a one-acre lot recently purchased by RESTORE HOPE. The site is a short walk from the RESTORE HOPE office on the main road in Kolahun, and thus easily accessible to the community.

Front view

The VET Center will be multipurpose. It will be used to hold skills workshops and business training for community-led economic development projects. There will also be a space for small business activities supported by RESTORE HOPE: LIBERIA. One such project is the Women’s Weaving Cooperative, which produces traditional Liberian Country Cloth. Since their weaving must take place outside due to the size of the wooden looms, the women have been unable to weave during the rainy months, May through October, which has severely limited their productivity. The VET Center will change that.

The Center will also serve as a community space for meetings – the monthly Caregiver Support meeting, for example, where caregivers of vulnerable children, many of whom are serving as foster parents, can meet with RESTORE HOPE: LIBERIA staff to discuss challenges and receive support. The VET Center will also house Kolahun’s first public library and will be the site of a 4-month business skills training course, to be held this Fall, for women in the Women’s Weaving Cooperative and other female entrepreneurs in the community interested in starting or growing their small business.

If the rainy season doesn’t slow construction, we hope to finish the VET Center by the end of the year. Look for news of the Grand Opening!

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8/26/2018

under the mango tree

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Many of you are seeing our new logo for the first time. Perhaps you’re wondering what inspired the image we chose.

With so many daily activities occurring under the mango tree in Liberia, it would scarcely be an exaggeration to call it the Tree of Life.

The tree helps feed the village. The fruit of the mango – Liberians call it a “plum” – is plentiful.

Its shade provides children a place to play or read a new book, while adults often gather there for literacy classes. Or you might find the Kolahun Women’s Weaving Cooperative at work on beautiful Country Cloth or mentoring new weavers.

Meals are often cooked there, and the community gathers to share. Or the sheltering branches sometimes serve as a morning clinic where parents bring children for check-ups. Neighborhood chickens scratch out subsistence among its fallen leaves.

At daybreak, Action, the Yoga Dog, practices his morning routine, downward facing dog, ready to nap in the midday sun, replacing the ever-vigilant lion-dog who stood watch under the tree all night, keeping us safe from every terror, even the imagined ones.

Some nights, women gather there to mourn the death of a child, their wailing songs of grief filling the valley. Some terrors seem unavoidable.

Laughter, songs, dance, tears – the mango tree bears witness
to the full cycle of life of the village.