2025 Trip to Liberia Travel Log – Day 3
We started our Monday morning with a visit to JFK Hospital. You are right - the initials are the same JFK that many of us remember, President John F. Kennedy. JFK Hospital was funded largely by USAID, was opened in 1971 and was initially administered by the Peace Corps.
But not to worry, we were not seeking medical treatment!
I have been involved with a project related to ear and haring care in Liberia for the past 3 years. Many of you might be familiar with Starkey, located in Eden Prairie, as one of the largest hearing aid companies in the world. The Starkey Company started the Starkey Hearing Institute (SHI) in 2015 in Zambia (Africa) with the mandate to provide specialized training in Ear and Hearing Care. There is a dearth of trained medical people in Africa. For example, there is only 1 ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) specialist in the the entire country of Liberia, which has a population similar to Minnesota. Starkey has provided scholarships to 10 nurses from different hospitals in Liberia over the past 3 years. Each year a group of donors (some of which you know) has provided laptop computers and have covered part of the other costs of attending SHI. One of those nurses, Magdalene works at JFK Hospital and we went to visit her. She has been involved with more than a dozen community clinics across the country and also provides ear and hearing care at JFK. About 2 years ago, I handed Magdalene a laptop computer as part of a send-off ceremony as she left to attend the specialized training. Today I saw the incredible impact that training has had on her and the many patients she has served.
We had the opportunity to travel to Careysberg to visit My Brother's Keeper Orphanage. Pastor Ralph Galego and his wife Etta, along with their small staff, care for about 200 orphans. These children gave us such a warm welcome including performing several songs for us. They are so well behaved and polite. Ralph is a very energetic leader and preacher/teacher. We got a small taste of his energy during our welcome!
The orphanage receives Feed My Starving Children meals through the mission partner International Children's Fund (ICF). For you FMSC fans, you know that the box was packed at the first shift on October 11, 2024, but where in the world is that site???? First one to respond with the correct answer wins a prize!
Our Hope is to raise funds to help My Brother's Keeper complete the construction of their Activity Center. This Activity Center will include a basketball court and space for other recreational activities for the children. They will also use this space as an event center that can be rented out to the surrounding community for weddings and other gatherings. Etta will also provide catering services for these events. The goal is the Activity Center will generate revenue to help fund the operational costs of the orphanage.
We visited the Liberian Learning Center, located about 10 minutes from our hotel. This is a $2 million state of the art library and learning center built to serve the community. The champions of the project are Leo Johnson and Ama Harris, two dedicated Rotary Members. Leo settled in Canada as an unaccompanied youth refugee from Liberia in 2006. He has done well financially and is giving back to his home country of Liberia, as well as his adopted country, Canada.
Ama is a member of the Rotary Club of Monrovia. She has worked on everything from site selection at the beginning of the project to book selection now that construction is complete. The center has been open for only 2 weeks!
It was inspirational to talk with Ama and others at the newly opened center.
We returned to the hotel and finished assembling the 400 small gift bags for the students (yes, that was a bit of a slog ;-) . We saw a lot of poverty and needs today. We talked to a lot of people that are working long and working hard and working together to meet those needs. We saw a lot of hope in people with means and those without means. As Pastor Sylvester sometimes reminds me,
"Persistence beats Resistance"