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Chair Report | FOL Report | Project Report | Member Activities | Announcements |
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By Stephanie Vickers A team of Friends of Liberia LEAP
advisers/trainers (Joan Hamilton, Mike Waite, Susan McIntyre, Clifflyn Bromling and myself, Stephanie Vickers) went to Liberia in
August 2004 to help the small group of 13 LEAP trainers establish
its own board of directors and train 35 new LEAP trainers. Andrew
McIntyre, Susan’s son and a filmmaker, traveled with us, recording
our activities to make a video for FOL/LEA Our mission was to assist the LEAP teachers and
principals become more self-sufficient and self-sustaining. With
help from an educational foundation that has supported LEAP since
2000 and funds raised by the membership of FOL, we were able to
conduct a three-week training of trainers at BWI in Kakata and spend
a week and a half before and after the workshop networking with
agencies and ministries that can help the new LEAP NGO. During
While at BWI during a very wet rainy season we shared space with UNMIL and a DDRR program of vocational education for ex-combatants. We even had the opportunity to try and teach some of their participants some of our early childhood songs, shared a HIV/AIDS video and hired the home arts and technology departments to assist us with snacks and some technology assistance.
The group of 13 LEAP trainers chose its own
board of directors and established themselves as an NGO. The new
organization retained the acronym LEAP (formerly Liberian Education
Assistance Project) and established its own identity by changing the
words to be Liberian Educators for Action and Peace. This
marks the end of the old LEAP and the beginning of the new LEAP.
With this shift FOL changes its role to more advis I would like to thank the members of FOL who have supported LEAP over the years. Your investment has paid off and LEAP is stronger than ever and growing. The new LEAP Board of Directors and its members hope that FOL will continue to raise money to support the new Liberian Educators for Action and Peace and help it grow, prosper and spread all over Liberia. |
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Stephanie Schnabel
Vickers Peace Corps 1971-1974, Saniquellie, Nimba County
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P and AIDS education.
Returning to Liberia, where many NGOs (nongovernmental
organizations) are buzzing about and making plans for Liberia, for
an ambitious and challenging workshop was hard work but very
rewarding. The LEAP program, started in 1999, has survived and
thrived and is stronger than ever in spite of all the civil unrest
and the constant challenges of daily living. Meeting one’s needs is
still quite difficult, and yet these teachers we have trained are
amazingly enthusiastic and continually asking for more training and
support so that they have the means to spread LEAP methodology all
over Liberia.
the
workshop we taught LEAP curriculum (methodology for understanding
early childhood education in language arts, science and math), other
teacher management activities, organizational development for the
new board of directors, and HIV/AIDS education for teacher leaders.
ory and a future
fiscal agent for the new NGO when it writes funding requests. Before
we left Liberia, the new LEAP Board of Directors had begun to work
on possible contracts with UNICEF and Action/Aid and hopefully there
will be ways to continue to work with the Ministry of Education in
various capacities.