Hope For The Nations

I was recently introduced to a picture of despair, depression, and hopelessness.

Painted in the late 1800’s, ‘HOPE’ is a portrait of a lady in deep depression. The painting is void of color and the woman’s posture reflects hopelessness. Sitting on a tarnished globe, hunched over, blindfolded, and leaning against the broken strings of her harp . . . surely the artist has missed the point. The colors, the posture, and the absence of any help on the horizon completely signal a life that is doomed and beyond help.

Yet, look again!

Upon close observation of the harp, we see there is one string still intact. Our subject is plucking the only string left and is intently listening to its welcoming sound. The sound of one string strummed with the strength of a dying breath ushers ‘hope’ into the gloom.

Look closer!

No, look again. Let your eyes move to a pinpoint of light located straight above her shoulder and up to the very edge of the canvas. Lo and behold, a ‘star’. A glimmer of hope breaks into the darkness only waiting for its illumination and warmth to break forth. The star shows that ‘hope’ will attract the help that is on the way.

I have just returned from Liberia where, twenty years ago, HOPE FOR THE NATIONS entered a post-war nation of despair, depression, and hopelessness. A few of us crossed a small river from Ivory Coast into Liberia in a dugout canoe and planted the flag of HOPE in Ganta, Nimby County. After 8 years of rebel insurgency, the nation was left in ruins and poverty. Children had not been in classrooms for 8 years, the economy was in shreds and yet, there remained one string left on the harp!

We bought some acreage, planted a flag and called it HOPE VILLAGE. In short time, UN trucks loaded with refugees from Guinea and Ivory Coast, told their drivers to stop as they were going to disembark. In the next few years, thousands of refugees settled around our ‘flag pole’. When asked why they alighted in a region far from their own communities, they said: “We believed in ‘hope’. We knew that wherever there is ‘hope’, there follows education, development, and a bright future”.

Today HOPE VILLAGE runs HOPE ACADEMY, HOPE FARM, HOPE MALNUTRITION CENTER and 33 HOPE Homes. Around us has grown a community of thousands of individuals whose lives have been transformed from despair to relative prosperity through ‘HOPE’.

A story of Children at Risk becoming Children of Change - Meet Alice . . .

"Alice was brought to our Children’s Recovery Center in Ganta, Liberia on November 3, 2017, from a neighbouring village. She was severely Malnourished and unable to eat because her jaw was locked. Her life was in danger. Romeo is a young man that graduated from our own Hope Academy High school a few years ago. He entered university to become a Physicians Assistant. Hope for the Nations was able to assist Romeo with his tuition fees during his last 2 years.

After graduating, and with his degree he returned to Ganta. Out of appreciation for all we had done for him he offered to volunteer at our base for 8 months. He has been huge help to our staff in assessing the medical needs for the malnourished and sick children that are brought to us.

When Romeo saw Alice he was very intrigued by her problem. His education helped him recognize that Alice had an abscess tooth that had ruptured causing tremendous pain. This also caused her jaw to become rigid. Romeo and our staff got Alice to the JFK hospital in Monrovia, informed the doctors there of the problem. She was operated on immediately.

When we saw her in January she was looking so healthy and well on her way to a full recovery."

A Story from Hope For The Nations Children's Recovery Center, Liberia:

"When Angel was 1 year old, she and her mother were abandoned by her father, who left for another woman. Her mother was desperate to make ends meet, so she left Angel with her grandmother most of the time and went from village to village to try and sell products to make money. Her grandmother and mother were very ignorant of the nutritious food they needed to give Angel. One of our staff discovered Angel when they were visiting her village and told her grandmother to get her to our center in Ganta. When Angel arrived at Hope For The Nations Children's Recovery Center, she was swollen at the point of her body opening into sores. Angel survived because of the care and food given her at the center. Today Angel is a happy and healthy girl getting ready for school in September."

This is a great example of the work being done in Liberia to help nurture children at risk through healthcare, education, and feeding programs.

* by Bonnie Allen and Clara K. Mallah* (monrovia)
* Wednesday, September 22, 2010
* Inter Press Service

Mercy Freeman sits on a small hospital cot in one of Liberia’s emergency hospitals, looking down at her frail son, whose dark eye sockets have sunk into his bony face.

'He just started getting thin and thin[ner]. I do not know what is happening, that is why I brought him to the hospital,' the 18-year-old single mother says, worried and confused...

Teenage Mothers

In north central Liberia, amidst small rice fields and cassava crops, Ruth Zansi, the manager of a feeding programme for 900 children at the Hope for the Nations Children Recovery Centre in Ganta, agrees that lack of parenting skills and education are often to blame for malnutrition. But that’s not necessarily the mothers’ fault. [Read more]

Tunudin is a town of almost of 2700 people in which there are two schools: one junior high school and an elementary school. With its growing population, the only sources of drinking water in Tunudin are creeks and makeshift wells. All the town’s five hand pumps were constructed before the civil war and are dysfunctional and have not been used in over a decade.

