LOEP Introduces... Blessing Gbah

The first time I met Blessing Gbah, she seemed a shy and cautious little girl. We were in the schoolyard of her elementary school and there were a lot of children running and playing and generally excited because of the visitors at their school (the LOEP training team). Right away I noticed the beautiful child with velvety skin and an intense gaze. I could tell this little girl was curious, but not willing to approach me to find out what she wanted to know. Her friends had no hesitation, however and they were having a grand time daring each other to touch my clothes, my hands, and my hair, giggling the whole time. After some time playing games of “Duck, Duck, Goose” and “Hot Cassava” in the very hot school yard, Blessing became convinced I was approachable and was just as eager to play with my camera and laugh with me as were her friends.

Blessing and her friends the day that I met them 

Blessing is now ten years old and in the fourth grade at Maretha Preparatory International School in Paynesville. Her favorite subjects are vocabulary and reading, and she has dreams of one day being a journalist when she grows up. When she is not in school, she enjoys playing with her friends and especially jumping rope.

Blessing (center) with some of her friends 

Blessing lives in Paynesville with her mother, father, younger sister, and baby brother.  Blessing’s father is a gifted teacher, one of LOEP’s Trainer of Teachers (ToTs). Her mother is a market vendor. Both parents work extremely hard so that both of their daughters can attend school (baby brother is too young for school now). Their commitment to educating both of their daughters (and son, when he is old enough) is exceptional and to be commended. Blessing and her sister are keenly aware of the sacrifices their family makes for their education and know it is a privilege to go to school.  They work hard to make the most of their opportunity for education.  

A recent picture of Blessing with her family 

Whether she continues on the path to journalism or follows her dreams elsewhere, I know that Blessing will be a great asset to her family, her community, and her country. Keep up the good work Blessing!  There are plenty of folks here in the U.S. who are wishing you great success!

LOEP Introduces... Captain Dorothy Gray

The LOEP training teams have been so impressed with the faculty at the Lott Carey Mission School over the past 5 years. These teachers are dedicated to the profession and dedicated to their students. They have embraced new teaching methods that LOEP has introduced to them and are working together as a strong team to nurture a community of learners at Lott Carey and throughout the community. Captain Dorothy Gray is one of these teachers. Capt. Gray is the ROTC instructor at Lott Carey, where she works with students in grades 9-11.

Capt. Gray was born in Clay Ashland, a township in the St. Paul River district of Monsterrado County, about 10 miles from Monrovia. A serene and peaceful place,  it is a perfect place to enjoy the natural beauty of Liberia. Capt. Gray spent her early childhood growing up in the Bomi Hills in the north western part of the country, and moved to Monrovia as a teenager. She graduated from Augustus F. Caine High School in Monrovia.

On May 2, 1975, Capt. Gray joined the Liberian army and served for 31 turbulent years. During that time she worked in the training and planning section and also as an IMET officer, processing soldiers travelling to the U.S. for training. She became a First Lieutenant in 1985 and was promoted to Captain in 1998.  Capt. Gray retired from military service in 2006 with a distinguished long service medal. 

Capt. Gray’s late father, R. Vanjah Richards, was a nationally-recognized painter and sculptor in Liberia.  Mr. Richards graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago and returned to Liberia where he taught art at the University of Liberia and served as Mayor of Clay Ashland. His murals and sculptures can be seen in many public places throughout Liberia.

Four years ago, Capt. Gray began education studies at a teacher’s college through the professional development program at Lott Carey Mission School. The professional development program, funded by LOEP, provides scholarship funds for Lott Carey teachers to study for an undergraduate degree in Education and a teaching certificate. It was through these studies that Capt. Gray discovered her own talent for drawing!  

Capt. Gray is a highly respected instructor at Lott Carey and enjoys working with her ROTC students on developing leadership skills, problem solving, drills, and self-discipline. The ROTC students take pride in leading the school-wide flag raising ceremony on the Lott Carey campus every Friday morning under Capt. Gray’s guidance. Capt. Gray is one more example of the many powerful and talented women LOEP has met in Liberia! 

Captain Gray in the Teacher Resource Room at LCMS

The LCMS ROTC class (Capt. Gray in red)

Friday morning flag raising on the campus of LCMS

LOEP introduces…Humpheretta Reid

Humpheretta Reid is a leader. This young lady is working hard to pursue her dreams, and one can only imagine where her dreams will take her. Humpheretta is eighteen years old and a senior at Lott Carey Mission School (LCMS). She first started her education journey at Lott Carey as a little girl in the nursery class at the age of four, and since then has become an important part of the student body.

Humpheretta, the youngest of three children, lives with her family in the Brewerville community. She is committed to her studies and a high achiever, but she also maintains an active social life. When she’s not in class or studying in the library on campus, Humpheretta enjoys spending time with her friends, playing sports (particularly basketball and kickball), reading, and singing. Hempheretta is a member of the LCMS Choir and ROTC.

