Back to School - Target

Ayone who has young kids is familiar with the section of Target just inside the entry where the Dollar stuff is arrayed in bins. This time of year the bins are stocked with really fantastic classroom instructional materials. The stuff pictured here all came from the Target dollar bins and exceeds any Liberian teacher's dream of classroom materials. Everything pictured here all together cost less than $30 total! Click to make the picture larger so you can see the items.
Pictured in rows top to bottom, beginning at top right: Classroom timer, signs-on-a-stick (these silent classroom directions would be PERFECT for Hope School for the Deaf), paperback book Sea Creatures (the $ bins are loaded with so many books that would be perfect for building a little Liberian classroom "library", 25-pk Award Book Marks(on top of the Sea Creature book), Bright Green Desktop Pocket Charts Stand.
Next Row top: 100-piece boxed puzzle (Space), wooden perpetual calendar (apple shapes for days of the week-CUTE!), flash cards (animals, space etc.), boxed bingo games (math and time), Foam Clock.
Next row top: binder pouch (.75 - great bargain for teachers), Teacher Grade Book, Teacher Plan Book, classroom card scheduler (red and white striped thing. the white stripes are actually cards that go into the red pockets).
Next row: Plastic pencil box (also a bargain at .75), Dictionary and Thesaurus (great bargains at $1 each - smaller pocket versions are available at the back of the store in the School Supply area for $1.99).
Items such as the classroom card scheduler and the Desktop Pocket Charts Stand could be particularly useful at Hope School for the Deaf where the deaf students need visual aids for directions, classroom activities, etc.

Back to School!

Parents, retired teachers, empty nesters, school age kids, grandparents, - everybody loves Back to School excitement, right? Back to School is the second biggest retail event of the year and major retail chain stores stock special items that are only available for the few weeks leading up to September school start dates. These items are particularly useful in Liberian classrooms. LOEP gratefully accepts donations of school supplies all year round - we are blessed with ample storage space - but this is our busy time gathering donations of school supplies and planning teacher training.

The annual October School Supply Shipment is very important to our work with Liberian students and teachers. Student supplies shipped in October arrive in time for Christmas and teacher instructional materials arrive in time for classroom use. October is also when we ship training supplies for the LOEP team to use in teacher workshops and training.

What they Need

There are many generous folks, church groups, Rotary Clubs, neighborhood groups, office workers, friends of LOEP, who help with this effort. The question "what do they need" always pops up. To help your contributions be as useful as possible and take advantage of the special items available now in stores, LOEP has put together a list. For your convenience, the list is divided into blog entries by store so you can see clearly what we need and where it is available.

Watch this blog for the next few days to see what the kids and their teachers need!

Sister Act for Liberia

There are several of us who keep our hands busy "crafting for the cause" of Liberian children. We have figured out a way to combine our interest in arts and crafts with our commitment to supporting education for children in Liberia by making and selling our own handcrafted items. It is intriguing to observe how interests can become family "traits". Art work and aid work definitely runs in our family and, apparently, we are not the only ones.
Sisters who craft for Liberia:

Char Turner
Cause for Creation - See sidebar for link
Char and her husband became involved with helping Liberian children years ago before the end of the war in Liberia and have remained dedicated and committed to their work ever since. Char was a stamp artist at the time, just beginning to take time to develop her creative side after ending her busy career as a shepherd with her own beautiful, prize-winning flock of sheep. Drawing from her experiences as shepherd, horsewoman, farm wife and vet tech, she taught herself to carve lino cuts. Not surprisingly, her work centered around animals, farm scenes and nature. Since then, Char dived into the deep end of the creative process and began making her own paper infused with natural elements such as flower petals, hay and straw ,and leaves. Her original prints on handmade paper are exquisitely charming organic art.
Selling her beautiful art work online as Cause for Creation, Char has raised thousands of dollars for Liberian orphans and vulnerable children and has been a great support to LOEP.

Beth Iden

Pockets, Pouches and Bags
Some of us can never get too much of African wax print and batik fabrics. It isn't enough to cover head to toe in African style outfits every chance I get. I need bags, accessories, home decoration and screen savers too! Sewing is a fun hobby for me and the African fabrics make it even more fun so the more fun I have the more stuff gets made. When my friends and family had all the handmade items they could use in 3 lifetimes, I had to find another outlet so I could keep sewing. Now I make bags, accessories (eyeglass slips, cell phone pouches, etc.) and baby bibs with African fabric and all sale proceeds go to LOEP.
A huge bonus to my crafting is spending time with my sister, Char, at the Harrisonburg Farmer's Market where we sell our hand crafts. She is at the market every Saturday selling her bautiful art work and my crafted stuff and I join her there once a month. We have such a great time together talking to folks at the market about Liberia, the children and our work there.

