Like me, you have probably never thought of barrels of books. Wine, beer, pickle or cracker barrels–but never books – that is, unless you are a former Peace Corps Volunteer and early childhood educator like Sia Barbara Kamara. She has sent multiple barrels of books to the WE-CARE Foundation. Modern resin barrels, we learned, are watertight and sturdy; the perfect shipping container. The blue ones are are food-safe. Therefore, these are especially […]
My story comes from Bolahun, Liberia days, when I was needed to teach a 9th grade class. The class was mostly boys, who teased the few girls every time they tried to get a word into the class discussion. I worked on that from the start, but it had been the way of the culture. The boys were smart, mischievous, and ebullient. In American English, the students would have been called “bright”, […]
I’ll tell You My Story—Ending Period Poverty in Liberia By Nancy Hopkins Keep Girls in School In Liberia, several generations have now had their education disrupted by twelve years of civil war, Ebola and COVID. Poverty is widespread. When one high school principal realized that girls were falling behind because they skipped school when they lacked sanitary pads, or went home with stained skirts, she did something about it. She turned the […]
An Oven Story to Warm Your Heart! In December, Herbert and Nancy Hopkins, two of our board members, had the opportunity to visit Lovetie and Burke Major at this amazing non-profit in the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia in West Africa. Over ten years, they have created a school with a community coffee and bake shop to train people with intellectual disabilities (mostly Down’s Syndrome). In the small kitchen, students bake bread in […]