Students and other community members have to travel to creeks and swampy wells in most instances to fetch water for drinking and other daily activities. This is especially dangerous since members of the town also wash their clothes, and sometimes defecate, in the same creek but at different points.

Just over two years ago, a cholera outbreak in the town left five people dead. It would have been worse had it not been for the an intervention from an international relief group working in the county. Following the outbreak, the community organized to construct a hand pump, but they could not raise the money for the pump. The structure remains for a makeshift well.

By bringing safe water to the community through the construction of at least two Hand Pumps in Tunudin, more than 2,700 people in the village will gain access to safe water. This will significantly improve the population's health and safety. It is intended that one of the hand pumps will be constructed in the center of the town with the other on the bigger school campus (the government school) for easy access.

Funding Required: An average hand pump in Liberia costs about US$3,000 to construct including installation, transportation and materials. It will require US$6,000 to construct two hand pumps in Tunudin plus additional US$500 to train two deserving Tunudin residents appointed by the Town Chief in the proper management and repair of the pumps to ensure that the pumps are sustained.

Please JOIN PHILIP PLEIWON in Liberia, raising awareness and the funds to construct and install hand pumps in Tunudin, so that we can bring safe drinking water to many!
 

Yar’s mother became extremely ill after going through female circumcision. Yar was a very small

baby and had to be weaned due to her mother’s grave illness. Yar’s grandmother did not know what to feed such a young baby, so Yar became very malnourished. In desperation the grandmother consulted with a sorcerer to determine her future. After 5 months Yar’s mother emerged from the ritual after recovering from infection and was reunited with her dying child. Obviously distraught and searching for help, she came across a woman whose child had been cared for and healed at the Children’s Recovery Centre at the Hope Village. She raced to the Centre, and received help. After 4 months of treatment and nutritious food, Yar is a happy, healthy little girl.
 

The work in Liberia continues to grow and many children's lives are continually being changed for the better. This past year we have had over 60 severely malnourished children come to our center to stay with us until they are healthy. Some of these children are orphaned and some are HIV positive. In both cases we are able to find a Hope home to help raise them. We now have 163 children that we care for and help raise in our Hope foster homes. This includes food, education, clothing and healthcare. I am amazed that as more children are brought to us we continue to have the funding and space to care for them. Thank you for your help! There are children alive today that would have died otherwise.

One challenge is that a local hospital that has been run by an NGO has been handed over to the government. This hospital had been a tremendous asset in offering medical care for some of the malnourished children. This change in management has placed a significant burden on our staff as more children are being brought directly to us. Please pray that we have the ability to help every child.

We continue to offer feeding programs in many villages and training for the parents. Hundreds of children benefit from this. We continue to strive to eliminate malnourishment in Nimba County.

Hope Academy has 680 students this year and continues to improve on its education. Liberia has now been 6 years without war and we are hoping to see a whole generation grow up educated and motivated by a good and positive future.

Please continue to pray for all our Liberian staff. Ruth, Rachel, Yar, MaryAnn, Lakaryee, Daniel and Angeline all are amazing people who have a huge heart for children.

Please pray for our Hope children growing into young adults and moving on in life. We desire the best for them as they show the leadership that we have always hoped for.
Thank you again for your care and help, Ken
 

The work in Liberia continues to grow and many children's lives are continually being changed for the better. This past year we have had over 60 severely malnourished children come to our center to stay with us until they are healthy. Some of these children are orphaned and some are HIV positive. In both cases we are able to find a Hope home to help raise them. We now have 163 children that we care for and help raise in our Hope foster homes. This includes food, education, clothing and healthcare. I am amazed that as more children are brought to us we continue to have the funding and space to care for them. Thank you for your help! There are children alive today that would have died otherwise.

One challenge is that a local hospital that has been run by an NGO has been handed over to the government. This hospital had been a tremendous asset in offering medical care for some of the malnourished children. This change in management has placed a significant burden on our staff as more children are being brought directly to us. Please pray that we have the ability to help every child.

We continue to offer feeding programs in many villages and training for the parents. Hundreds of children benefit from this. We continue to strive to eliminate malnourishment in Nimba County.

Hope Academy has 680 students this year and continues to improve on its education. Liberia has now been 6 years without war and we are hoping to see a whole generation grow up educated and motivated by a good and positive future.

Please continue to pray for all our Liberian staff. Ruth, Rachel, Yar, MaryAnn, Lakaryee, Daniel and Angeline all are amazing people who have a huge heart for children.

Please pray for our Hope children growing into young adults and moving on in life. We desire the best for them as they show the leadership that we have always hoped for.
Thank you again for your care and help, Ken