Educational Reforestation in War Torn Liberia

The previous progress report was written by my partner, Neabei Toah in Liberia, who helped me develop this worthy project. I asked him to write this one since he’s there but he is unable, because he is there! Let me explain…

These past two months have been terribly challenging for Neabei and his family. They are hungry most of the time and must live in the crowded city of Monrovia.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia) During the most critical times Neabei and I have been in constant communication via Facebook messaging when he has a signal. At one point his fiancée was very ill with severe stomach and intestinal pains. They have no money to get help from a doctor and finally Neabei realized is was happening because she wouldn’t eat enough, was going long periods with no food. One of the saddest things is that Neabei and his father have a small farm in Tappita where they used to have a piggery and crops but the house and other structures were destroyed during the 14 years of civil war there and this forced them to migrate to the city.

Being on this side of the “pond”, in Costa Rica, I silently brainstormed how I could get help for Neabei and sent out a letter to a few people that were acquainted with him or had contacts in Afrika. A friend, another CEO of a non-profit in the UK, responded that she had  recently met a man from the Sustainability Institute in Liberia at a conference and gave me his contact info. I asked if he or someone could visit Neabei and his family, assess his situation and inform me so I'd know how to proceed.

Neabei received a call from the functionary saying he’d be over in 4 days for a visit but that was over two weeks ago, Neabei is still waiting.

There hasn’t been much word from Neabei the past week. I asked him to write the report over a week ago and he responded that he would try but didn’t know with the challenges he’s facing. Today he wrote saying it would be impossible and he has no camera. 

Did you know that 85% of the population in Liberia lives below the International Poverty Level due to the past civil wars? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia 

A camera is part of th peroject budget, so that Neabei will be able to keep us up to date with the progress of the “trees planting” at the University of Liberia. This project reaches much farther than the two hectares we plan to reforest because a large part includes national promotion and education, a green rebuilding of this war torn, defeated country with a proud and courageous people.

This is the opportunity so…LET’S GET PLANTING!

Links:

• The CIA World Factbook - Liberia