Humpheretta serves as president of the Student Council Association and president of the Elegant Girls Guide of Lott Carey. The Elegant Girls Guide of Lott Carey is a student-initiated club for female students (grades K-12) and teachers. The girls in each grade select a female teacher at the school to serve as their sponsor. The club serves as a platform for education, conversation, advocacy, and empowerment. The club engages in campus improvement projects, as well as serving as a safe place for girls to bring their questions and sometimes, uncomfortably intimate conversation. 

Humpheretta has big plans for her future. After she graduates from LCMS this spring, she plans to pursue collegiate studies in management and law. Oh, the places she will go!

School is a high priority for Liberians and there is great appreciation for the value of education.  Unfortunately, school is not an option for all and it is a real challenge for girls particularly.  Girls are often the ones kept at home to help with chores and take care of siblings.  Limited family financial resources may not be available for multiple children in a family to attend school so boys are given priority. In these instances, it is often young girls who stay home while their brothers go to school. 

According to the Liberian Ministry of Education, 20.1% of girls ages 6-11 were enrolled in primary school in 2013. As girls get older, it becomes even more difficult for them to stay in school. A scant 8.3% of girls ages 12-17 were enrolled in secondary schools in 2013. 

Humpheretta is an exceptional young leader, achieving against the odds.  LOEP honors and appreciates Humpheretta and all of her female classmates in observance of International Women’s Day!

Humpheretta addressing the LCMS student body as Student Council President

Humpheretta and Mrs. Allen, Vice Principal of Instruction, at the Student Council induction ceremony

Humpheretta with her friends on the campus of LCMS

In honor of International Women's Day, we introduce...

March 8 is International Women’s Day and as the world celebrates women and girls we are reminded of the amazing women and girls in Liberia. Their remarkable dedication, tenacity, and leadership has been an inspiration to LOEP volunteers. In honor of International Women's Day, LOEP will feature just a few of those amazing LOEP colleagues.

Over the next few weeks, LOEP co-founder, Emmalee Hackshaw will share the stories of the extraordinary Liberian women who have inspired LOEP volunteers since 2008 when plans for the first teacher training team began. Emmalee travelled to Liberia as a trainer with the first LOEP teacher training team and has returned to Liberia with four teacher training teams since 2009.

Muriel Craigwell
I first met Muriel in early 2009 when LOEP traveled to Liberia to deliver the first training workshop at Lott Carey Mission School (LCMS) in Brewerville. Muriel had just graduated from Lott Carey Mission School a few months earlier and was working as an intern in the school office, shadowing and assisting the administrative and faculty team. She was enrolled in a program at Stella Maris Polytechnic in downtown Monrovia to study education. Muriel lives in Brewerville, an outer suburb of Monrovia, with her mother and brother and is now a senior at the Bishop John Collins Teacher College at Stella Maris Polytechnic where she is completing her academic work in education.

In addition to her full-time studies, Muriel continued her association with Lott Carey where she showed great aptitude for teaching. She has progressed from her internship at Lott Carey to become a full-time teacher. Miss Craigwell teaches 3rd grade at Lott Carey, and is a major asset to the elementary team. With her obvious natural gift for teaching and her quick and thorough grasp of modern instructional techniques and methods, Miss Craigwell was identified by the LOEP training team and Lott Carey administration to serve as a LOEP-trained ToT (Trainer-of-Teachers). With her ToT colleagues, Miss Craigwell leads professional development trainings at Lott Carey and will also be conducting LOEP trainings with her colleagues around the country.

I have had the pleasure of visiting Miss Craigwell's classroom and the pure excitement to learn and eagerness to please in the 30 bright and smiling faces of her students is infectious. The warm and safe classroom environment Miss Craigwell has created is remarkable. Her nurturing instincts and love of learning make her a natural fit for the education profession. She is an expert at her craft.

"My favorite part of teaching is doing fun learning activities with my pupils and the love we share as a big happy family. Am always happy knowing that i am inspiring my students positively in every way." - Miss Craigwell

I know that many of us have memories of that special teacher and loving classroom experience we had at some point in our childhood. For myself, that fond memory is of my second grade teacher, Mrs. Hannah. She was pretty, funny, smart, fun, and I loved everything about her and her class. I have no doubt that in 25 years there will be a contingency of Lott Carey alumni who will remember their time in Miss Craigwell's class and think fondly of the time they spent learning with her.

Muriel Craigwell (center) during her senior year at Lott Carey Mission School

Muriel as an intern at a LOEP training in 2009

Miss Craigwell and other members of the elementary team at Lott Carey planning lessons

International Literacy Day

Sunday, September 8, 2013 is International Literacy Day!  The observance focuses on worldwide literacy needs and LOEP has a special Literacy celebration planned.

Thanks to individual donors, partner churches and organizations, LOEP is privileged to celebrate Literacy Day on Monday, September 9 by delivering 115 boxes of books for shipment to Liberia! The books are bound for our partner schools, Lott Carey Mission School (LCMS) and Hope for the Deaf School.  

