An Educated Community

Each LOEP Traininig session opened and closed with all of us, trainers and teachers, reciting the following statement of belief in our work as teachers building a community of learners together:

We believe our students are the future of Liberia.
We believe teachers shape that future.
We believe an educated community is a strong, peaceful community.

This year the 2011 LOEP team was fortunate to witness first-hand some incredible evidence of learner communities in Liberia.  We visited:

• two orphan schools - one building a new classroom building and dormitory and the other improving their facility with new security and playground areas, 
• Hope School for the Deaf, a community of learners who are no longer isolated now that they can sign and learn together,
• Virginia Christian Academy, a school currently undergoing construction of a new, two-story building which will include housing for their new library collection,
• A church-sponsored school facility with six classrooms constructed of bamboo poles and grass mat walls where more than 400 children attend school every day in three sessions and adults attend night-time literacy classes.

These learning communities and hundreds of others like them are all led by dedicated teachers who know the future of Liberia depends on educating their students - adults and children.