If you have been following the news, you’ll know that three
women won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of
Liberia; Leymah Gbowee, Executive Director for Women Peace and Security Network
Africa; and Tawakkul Karman, “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of
women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.”
What you may not know, is that I spent 10 days training and
providing professional development to the teachers in Monrovia, Liberia in August
2009. The trip was a most memorable one. I still feel as though I left part of
my heart in Monrovia. In addition, the teachers we worked with still contact us
with questions and updates.
How did I end up in Liberia?
It’s a long story, so I’m going to shorten the version. Three
groups worked together to coordinate the trip and training. Humanity Unites Brillancy
provided the funding, Kimmie Weeks, founder of Youth Action Internationalinvited us and coordinated the event, and StarShine provided the training and professional
development materials. That’s where I came in. Trish McCarty, founder of
StarShine; Amber Halverson, our assistant; and I traveled to Liberia and
provided three incredible days of professional development to over 800 teachers
at city hall.
When we were first approached to travel to Liberia, Trish and
I were very hesitant. The school year was just starting and we had schools in
Phoenix, Arizona to supervise, plus Liberia is a long way from Phoenix. In addition,
I’m not sure either of us really knew where the country was located. And – we’d
have to get more unpleasant shots, a VISA and develop a training manual all in
about two weeks. But then, we started to research the country of Liberia and
the unbelievable needs of the Liberian people. All the kids who live in Liberia
are truly ‘Kids Without Stuff’ to the tenth degree. We talked with Kimmie and
could hear his passion about improving the lives of the Liberian children
through improving their education.
So -- we started to
work. We ordered our VISA’s, got more immunization shots, and developed a
training manual for the teachers based on the guiding principles and core
curriculum at StarShine.
Two week later, I was sitting on a plane bound for Africa.
The flight took 30 hours; we flew from Phoenix to Atlanta, Atlanta
to Brussels, and Brussels to Monrovia. By the time, we arrived almost two days
later we were tired, a little beat up and hungry, but completely exhilarated about
this epic journey. As we walked out of the airport, we were greeted by a large
group of Liberian well-wishers. We climbed into SUV’s and began to make the hour-long
journey into the capital of Liberia, Monrovia.
Would you like to hear more about our journey and our
opportunity to change education in Liberia? Let me know and I’ll write more
posts about the trip.
Have a great weekend!
Jan
