05/27/2008

Tangible Love Helps Liberian Women Support Their Families

A wonderful enterprise finishing its first year of Tangible Love funding is the Monrovia Women’s Life Skills Institute. Monrovia is the capital of Liberia, an African country emerging from two horrific civil wars that have destroyed the economy over the last two decades. Unemployment is rampant.

The Monrovia Women’s Life Skills Institute provides vocational instruction to Liberian women with otherwise meager prospects for work outside the home. Professional tailors and bakers instruct dozens of women who are each taking care of families of around 7–10 people. The student mothers learn to bake corn bread, make soap, and tie-dye and sew materials for sale in the market, where product income first goes back to cover project costs. Then the women keep the profits.

“There are treadle-driven [foot-powered] sewing machines,” said June Stephenson, Community of Christ leadership development specialist for Africa. Although the women aspire to buy a generator to run an embroidery machine requiring electricity, human labor and fire currently power the entire operation.

“Their charcoal oven’s the size of a fridge,” observed June Stephenson. Some beginning students lack rudimentary cooking skills. The years of war have meant the loss of many parents, who once taught their children basic baking.

Gobah Ahasuerus (“G.A.”) Anderson is the financial officer for the Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire (formerly Ivory Coast) Mission Center, along the west coast of Africa. He is the program director and sees firsthand the Monrovia Women’s Life Skills Institute making a positive impact.
“A lot of the mothers have made a U-turn from before,” explained Anderson, a lifetime resident of Liberia. “Now the extra income allows them to send their kids to school by buying uniforms, clothing, eating utensils, and other household needs. They are learning skills to become professional seamstresses, bread bakers, caterers, and soap makers.”

The classes meet for morning and afternoon sessions six days a week. Enrollment is filled to capacity. Skills learned not only result in needed income, but also offer useful alternatives to prostitution and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

“Our style of operating is not telling them how to do things. It’s got to come from them,” said Africa Mission Field bishop Malcolm Stephenson. He noted that the idea for the Monrovia Women’s Life Skills Institute not only originated with the Liberian women, but that they quickly provided research on the required machinery and price estimates.

“Being a financial officer can be such a joy, but also painful,” admitted Malcolm Stephenson. “A lady in the soap- making class told me, ‘We would so like to shape these as normal cake soaps and add perfume.’ I asked her how much money she needed for soap molds. She said, ‘We need ten molds, which would cost about $50’ (the Liberian equivalent of around a single U.S. dollar).” Malcolm purchased twenty molds for her on the spot. Soap produced in Liberia can be sold at lower prices than commercially produced soap imported from the West.

“African society once said that the man was the 100 percent breadwinner,” remembered Anderson. “Now modern times say it’s good that both partners have income.”

“The Monrovia Women’s Life Skills Institute is a good example of the ministry of Tangible Love reaching across the world,” said Michelle Booth, Tangible Love administrator at International Headquarters. “June Stephenson stopped me in the hall today to show me the outfit she was wearing. It amazed me and brought tears to my eyes to see the clothing and hear her story of purchasing the material and having one of the women sew it together for her. The women begin with white material that they dye to a color they want to use. It was gorgeous!”
A prospect even prettier than the products themselves is the potential for empowering Liberians. New vocational skills will improve their living conditions and help get their economy back on its feet. Tangible Love grants help make it possible.

If you have an idea for a ministry or are involved in a program championing basic human needs, environmental concerns, conflict resolution initiatives, or peace and justice, Tangible Love can help. Visit www.CofChrist.org/tlove  for application procedures or information on existing Tangible Love grant ministries.

—Dirk Ellingson reporting