Liberian Humanitarian Projects

Our passion and commitment before God to improve the lives of the children we serve is the driving force behind all that we do. The dedication from our board of directors, staff, volunteers, donors, and countless other supporters is what allows Acres of Hope Liberia to make a positive difference in the lives of needy children. With the implementation of our Humanitarian Expeditions, on each expedition a project from below will be focused on, such as health and sanitation, education, medical outreach, construction, sustainable agriculture and orphan outreach.

Project ABC

In the rural areas of Liberia, there was no formal education for more than 16 years during the civil wars. Acres of Hope Liberia has been involved in training teachers and helping to provide schooling for children, who otherwise would never learn to read or write .

Several years ago, AOHL established a school project in Nimba County upcountry. At the time, we had secured a source of donated food to supply school lunches. Unfortunately, the shipments of food dried up. However, the school project continues to educate local children. As was our goal, we transitioned the leadership of the program from AOHL staff to local leadership.

Additionally, we were able to go on feeding people (pregnant mothers, children who had swallowed caustic soda solutions, and those affected by HIV/AIDS, for example) on a smaller scale. Meanwhile, the larger feeding program was put on hold while we regrouped and developed new strategies and sources. Several containers of food have been recieved throughout the past several years. We hope to be full-scale again in 2009. It is our firm belief that feeding children physically helps them to be fed intellectually.

Project GROW

Acres of Hope will continue our efforts in providing relief to the Liberian people, but we are excited to be directing much of our efforts into empowering the people through the development of sustainable community projects. Project Grow (originally the name of the feeding project) has now been transitioned to include agricultural programs. We are grateful to those who have sent seeds to get this new development started. They are being distributed and are bringing hope to many people. This is an on-going project and seeds are always needed. We have farming projects in Bonga and Margibi.

Acres of Hope Liberia has been given a land grant of 100 acres located between Monrovia and the Roberts International Airport . This will be the site of the new Sustainable Agriculture Training Center (SAT Center). Dave, Val, and Justin Reto are preparing to travel as missionaries to Liberia with Acres of Hope to oversee this exciting new project. Dave has a degree in Biology and the Reto's have been training in aquaponics, aquaculture, and sustainable agriculture in preparation to aid development in Liberia.

AOH is establishing the SAT Center to demonstrate and teach sustainable production methods for fresh healthy fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, livestock, and other food sources using systems integrated with aquaponics.

Rock Hill Project

Acres of Hope Liberia is heavily invested in the community of Rock Hill to improve the quality of life for the children of the area. Rock Hill is a neighborhood of 30,000 people within the capital city of Monrovia. The main source of income for the people who live here is selling gravel for, at best, around 40 cents a day. This gravel is crushed by the raw strength of men, women, and children who pound the rock into various sizes of stones, usually with tools they've made from discarded items.

EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF STONE IN THE PICTURE ABOVE HAS BEEN POUNDED BY HAND.

Until recently, there was only one water source for the whole community of 30,000 - a dangerous and unclean water hole. Although we tend to take water for granted, according to UNICEF, "Clean water and sanitation would save the lives of countless children, support progress in education and liberate people from the illnesses that keep them in poverty." They go on to say, "Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, kills and sickens thousands of children every day, and leads to impoverishment and diminished opportunities for thousands more." In fact, every 15 seconds a child dies of thirst or water related disease. That's four or five in the time you've been reading the Rock Hill Community section of this page. Another six or seven children will die from the lack of clean water in the time it takes you to finish reading this section . Six thousand children every day.

In addition, we've also been developing the following project--Acres of Hope Rock Hill Community Primary Elementary School, in Rock Hill Community, Paynesville.

Project CARE

Project Care includes an upcountry clinic we started and supplied as well as the AIDS Awareness Program we are affiliated with (through the National AIDS Control Program). In 2005, AOHL started this clinic in Kpablee (say "Bopley"), with the goal of turning it over to local leadership. We are pleased that this project has thrived and grown. The community is now building a full-scale hospital. We are so pleased to have planted this seed and enjoy watching it grow.

Furthermore, we are working hard to address the problem of caustic soda ingestion. Innumerable children mistake odorless, colorless lye solution for water. When they drink it, it chemically burns their mouths and throats, leaving terrible scarring. The scar tissue mounts and closes off their throats. Many of these children die of dehydration and strarvation.

AOHL works not only for the adoption of these children whose only hope may be adoption to a modern country, but also to activate medical professionals in Liberia to develop better treatment methods. In addition, we are working on a prevention program to make the lye solution less accessible to the children, as well as to label it.