the freeman family

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our story

Buduburam Refugee Camp, Ghana. Africa.

Even though the camp conditions can be brutal - crowded, hot, without basic services - for 47,000 Liberians who fled their home country's brutal civil war, it's been home for over 15 years.

For the Freeman family - six orphans who lost their father to the war and their mother to illness - it's the only home they can recall. Even though they've never lived in a "real" house - just a series of tin shacks in the refugee camp - they've managed to stay together despite overwhelming odds.

They've stayed in school - even though it was hard to find money for school fees, required even in a refugee camp. They've spent Christmas together, birthdays, the sad yearly occasion of the anniversary of their mother's death. They've watched over each other through bouts of malaria and family squabbles. They've even opened a family business - an "arcade" of old Playstations and ancient tvs. They've worked hard and made enough to keep themselves together and out of trouble.

The camp is the only thing they've ever known...and now they're leaving. The Ghanian government has declared that it's time for all refugees must either return to Liberia or agree to assigned resettlement in rural areas of Ghana.

For those that choose to go home to Liberia, the UN is giving each refugee a ticket to Liberia and $100 to begin their new life. Only $50 for children. For the Freeman family - if they get on that plane - and disembark in their home country, they have no one to help them find a home, continue their education, make sure they're fed, safe, loved...

Except for us.

I've made it my mission to make sure these kids have a place to live and the chance to grow into the wonderful, self-supporting adults I know they will be.

This is a truly grassroots effort. We've found a rental house in Liberia - which is now safe after years of war. We have a wonderful local woman to help raise them, acting as "house mother."  We also need money for food, school fees, and other living expenses.

I know the economy is crazy and everyone is scared. But I also know that those young people are without a net and while we are suffering here, it's compounded enormously over there.