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Member
Activities:
LEAP fundraiser in Portland, Oregon.
by Stephanie Vickers, FOL President and LEAP Administrator
On March 6th in Portland, Oregon a large crowd gathered to celebrate
Liberia and to help raise money for the Friends of Liberia project,
LEAP (Liberian Education Assistance Project). A small committee
worked with me to organize a wonderful evening that included
delicious Liberian chop, a fashion show of West African clothing, a
dance troupe with drummers led by a Liberian woman (Rolia Manyongai)
who has made Portland her home for many years, a silent auction of
over 120 items and we even included singing of the Liberian National
Anthem thanks to the Liberians who helped us RPCVs remember the
words. We had Club Beer to sell and auction off. In January I
managed to carry home from Monrovia an entire case of small Club
Beer for the event; it was a hit! The finale was a presentation of a
DVD produced by Rich Hawthorne, RPCV 68-71. The DVD is in the
process of being put on the web to preview and to sell to raise
funds for LEAP. Look for it soon at
www.fol.org .
The money raised from this year’s event and another successful one
held in April 2003 will be used to support the new educational local
NGO, LET (LEAP Extension Team). The members of the LET NGO are the
13 selected co-trainers who have been working in Liberia to teach
teachers and principals about LEAP methods. The LET co-trainers
have sponsored workshops in their schools, towns and counties. There
has been a great deal of interest from other teachers to be trained
in LEAP methodology and these co-trainers have been working either
on their own or with another co-trainer or two to teach other
teachers. At one such workshop in Buchanan 100 teachers showed up
because they had heard about LEAP but unfortunately 25 teachers had
to be turned away. The teachers wishing to be trained even paid
$25.00LD to attend. The LET teachers have no extra funding to
conduct these workshops. At a time when Liberia is in transition, it
is wonderful to see education being an avenue for a positive change
for Liberia.
Therefore these LET co-trainers hope to continue to spread LEAP
methodology beyond the nearly 70 schools that were trained by the
LEAP trainers at Cuttington in 1999, 2000 and 2002. LET is in the
process of writing proposals for funding in order to continue the
county workshops. LEAP trainers and LET co-trainers hope to sponsor
an August workshop to train additional LEAP trainers and increase
the number to 40 or 50 new LET trainers. The vision of LET is to
have LEAP trained schools throughout all of Liberia.
Thank you to those RPCVs who could not attend but who sent generous
donations for LEAP/LET. Donations are always welcome so if you
choose to make one, just identify your donation to FOL for LEAP/LET
and help us spread this method of training and teaching all through
Liberia. For more information, feel free to check out the website
or email me at
svickers@teleport.com .
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