EWMI NEWS:
JANUARY 2011
BREAK THE CYCLE: SEND A LIBERIAN CHILD TO SCHOOL FOR ONE YEAR

The East-West Management Institute (EWMI) is seeking funds to support our Break the Cycle Project, which will provide food, clothing, and tuition for 200 children to attend school in Liberia. The children we are supporting are in particular need: one or both of their parents have been imprisoned and many of them have been left to roam the streets alone. In a country where free primary education is not guaranteed, and 84% of the population is below the international poverty line, these vulnerable children cannot afford to attend school without outside assistance. The number of children living and working on the streets in Liberia is growing; without schooling, these boys and girls are more likely to become victims of sex trafficking and prostitution, or enter into the life of crime led by their parents. This project will help break that cycle.

The project will be implemented by our local partner, Prison Fellowship – Liberia (PFL), a Monrovia-based nonprofit that has previously and successfully implemented a similar project in Liberia. EWMI will not retain any funding donated – all funds raised through EWMI’s efforts are tax deductible and will be sent directly to PFL in Liberia. We need to raise $60,000 by August 1, 2012, in order to enroll all 200 children in the upcoming school year. $300 will enable PFL to provide counseling, a school uniform, a daily meal, and tuition for a child to attend kindergarten, elementary or high school for one year. More importantly, it will give that child hope for a better future.

Students receiving school materials

Liberia is itself at a hopeful juncture. Although it remains one of the poorest countries in the world with 84% of the population below the international poverty rate (i.e. making less than US$1.25 per day) and with only 56% literacy level, it is emerging from 14 years of civil war. The last six years have seen relative calm in the country under the leadership of Africa’s first and only female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The Break the Cycle Project can play an important role in providing a better future for at least some of the least fortunate children in Liberia during this challenging but hopeful period.

FOR A FULL PROGRAM DESCRIPTION, PLEASE SEE THIS PDF

School materials being distributed