Educate Liberian girls for one year

Dear Girls Education International Supporters,

We are happy to report renewed success of our students, despite the Ebola Outbreak.

During the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, communication with the GEI-sponsored girls was spotty, so we were delighted to receive their report cards, photos and letters back in May. The girls have settled into their school routines and are doing well in their classes, but their letters about the Ebola outbreak are heartbreaking.

Jennet, a tenth-grader, wrote “It was very hard for people to shake each other’s hand because people was afraid of that disease (Ebola)... some people lost their entire families.” Abigail, whose parents are health-care workers and dealt with the virus first-hand, let us know that “... many people lost their lives, many mothers lose their children, many husbands lose their wife and many wifes lose their husband.” Unlike many who worked in the hospitals and clinics, her parents both survived. And eleventh-grader Florence, who lives in the St. Paul’s Bridge community, wrote of “...parents who abandoned their own family members due to the risk of the disease ... (which has) left some children without parents.” Some homes, she noted, were simply locked and abandoned.

But with the opening of the schools in March, some normalcy has returned to Liberia and according to the report cards from the new semester, the girls are doing well in their studies. Only one student -- whose grade average fell to 78% -- is being tutored after school in order to continue to qualify for the Girls Ed scholarship.

We are amazed that more of our students haven’t struggled with their schoolwork, considering the devastation, sadness and academic challenges that Ebola brought. We are so proud of our girls for jumping back into their classes and for their determination to succeed. With your continued help, these young women will become the future leaders of a country that faces an uncertain future.

With Thanks,

Mary Ann
GEI Board Member & Liberia Project Manager

In mid-February, Liberian schools cautiously and systematically re-opened after the worst Ebola crisis in the country’s history. The resumption was not without hiccups, but by mid-March, all of the Girls Ed students were back in school. Classes will run through the summer and fall, possibly switching the Liberian annual school start date to January or February for the foreseeable future.

The last case of Ebola in Liberia was reported in late March, which indicates the end of the outbreak there. Now the exhausted country looks towards the tasks of re-building its economy, infrastructure and especially Liberia’s fragile health care system, which lost many health care workers to the disease.

Before Ebola, many of our girls were interested in all sorts of professions, including doctors, nurses, geologists, teachers, accountants, lawyers, and even a gospel singer. As Liberia recovers economically from the epidemic, it will need an educated workforce to re-build.

While education has always been crucial in Liberia, it has become critical to the country’s recovery from Ebola. Today your contributions to Girls Ed in Liberia take on even more importance: an educated Liberian girl will not only lift herself and her family out of poverty, but her country as well. Won’t you invest in our girls right now? Thank you so much!