Liberian Assistance Program

01/28/2022

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.

06/30/2020

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.

04/14/2020

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.

03/09/2020

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!

03/02/2020

The Obama school initiated sewing classes for students in grades 7-9 under the instruction of tailor Elijah Zokruah-- over 60 students learned the rudiments of measurement, cutting and sewing on treadle machines. At the end of the first semester, our students were sewing clothes they could wear!

02/18/2020

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.

11/10/2019

Hello, friends! It’s been another busy year. Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world and life is difficult for so many Liberians. Over the years, friends of LAP have made it possible for several hundred children to attend school, drink clean water, eat a nutritious lunch five days a week, use textbooks and read storybooks in a safe environment. We are grateful to have made a difference in people’s lives.

In 2019, donor support has enabled LAP to help in many tangible ways, including—

- More than 50 scholarships: This year LAP helped 40 students at the Obama School, eight in high school and two in elementary schools in Monrovia, and two in Liberian colleges.
- Hundreds of books for Obama School children, including biographies of Barack and Michelle Obama used by the 4th-6th graders in the summer reading program.
- A professional educator to lead a series of workshops for Obama School teachers on using textbooks and teaching effectively.
- Restoration of the Tubman School in Gbonkonimah, where Judy and other LAP friends served as Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s. After repairs to the building in January, we funded the building of latrines for students and staff.

We know that education is the key to opportunity in Liberia and it lifts our hearts to see children fill the classrooms of our schools.

Your contributions have made all this work possible. We hope we can count on you to support LAP’s efforts in the coming year. To make a tax-deductible gift, visit our website, http://www.liberianassistanceprogram.org and click on the "donate" button.

LAP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working to help educate people in Liberia for a better life.

Thank you!

11/03/2019

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.

10/26/2019

A photo from the Obama School's graduation event in July 2019: teachers receive traditional gifts of money from thankful students and parents who pin the money to the teacher's clothes.

09/20/2019

It's back to school for LAP scholarship students! Thanks to two generous LAP donors who sponsor our students, Massiah Kerkula is in college studying computer technology and little Larisa Gonleh in her green and white uniform goes to grade school.

09/13/2019

Thanks to a grant from the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers group in Madison, LAP was able to send funds to the school where Judy Reed taught when she was in the Peace Corps to build much-needed latrines. The Tubman School is upcountry in the village of Gbonkonimah.

04/24/2019

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!

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...