New Year New Travels

Spending a year in Liberia as a teenager changed my outlook on life.  In 2009 I returned to Liberia to find a country decimated by a 14 year civil war.  Being an educator, I wanted to visit schools to see what the needs were.  The classrooms had nothing but walls and old dusty blackboards.  There were no books or other learning materials.

I began by asking schools in the U.S. to hold book drives.  In 2010 we returned to set up two school libraries.  In 2011 we set up another five school libraries and one community library.  Although we conducted teacher and librarian training, we realized that books weren’t the only need these schools had.  Fourteen years of civil war had left the pool of teachers undereducated and in great need of teacher training. 

This year we hope to return with a larger group of U.S. teachers to hold a four day educator conference with sessions in ethics, critical thinking, reading, literature, science, leadership and library science.  The cost for one person to travel to Liberia from the U.S. is about $3500. We have teachers willing to give of their time and expertise, but the price is too steep for someone on a teacher’s salary.  When people donate to a worthy cause, the want to see tangible results, like libraries, but without training, a person who has never read a book will not know the first thing about running a library.  Without training, a teacher will not know how to teach reading to her students using books.  The results of quality education are only tangible in indirect ways, like a student’s understanding of difficult concepts or a productive, employable adult 10 years in the future.  Liberia is slowly building their nation up, but without quality education their efforts will have minimal results.

A donation to Liberia Now Education will bring much needed training to teachers who are hungry for content and teaching strategies.  Liberian teachers care deeply about their students and their community, but struggle with a small knowledge base due to a lack of training resources.  It will help cover the costs of travel and lodging for U.S. teachers who cannot afford the entire cost of the trip.  If you would like to donate to make a difference in an entire community, please visit the Liberia Now website and donate online or send a check to the address below.  Please specifically note that your donation is for the education team.

Liberia Now

P.O. Box 781767
San Antonio, Texas, 78278

Liberia Now is a 501 (3)c organization and all donations are tax deductible.

Melanie and Kathy can speak to any group.