A Little History About Liberia
We will be going to Liberia, a small country in West Africa. Liberia is also known as "Little America", it is a developing country located between Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa. Liberia is known by many for its destructive Civil Wars that raged from 1989 until 2003 and for the tyrannical rule of it's former leader Charles Taylor.
Liberia was founded in 1822 by freed American slaves and is a very americanized country and by the mid 1900's, the Liberian economy was the second-fastest growing economy in the world and Liberia continues to develop and a fast pace.
Liberian development came to an end in 1980 when president William Tolbert was overthrown by Samuel Doe and killed in a military coup. Doe ran the country very harshly and by the end of the decade, a faction led by Charles
Taylor led an insurrection and the country fell into a violent civil war.
Liberia was known for the child soldiers that roamed the streets with machine guns and rocket launchers. The Civil Wars devistated the people of Liberia and there are hundreds of thousands of orphans and disabled people in Liberia now because of the wars.
In fourteen years, there were an estimated 350,000 killed in the fighting, out of a population of less than 4 million people. Therefore, Liberia lost 1/10 of its population and hundreds of thousands more were gravely injured.
In 2003 the United Nations sent a large peacekeeping force to Liberia to stabilize the country. For all practical purposes, the effort has worked and Liberia is much safer than it was ten years ago.
Although the country is now safer, it is very poor and most of the infrastructure that had been developed prior to the wars was completely destroyed.
Liberia is very rich in natural resources but many people are starving. Food prices are high and electricity is a luxury. What electricity is available is intermittent and not available on weekends and the wealthier citizens use generators for more reliable power.
Clean water is only available in certain areas and many people drink from the same rivers and streams where they wash and bathe.
We will be taking all six of the kids with us when we go. The kids are very excited as are we. We have so many projects we will be working on while we are there, and as we add projects, we extend our length of time we will be staying in the country. We started off planning to stay one month and now it looks as though we will be staying at least three months.
This is a picture of the location where we will be building one of the two bridges. People from up to five different villages use this make shift bridge several times a day to get to the market. There are many sick people who cannot get out of the village to the hospital because there is no way for a vehicle to get in and out.
We will be building two bridges for these people to cross. This is another location for the bridge. The bridge we build will be big enough for motorcycles and small off road vehicles to cross. This is going to change the lives of these people. They will be able to buy and sell at the local market so much easier.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
We will also be providing clothing and food for these children in the Bilimu village. They all put on their best clothing for the photo's so that we would like them and want to help them. It brings tears to my eyes everytime I look through these pictures. We are all God's children, no matter where we live.
All of these children are malnourished. Even though they get full on rice, it isn't enough to provide them with a balanced diet. We hope to bring them meats and vegetables as well.
This little girl put on her best dress for the photo. She is such a doll, I just love her already! She is only two years old.
This little boy is so funny! He put on his best shoes and he is showing them off! We are going to buy him new shoes when we get there.
This little boy has malaria. We will take him into the city to get medical help when we get there. Many children are infected with malaria each year. He was not feeling well when this picture was taken.
We also want to help feed the "bush" kids. They have no food and no clothing. These children are naked, and we are going to bring them clothing. Many of them have probably never even seen white people.
We have so much to do while we are there. Please visit our website and consider making a donation to help these children. We are praying we will meet our financial goals, please pray for us as well.
http://billrogersyouthfoundation.org/
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
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