Some general observations on This Day:

• 65 per cent of participants from India and Rwanda totally or partially agreed with the statement ‘A
woman should tolerate violence in order to keep her family together’. A further 43 per cent agreed
with the statement: ‘There are times when a woman deserves to be beaten.’
• ‘Changing diapers, giving kids a bath and feeding kids are the mother’s responsibility.’ 67 per cent
of boys and 71 per cent of girls in Rwanda agreed, as did 83 per cent of boys and 87 per cent of
girls in India.
• Our survey showed, however, that children are actually happier when they see their parents
sharing household responsibilities (eg when dads cook and do the laundry, both parents make
decisions and when their mums spend their time in and out of home).
• Over 60 per cent of children interviewed in India for this report agreed that ‘if resources are scarce
it is better to educate a boy instead of a girl’


The above information is from a report by Plan International, an international organization focused on improving the lives of children all over the world. Because I am a Girl is an annual report which assesses the current state of the world's girls.   Their research is reliable and more reports and research is available on their website at http://www.planusa.org/ .

One event being held today in Liberia to mark International Women's Day today is The Association for the Advancement of LIberian Girls (AALG).  AALG will host a roundtable discussion with female students at Children's Village High School and professional women in the community as they explore careers usually closed to women in Liberia.  The AALG is a registered NGO in Liberia established as an advocate for Liberian females through education, philanthropy and social activities.

Pictured below is Mrs. Morris who is over ninety years old and taught school in her Liberian community for more than 65 years.  Here she is pictured with her young friends.  The aspiration behind International Women's Day is that these little girls and the little boys of their generation will grow up in a society that offers a better life of opportunity, respect and health for everyone - boys and girls, men and women.

 

We're Still Working

We have watched these kids grow up over the past nine years since LOEP began collecting school supplies to send to them in their classrooms.

LOEP is a very small organization, as most of our supporters know.  There is no office, no staff, and no overhead costs.  All of our resources are spent directly on our programs.  Our fundraising plan is about as simple as it gets.  Once a year we send a letter to our friends and supporters asking for continued support.  We are always so gratified when these folks come through (and we breathe a sigh of relief that LOEP programs can continue for another year).
 
With much more work to be done, LOEP will be reaching out to new friends in the coming months. As we come into 2013 we expect to make better use of this blog forum to share details of our work and stories of our friends and colleagues in Liberia. Stay tuned!

Sharing LOEP
We share stories and pictures of our work with church groups, Rotary clubs, womens' organizations and others throughout the year.  The response to our presentations has been fantastic and we have made many new friends.
If your organization would like to know more about LOEP, please contact us to bring a presentation to you. We have volunteers from Atlanta to Washington, DC and also in the Midwest so we can most likely bring someone to you wherever you are!  

We are still working in Liberia and still counting on you to make a real difference for teachers and students in Liberian classrooms! 

Donations to LOEP can be made through the LOEP website or mailed directly to:  
LOEP
370 Browntown Road
Browntown, VA  22610

Stay tuned here for more on what your support does in Liberia!

More Training!

One of the many great things about working with Liberian teachers is their enthusiasm for professional development and teacher training!  Our once a year workshops are just not enough to satisfy their excitement for learning new classroom techniques. 


 Fortunately we have found that networking with another US-based teacher training group can help our friends in Liberia get at least two workshops per year.  Liberia NOW is a Texas-based group whose training team regularly travels to Liberia in June to deliver quality professional development workshops.  LOEP and Liberia NOW have partnered in developing training programs in the past year.  This month our friends at New Life School (pictured above) are attending Liberia NOW workshops on Critical Thinking Skills, Professional Ethics, Developing an Administration Team, and Guided Reading.
 
New Life School was established by a local church in answer to their community's need.  We have featured pictures of New Life on this blog in the past.  The small stick-built building is a heavily-used facility with more than 500 children using it all day for school and adult literacy students attending class in the evenings.

More than 80% of Liberia's schools were destroyed during the war and re-building is an enormous challenge.  More than half of children in Liberia do not attend school because there are simply not enough schools for them.  Community schools and mission schools such as New Life stand in that gap, trying to meet the needs of their community's school age children.  Reports from Liberia are that teachers and administrators from New Life are getting the most out of their professional development workshops this month!

Thanks to Volunteers!

Thanks to LOEP volunteers Tom, Sydney and Matt!  LOEP has a wonderful book donation all stored up for the next shipment to Liberia.  A whole elementary reading program ready and waiting to go into Liberian classrooms - so exciting!

Most readers know LOEP is an all-volunteer organization with no overhead costs and no administrative costs.  All our funds go directly into Liberian classrooms and schools.  Thanks to all our great Volunteers! 

Reading Books!

This is the fourth load of books we have picked up this week and we will continue transporting books through next week in order to get them all transferred.  There are a LOT of books! An entire K- 4 Reading Program has been made available to LOEP.  The set is fully intact and gently used.  LOEP volunteers are retrieving the books and putting them in storage.  As soon as funds can be raised for shipping, they will be sent to our partner schools in Liberia.

These reading books are a significant donation for our partner schools in Liberia where text books are hard to come by and generally not available in sets complete with Teacher's Editions, word cards, group readers, work sheets, etc.  LOEP is working to raise funds to ship this valuable resource to our colleagues in Liberia by October 2012.

You can help us get these books into the hands of children in their classrooms. 

To help with shipping costs: 

1) make a donation to LOEP through PayPal (see the donate button here or you can go to the webiste at: www.loeproject.org)

2)drop us an e-mail and let us know your donation is for book shipment  

Thanks for your support!!

Wednesday Snapshots

Rev. Emile Sam-Peal works closely with the senior students at Lott Carey School as they begin to look to their future after high school.    Lott Carey's seniors took their West African Exams in May and are awaiting results before they can confirm graduation.  Passing the standardized test is a requirement for high school students to graduate.

Ok, you try to get a group of boys this age to stand still and be serious for a photo! These boys have a ways to go, yet, before they begin to bear the weight of graduation exams.

Thanks to Volunteers!

The LOEP team is gearing up for our jam-packed, one-week visit to Lott Carey School in August when we will be delivering a workshop for the LOEP Trainers of Teachers (LOEP ToTs), a mini-workshop on Guided Reading and making visits to our partner schools in the orphanages and at Hope for the Deaf.

We are grateful for support and consultation on LOEP Guided Reading training materials from educators Nancy Lee and Heather Campbell of Frederick Douglass Elementary School in Winchester, Virginia, USA.  Ms. Lee and Ms. Campbell are well-trained in Guided Reading and have led workshops for educators here in the U.S.   Their help in developing the LOEP training materials was a great asset as we prepare for a very busy trip in less than two months!

Nancy Lee and Heather Campbell