Ten Days…To change a life. To change your life. To change the world.
Help me change the lives of children who have known nothing but deprivation and hopelessness. Help me make a difference. I will do the heavy lifting. Please do the "lighter" lifting by digging deep in your pockets. Every dollar helps but every $100 or $500 helps even more. Help me by spreading the words to your families and friends.
From October 23 to November 3, 2008, we’ll be returning to Robertsport, Liberia in West Africa with a group of volunteers to continue working on the Strongheart House project. This is part of a program called "Ten Days," which is a hands-on, grassroots opportunity for ordinary people to be involved in extraordinary projects throughout the developing world.
Our mission is to renovate a formerly-beautiful home that was destroyed by war and turn it into a place of healing, learning and excellence for refugee children returning to their home country. Some of these kids have never been in Liberia, having grown up in a refugee camp in Ghana. We'll truly be giving them a "home coming."
This home will be called STRONGHEART HOUSE, inspired by the quote:
"The world breaks us all and after, some are stronger in the broken places." Ernest Hemingway
Strongheart House will be a home for exceptional young people from extremely challenging life circumstances. The kids chosen to live in Strongheart House are called “Strongheart Fellows.” These Fellows, orphaned or displaced by conflict, have incredible levels of innate intelligence and inner resilience. While at Strongheart House, they'll be taught an intensive leadership and social entrepreneurship curriculum, emphasizing innovative ways of combining social good and business. They will learn to "do well by doing good." And in turn, they’ll strengthen their community.
We took our first group of volunteers to Liberia this past May and began renovations on the house. It was an incredible success! We're now focusing on our next trip in October, when we'll continue to clean, paint, install furniture, decorate, and fill the house with love. The 13 bedroom 6 bath house was once a grand beach house before the Liberian war. Though there's peace in the country now, many of the homes (including this one) were looted down to the roof tiles and wiring in the walls.
The money that we raise is being used to replace the roof, fix the water well & septic system, buy paint, plaster and other things needed to get the house ready for these kids. We'll actually be staying in the house while we're working on it, without running water or electricity, to ensure that every possibly dollar will be spent on making a beautiful home and learning space for the kids.
This is a "full circle" experience for me. Since 2004 I have prepared for or worked with many, many people in the refugee camps in Ghana and Sierra Leone - almost all of them from Liberia, displaced by war. I have communicated with and supported many individuals and families and started micro-enterprise projects but the StrongHeart fellowship takes it to the next level. This will be a joy for me to see many of the young people who struggled every day now live a great life learning to help others.
Thank you for anything you can give!
To learn more about Strongheart, please visit: www.strongheartfellowship.org
For info about future volunteer trips, please visit: http://strongheartfellowship.org/tendays.php
or email: tinabeck@strongheartfellowship.org