UNFPA presentation

This week I had an awesome opportunity to go to the presentation of the most recent census information for Liberia (done in 2008). This presentation was for Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) Executive Director and Under Secretary General of the UN and for His Excellency Joseph Boakai, the Vice President of the Republic of Liberia. I felt a little out of place as I realized I was sitting amongst many important people when the person next to me introduced himself as the Cote D'Ivoire Ambassador. 

This was only the fourth census to be done in Liberia (others done in 1962, 1974, and 1984). In 1984 they made a law to do census every ten years but then the war happened so 2008 became the first post-conflict census. They have accounted for 3.4 million people and 63% of them fall into the youth category (in the age range of 10-24). Wow, certainly a young population. I also learned that 90% of youth in the world live in developing countries. Liberia also has 56% literacy rate but shows more boys than girls in school.

Along with the presentation of the findings, both guests of honor spoke. Dr. Ostoimehin was great to listen to and had many awesome things to say:
          -He spoke about education and said that it is important to educate for the market not just literacy but skills that can get individuals a job too.
          -He said that in order for the UN's Millennium Development Goals to be reached, empowerment of young woman and girls is necessary. 

There were also two quotes of his I absolutely loved: 

"In any country, human capacity is the most valuable resource."

"The face of poverty is the face of a young girl."

The girls from THINK concluded the program by making statements that were very powerful. They all stated their name and age and then said things like:

"I want to finish my education. I am too young to become a teenage mother."

"How can I achieve my goals if a big man comes along and ends my dreams? I need you, Mr. Vice President, to make laws to protect me."

"The way I dress is not an excuse for you to rape me."

"We must work harder to bring perpetrators to justice."

They then each ended with what they wanted to be when they grew up: a medical doctor, a petroleum engineer, a nurse, a mechanic, etc. Ah, the audience absolutely loved this!

Living with Liberians

This week was pretty cool for a few reasons. I spent it with a Liberian woman, Rosana, who is doing great things here and making many waves of change. She runs an organization called THINK (Touching Humanity in Need of Kindness). They have a girls empowerment program that goes for 9 months and works with 25 girls (10 of which are teenage mothers) who all have been taken advantage of sexually, have poor home lives, or face other various obstacles. They run a clinic and safe house for survivors of rape. The organization also works with both boys and girls on doing reproductive health education and programming.

I spent the week shadowing her life, basically. I learned a lot and was able to ask many questions. I got to go on grounds at the Executive Mansion (where the President's offices are). I got to attend an awesome program (which I will devote its own post to here soon). I also stayed at her home, ate lots of Liberian food (chicken feet often showed up in the dish but those I did not try!), and became friends with her kids. When I say kids I mean granddaughter, foster children, niece, friends. There were usually 6-8 people in the house aside from the two of us and none were her biological children (she has 3 grown children). She cares for everyone and clearly shows that in her homelife. We had no running water (oh back to bucket bathing that I became so accustomed to in Kenya) and no electricity. But have no fear, they charged laptops during the day at work so we could watch bootleg TV programs at night, haha.

One of the awesome things this family does is nightly devotions. The first night I was a part of this I was so moved. As we were all in the living room and had just finished watching a program, the 9 year girl old said "this is the day that they Lord has made" and everyone began singing a song based off that verse. After many minutes of singing (ah I love that most Africans I have met can bust out into song with no music and sing so beautifully) the 19 year old boy read a passage from 1 John about being a light in the world and then spoke about it. Everyone then took turns saying their prayer for the day as well as a bible verse. One of the daughters concluded in prayer for all of us and everyone followed with the Lords prayer. The time ended with a song about sharing love and everyone moved around the room shaking each others hands (hand shaking happens so often here). Ah, it was beautiful. There was also morning devotion similar to this at work. What a great environment to be in!

Rosana and I

Rosana had me posing on the lawn in front of the Executive Mansion.

Moving Meeting with Parents/Guardians

Today we had a meeting with many of the parents and guardians of the MTM girls: mothers, grandmothers, uncles, etc. Wow, so touching. It would have been wonderful to just meet them but we got much more than that. They shared with us how much it meant for their daughters, nieces, granddaughters, etc. to be on scholarship for school. They spoke of the change they have seen in the girls. They prayed for us and spoke great things upon us. They really are greatly appreciative for the chance their girls have that they are unable to afford to give them. 

