THE NEED TO READ
Mary Dolo is in Third Grade and lives in Yekepa, Liberia. Mary has no books to read at home. There is no library at her school. Neither she nor her teacher has textbooks for any of the subjects taught at school. Her teacher in this private school is paid $20 a month. A government teacher receives $80 a month. The teacher writes the lesson on a chalkboard and Mary copies it in a “copy book”. Some children sit on the floor as they copy their lessons. There is no electricity in the school. It is hard to see as children write in their copy books. There are no glass panes in the windows. During rainy season some children get very cold as they sit in their classes. School is in session from 8 am to 12 noon. After school Mary returns home to take care of her baby sister, draw water from the well, find firewood for cooking and wash clothes. She has very little time to study. If there is kerosene for the lantern she will review her notes in her copy book at night. To have a book to read and to take that book home to read – is only a dream.

Parents can not find children’s books in Liberia. If they could most would not be able to afford to buy them. If parents were able to buy the books their children would not be able to read them. The 14 year war created many refugees and displaced people stripping them not only of their physical possessions but of their ducation. Now that the civil war is over we are now facing a new challenge: a society with a literacy rate of 28% trying to bring herself up to global standards.

To begin tackling the problem of these very low educational standards a reading club for children in the community along with a phonics program has been established. Loving through Literacy brought teachers from the states to train local teachers in how to teach phonics in the classroom. University students at a local Christian university are being required to take a phonetics class in order to upgrade their reading skills so they can teach and tutor children how to read. Another step we are about to take is to establish a community library for children.

Mary’s dream (and the dream of many other children in Liberia) is about to be realized with the establishment of the Yekepa Children’s Community Library in Liberia. A facility, looted and stripped bare during the war, has been provided by the local iron ore mining company Arcelor Mittal. All we have to do, with your help, is to restore the building. Children all over the United States have already donated over 5,000 books for the library with more on their way.

Our goal is to give every child in Yekepa the opportunity to read so as to open up their world. They will read for the first time stories of places in other parts of the world. They will read for the first time in their lives the tories of heroes, adventures and poetry. Reading can provide a way out of poverty, condition minds scarred by war, and give them hope.


The Future Yekepa Children's Library

We can help Mary Dolo (and many others like her) realize her dream of a children’s library. Loving through iteracy is spearheading the restoration of the facility. We can all have a part in taking hope across the globe to the children of Liberia by giving a donation towards their NEED to READ.

Thank you for reaching out to the many Mary Dolo’s in Liberia and may you be richly blessed as you bless the children of Liberia.