The Lewis Sisters and Two Friends

Hopeful Cards
This sister act online business specializes in lovely handmade cards. The brains behind Hopeful Cards is Seneca Lewis and her sister who live in Pennsylvania, where their interest in Liberia is definitely a family "trait". Seneca's Dad has made several trips to Liberia as a short-term missionary and her Mom is a Reading Specialist who has been involved in work on behalf of Liberian orphans for years. Seneca and her sister, along with two of their friends, have started their own business with a web site, no less. These young ladies are such an inspiration as well as being very talented! Proceeds from the sale of their cards all go to help orphans and vulnerable children in Liberia.
Hopeful Cards
Giving joy to friends while giving hope to orphans
http://www.hopefulcards.org/

Keeping Connected

For those of us who are really interested in Liberia and can only be there once or twice a year, blogs and web sites are a great touchstone. For years now, I have managed to keep up to date with goings on in Liberia by reading blogs. Organizations that work with orphans in Liberia, missionaries, NGOs, free lance journalists - a whole network of folks write about their lives and their work in Liberia. Their efforts to keep up with blogging really helps to keep some of us here in the U.S. connected with people and events between our LOEP training trips.
Some blogs are linked in the column to the right and from time to time we will update those links so you can also stay updated on Liberia happenings.

A recent exciting development is reported on the Orphan Relief and Rescue blog with great pictures of children in their new home.

http://www.orphanreliefandrescue.org/content/grand-opening-celebration

Check it out!

Thank You Craft Hope!

The LOEP Training Team sends our thanks and best wishes to the 100 caring, talented Craft Hope crafters - they sent more than 140 sets of Bean Bags for Liberian classrooms!

Thank you to Jade Sims, Craft Hope creator and Special Friend to LOEP!

Bean Bags ARE a Big Deal!

The Bean Bag project through Craft Hope has been a stunning success for LOEP. Exactly 100 wonderful crafters responded with beautifully hand made bean bag sets. Alphabet sets, number sets and shape sets will be packed up and sent in June along with other school and teachers supplies for LOEP partner schools in Liberia.

Most of us here in the U.S. are accustomed to school classrooms packed full of books, instructional tools, art and craft supplies, colorful bulletin boards and posters on the walls. Paper, pencils, crayons, and basic materials are always available and the supply of such items seems nearly endless - we take it for granted that there is always plenty of whatever is needed in the classroom.

Seeing pictures of Liberian schools was a bit of a shock for some who viewed the LOEP presentation last Sunday. After the presentation, one commenter said, "I can see why the bean bags are a big deal" for Liberian classrooms. The pictures of Liberia's bare, dim classrooms stood in stark contrast to the cheerful and colorful array of hand-crafted bean bags lined up in front of the room.

How the bean bags will be used in Liberian classrooms and what they bring to the teaching experience for teachers will be the subject of future blog posts. Now we have to begin packing to send them on their way by ship to West Africa. More pictures and posts to come!

Building a Community with Bean Bags

The LOEP 2010 Training Workshop theme was "Building a Community of Learners". The theme spoke directly to the critically important role of educators in re-building the Liberian nation community broken by 25 years of political strife and 14 years of war. The workshop focused on how to begin building a community of learners by starting with the inclusive classroom. Teachers discovered that developing a community of learners is important to any educational environment whether that setting is an individual classroom, a school, or a teacher education program Teachers discovered how establishing a positive classroom environment can increase student success and learned how expanding the positive environment to include teachers and students as an entire school community working and learning together can enhance the learning experience for all. Broadening the learning community's reach into the homes of students to include families brings the learning experience into the surrounding community at large - a sort of ripple effect beginning with the classroom nucleus.
Liberian society and culture once consisted of strong, close-knit communities - nation of villages and extended family networks. That all changed with devastating war and now it is time to rebuild communities and restore a sense of community - that is, shared goals and shared commitment. Educators are at the forefront of the re-building process and re-building community is key to restoring lasting stability and peace in Liberia.
As LOEP trainers worked last year to develop the training workshop for 2010 we never imagined that such a wonderful example of communituy-building and mutual support would come to us through the Craft Hope bean bag project. When LOEP submitted our request to the crafting community for help in providing classroom bean bag sets for Liberian teachers, the crafting community responded instantly and generously. Bean bag sets are coming daily from all over the world. The amazing response is a beautiful example of how a community can work together to accomplish a common goal - in this case, enhancing classroom learning for Liberian students.
Craft Hope has provided LOEP teachers with a living example of community.