Macintosh opened the floor for questions and concerns as well as encouraging them to share joys. He spoke about how they can help the girls at home by making sure they get rest and not go out in the night time. He expressed how we are all family and largely stressed caring for all kids and not just those that are biologically theirs.  He is a great speaker with motivating words and such a heart for children, its so great!!

One of the uncles present asked why MTM only worked with girls and not the boys. A grandmother, Agnes (who made a point of introducing herself and thanking each of us before the meeting), stood up and asked if she could help answer the question. She explained the importance of educating females and how much it benefits families and that is how their country is going to grow. She said "if you educate a girl, you educate a nation." As you can imagine, this moment brought tears to my eyes. Below is a picture of Agnes, her granddaughter Azetta, and me.

I had a chance to share today and after I spoke Macintosh asked if they understood what I said. Their response? Laughter and "no, she talks too fast!" Haha. So, he repeated what I said so they would be able to understand. Mind you, we all speak English, just very different accents!

The people I met today were so hopeful for the future and value what MTM is doing for their community so much. It was an incredibly moving day, and I have done a poor job in expressing it properly to you.

Greetings from Monrovia!

Where do I begin?? In my first few days I have had some awesome experiences and met some amazing people. There are so many stories to tell and so many things I want to share already but also lots of things that are going to be really hard for me to write about so to be honest, I probably won't.

I have been going back and forth on how to blog while here in Liberia- whether I share what is going on each day, only highlight important things happening with my volunteer work, share stories of living here, etc. What I think I have decided is that I will not give a day to day run down of what all I am doing but share both volunteer related things and stuff from just being in Liberia. We shall see how this goes. I am already sure that I will not be able to share all my stories, but I will try to do the best I can and some will just have to wait to be told in person (I apologize in advance to those of you that I don't see to see regularly!). 

And so it begins....

After arriving and settling in, a meeting was had with all the volunteers here (four others from the states and a Dutch woman, Marleen, who lives here) and the country staff (two men, Macintosh and Cyrus). There is currently a summer program being run three days a week with the girls as they are out of school for break. The three individuals who have been here in Liberia have been running (with 100+ girls!) and now the other volunteers are teaching as well. 

Friday I went to the school with everyone. Ah! What an experience. It was awesome to met some of the girls I have seen in pictures or videos such as Morrisline and Angel. I met everyone as a whole group and then lots of girls individually but only have a few names down. The awesome productive part of the day programming wise was getting to talk one-on-one with Marleen who has been doing some individual counseling with a few of the girls. This allowed us to talk about how we saw the psychosocial program being implemented and what it would look like in the school year.

Still lots to be done as far as the program is concerned but we are on the way!

Prayer

In the last two wees I have had the privilege of hanging out with so many people that I love! Some of these were, unfortunately, only brief encounters and others lasted a few hours. Many awesome conversations were had about life, both past and present, and the world we live in. A number of my encounters with loved ones involved prayer. Some prayers were said over the phone, some before a meal and others involved individuals specifically praying for me and my trip.

Prayer is such a powerful thing. It allows us to come together with those around us in appreciation of our creator. The awesome thing is, there is no specific way to pray, no format that needs to be followed. It does not matter which words you choose or what order you put them in, God loves it all the same.

Aside from actually sharing in prayer with people, I have had many friends send me texts and messages letting me know that they were praying for me. That, I must tell you, is an awesome feeling and such a joy! The fact that people want to take time out of their days to lift me up to God in prayer is amazing. I am so thankful for each of them and will selfishly ask that you continue to pray for me over the next six weeks. Pray that I remain safe and make a difference. Pray for the individuals that I come into contact with that I may love them and show them grace continually. Pray for the girls that More Than Me works to help everyday that their lives may be changed for the better and they may reach their fullest potential.

No matter where you are or what you are doing you can talk with God. You can lift up your joys and sorrows to the one who will love you, no matter what. How awesome is that?!

Changes

Growing up I hated change and believe me I still have my moments, just ask my mother. When plans change, I don't like it. But really, its when I don't control the change that I don't like it. When I come home after being away and a new road has been built or I find that Meijer has been painted blue instead of red, I don't like it. But really, I don't like that things aren't the same as the way I left them. 

"The only thing constant is change." Throughout my 20s this has been such a real statement in my life. I have lived in too many places to count. I have had numerous part-time jobs. I have made awesome friendships with people that then turn into long distance friendships that often get lost in the shuffle of life. I have constantly been asked the question "so, what are you doing now?" And for someone who loves schedules, I have had a different one every few months for longer than I care to think about.  