The LOEP book shipment will provide Lott Carey Mission School (LCMS) with an elementary Reading Instruction program complete with student textbooks, supplementary instructional materials and teacher's editions. LOEP plans to follow up with a Reading Instruction workshop for LCMS teachers to assist them in making best use of the Reading program for their students.  

Thanks to a partnership with Middletown Methodist Church in Maryland, LOEP is also sending books to set up a Reading Room at Hope for the Deaf School.  LOEP friends are familiar with our partners at Hope for the Deaf and have supported the school's vocational program.  Last year LOEP partnered with Hope to help develop  the school-to-home program.  Hope administrator, David Worlobah, reports the program to build the relationship between student families and the school has been successful with excellent response from the families of students.   

Now Hope needs a Reading Room. The school has no library and very few books.  The new Reading Room will expose students to books, instructional games and activities and will also provide resource materials on deaf education for teachers and parents of Hope students.  

Lott Carey first grade teacher, Mrs. Goh, is selecting books from the LCMS library for her classroom library and Reading instruction.  Complete Reading Instruction programs are unavailable in Liberia and teachers select random books from limited school libraries for classroom instruction in reading.  Mrs. Goh is a LOEP teacher. 

Hope for the Deaf students with visiting LCMS/LOEP teacher, Mrs. Harvey, play spelling games with alphabet bean bags.  Instructional games and activities are generally unavailable and unfamiliar to Liberian teachers and students.  These students jumped right in with great excitement to practice their spelling skills and "play" with the instructional bean bags when LOEP visited last year. The new  Reading Room stocked with books and instructional materials will be an asset for building literacy skills for students at Hope for the Deaf School.

Help LOEP celebrate Literacy Day!  Just $35 sends a Book Box directly to a Liberian classroom. Click below and help a child learn to read!

https://www.causes.com/actions/1753260-send-books-to-their-classrooms?ctm=home

Scrabble Kids

Liberian students are not accustomed to instructional materials in the classroom and games such as Scrabble are not common teaching tools.  This group is taught by a teacher who has attended all the LOEP training workshops and uses imaginative and creative methods in his classroom to teach students.  Liberian students are highly motivated by the competitive aspect of instructional games and Scrabble has been a very successful teaching tool for this group.

How does LOEP make sure our work does not trample over cultural values of our colleagues in Liberia?

LOEP volunteers are a diverse group of highly experienced educators and trainers, successful professionals in the fields of communication, academia, the Arts, international development, former Peace Corps volunteers, Liberians and others of African parentage.   All LOEP training programs including workshops, training materials and instructional materials are carefully developed with an eye for sound educational concepts.  LOEP educators recognize that sound educational concepts are based on appropriate cultural frame of reference. 

LOEP looks to a broad range of international leaders in the field of education and training for source materials.  Educational resources as diverse as UNESCO, Edutopia.org, Reading Rockets, education journals, NAEYC, and many, many others  have provided source materials for LOEP workshops and materials.

How do we make sure we provide “culturally appropriate” materials and books for children to use in the classroom?

LOEP volunteers spend many hours sorting and selecting materials and books that promote general universal themes (friendship, animals, peace), covers a range of disciplines (language arts, math, science, social studies, the Arts), up to date atlases and maps, educational children’s science and literary magazines and educational games and puzzles.

Although games and puzzles are not used much in Liberian classrooms, LOEP has had some success introducing teachers to use of Scrabble and other games with students.  One of LOEP’s teachers has organized Scrabble tournaments within his school and the activity has become enormously popular.  The tournaments are lively and have a high rate of participation.

How do we determine what is “culturally appropriate” for Liberian classrooms?

LOEP volunteers look for materials that have a multicultural viewpoint.  This means materials that include children of all ethnic groups, stories of children and daily life in other countries, customs and practices outside of Liberia.   Another way of providing multicultural viewpoint is, for example, the language arts and social studies materials that incorporate elements of and appreciation for the strong African tradition of oral story-telling.  These are most useful for Liberian classrooms. 

Study of literature, art, music and science can transcend cultural boundaries and LOEP volunteers see examples of creative teachers using such materials in the classroom all the time.

One of LOEP’s Trainers of Teachers uses a well-worn copy of the Collected Works of Shakespeare in his high school classroom.  The Bard’s dramas have endured because they explore universal human themes common to us all, regardless of ethnicity.  Our LOEP colleague helps students select portions of Shakespeare's plays to re-enact in the classroom as part of the literature study.  They discuss how the drama’s theme (greed, jealousy, leadership, etc.), may have affected public life in Liberia and their own personal lives.  The drama form itself is perfectly suited to the wonderful African affinity for dramatic presentation and the students follow up discussion with a skit based on the play.  Both content and form are relevant for students, the creative teacher makes it exciting and they delight in the study of Shakespeare’s classics!