Empowering Women in Liberia, West Africa.

What is Sustainable Liberia?

Established in 2006, Sustainable Liberia, Inc. is a faith-based, nonprofit organization committed to serving rural communities of Liberia, West Africa. Our goal is to enable transformational development by investing in the dreams of people living in poverty.  We want the lack of access to basic resources and spiritual support, which only feeds hopelessness, to be a thing of the past. To accomplish our goal of hope restored, we create opportunities for Evangelism, Education, Economic Empowerment, Infrastructure Restoration, and Leadership Development.

What’s this campaign’s story?

One of Sustainable Liberia's newest partners, recently decided as a family to downsize from being homeowners in the  Atlanta  area to renting;  a fairly significant change in living space for the couple and their young daughter. Why? They felt strongly led to listen to the call to Love Your Neighbor in a much more specific and purposeful way - to be able to provide more  support to Georgia non-profit organizations they care about.

So last month, when they closed on the sale of their house, they gave us a call. They shared their story with us and offered that Sustainable Liberia be one of the first recipients of their call to give more. They pledged a match of up to $5,000 on all donations for 2019 Giving Tuesday. A pledge to honor their commitment.  A pledge to show us how much they believe in our organization, the staff, and what we are doing for the people of Liberia, West Africa.

How can you be part of this story?

Needless to say, we were blown away with their generosity and need you to ensure we meet our goal of a matching $5,000. In this campaign we have decided to specifically reach out to people, much like this family, who are relatively new to Sustainable Liberia.

How will this match be used?

A team, comprised of educators, food service trainer, computer technician, and master gardener/tractor operator plan to depart from Atlanta late January and return from Liberia in early February 2020.  The purpose of the trip is relationship building and training for teachers, farmers, restaurant employees, and computer technician leaders within the rural communities we serve.

What is a specific example of what will be done during the trip?

One of our newest team members, Michelle Shevlin, will experience first hand what we are calling “Gaining 2020 Sight – A Sustainable Liberia”.  Her main area of focus for this trip is to assist in economic empowerment, a key area to developing community sustainability. The economic impact provides jobs for employees, income for families, and industry for the community.  

Our Coal Pot Queens (CPQ) Training Restaurant comprises a dining service and a training program designed to teach cooking and baking to disenfranchised women, many of whom were victims of human trafficking. The Food Service Program at CPQ provides training, job and income for the women and their families. The objective is to help women and other minorities acquire marketable skills for gainful employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. The restaurant has been struggling to meet its revenue goals and requires much needed customer service training for the women to be better equipped to attract and retain customers.  To compound the matter, it has been negatively impacted by the overall economic effects of inflation in the Liberian economy. Prices and the exchange rates are climbing daily. The government has not paid its civil servants for the past three months. Several civil servant groups, including teachers and nurses, have been on slow downs and strikes. In addition, the government significantly reduced their salaries by over 35% in addition to the nonpayment. 

Michelle will be traveling with the team to Liberia for 11 days to train and mentor the Coal Pot Queens. She is taking an eight hour class and is preparing to gain a certificate in the GA ServSafe program to be able to train the women in food safety.  This will help further protect customer health, improve employee performance, and preserve their business reputation.  The training includes food hygiene training, customer service training, and emotional support.

Become a part of women lifting women up and investing in the people of Liberia. We want rural Liberians to dream big  - where access to basic resources is no longer a barrier and living in poverty is a thing of the past.