My point is, we cannot avoid change. It happens. It will continue to happen. The question is, what are we going to do with it? It seems like there are two obvious answers- resist it and be unhappy or accept it and embrace it. Each of us is inclined to one but always holds residue of the other. I have constantly been trying to be in the latter mindset but recently my view on change has changed, ironically enough, all together. 

Last week I was very blessed to have a dear friend of mine take time out of her crazy work week to share a meal with me. Conversations with her are always an enjoyed occasion for me, and this night was no exception. But it was something she said to me in a text after departing that really stuck with me. "Change and be changed." Ah, how awesome?! Instead of seeing change as something that is forever happening in my life, I was in that moment able to see it as such a privilege! I have the opportunity to not only create change but to be changed by others, by experiences, by life! That is truly amazing.

Need vs. Want

In the past few years I have moved more times then I'd like to think about. This weekend I moved, yet again. After finishing my masters degree and hanging out for a couple months, I moved back home. I have no idea how long I will be here as I anticipate more changes in the new few months but for the time being I must change the "home" address in my GPS.

One of the bright spots about moving at least once a year (most of the time twice!) is that it prevents you from being a hoarder. In this last move I donated two car loads to Goodwill, got rid of my furniture, and gave a ton of things away to people I know. It is quite liberating to know that my possessions fit into two cars. 

How long has it been since you've been through your stuff? Most of you reading this probably have WAY more than you need. Westerners often have an excess of "things" as we live in a world of materialism. We often use the word NEED instead of WANT. I bet if you really thought about it a lot of the things you say you need are really only things you want. We buy the newest thing when the one we have still works (whats the old saying- if its not broken don't fix it). We buy multiples of the same item when we only need one of them. We hold onto clothes thinking one day we will wear them and a year later we still haven't.  

Go through your closets, drawers, basement, garage. Get rid of stuff you don't use anymore. Find someone that can use it and give it to them. If you NEED the money sell the stuff, if you don't just give it away. Give things to consignment shops, shelters, etc. 

Think about what you really need in life and what you want out of it. Try to adjust your mindset and word choice. Live with less and experience more.

Modern Day Slavery

This morning I was watching E! News while getting ready for the day and did not think much about seeing an interview with Jada Pinkett Smith going on until I heard what they were discussing- human trafficking. Not really something I thought I would hear about in the middle of which celebrities got married over the weekend and who called it quits. Ah, how refreshing though that it is talked about in the middle of all the Hollywood gossip.

Image: Ira Gelb/Creative Commons

Statistics vary on this issue because a lot goes unreported but the ones presented below are from Don't Sell Bodies (a website devoted to bringing awareness and with whom Jada Pinkett Smith works alongside).

There are 600,000-800,000 individuals trafficked across international borders annually. The thing is, people often think it doesn't happen where they live. Well, for those you reading this that live in America, 40,000 men, women, and children are enslaved in America right now. The number of confirmed trafficking cases in the US that are American born citizens is 83%. Yep, its definitely not just an issue in some other country. Slavery did not die in the 1800s. It is very much apparent today. It just looks different. Modern day slavery usually (but not always) involves sex. The majority of individuals who fall victim to this are female and 50% are children. Most girls are recruited before they even become teenagers.

Check out this video made by the Jubilee Project that depicts this huge issue.

Another issue that occurs with trafficking is that those forced into prostitution get picked up by the cops and not the pimps who are really to blame. The traffickers are the criminals yet the victims are the ones being arrested. Many states are cracking down, making new laws, making large arrests (of the individuals orchestrating it), etc. I am proud to say my home state of Ohio is one of those states. Governor John Kaisch signed a law last week that was immediately put into effect and makes human trafficking a first-degree felony that can get up to 15 years in prison. An even better part about this law is that it has provisions for victims to have their records expunged for charges that were a result of forcefully being involved in the sex trade.

Internationally efforts are also being made to bring an end to this awful human injustice. A week before the Ohio law was signed the European Commission "adopted the EU Strategy towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings." This is a five-year plan that will provide support to victims and bring traffickers to justice.

As a human race we need to put an end to this trafficking and bring back the innocence many young people lose at the hands of adults. We should be educating, providing, and nurturing the children of our world, not taking advantage of them.