Liberia: Delivering School Supplies to Rogma International

Uniting Distant Stars supporters and volunteers continued to give children and youth in Liberia a reason to be happy with our 2015 school supply campaign. On September 13, Rogma International School in Paynesville, a suburb of Monrovia, held their back-to-school program. This was the second of series of three programs that started with City of Joy School on September 6 and ended with Russ Wood Christian Academy on October 11.

Rogma's location required UDS to transport our team in three vehicles, because it was too far to walk and it was raining heavily. Our Liberian Co-Founder and Country Director, Kelvin Fomba, enlisted two volunteers to carry 24 UDS team members and 6 invited guests to the program.

Rogma International Staff and UDS Leaders.

Kelvin and Daniel Lloyd, UDS volunteer, delivered a huge surprise to our staff and youth group by having shirts made for the group that they paid for. UDS was making their debut in Paynesville and wanted to make our presence known as an organization serving children and youth in Liberia. The photos below show our team proudly wearing their beautiful shirts.

UDS volunteers and youth group standing outside Rogma's school

UDS Youth Group displaying the back of their shirts.

Another highlight came from Rogma's community when they organized a cookout, which UDS contributed $40 towards food. Each child received a bowl of Jellof (aka Jollof) Rice, a popular dish in Liberia and other West African nations. This recipe will be included in our Recipes for Learning Cookbook currently in development by our dedicated project team.

Rogma Students eating their Jellof Rice. Each student was served a bowl by volunteers.

Kelvin standing in the middle talking with children as they eat their Jellof Rice.

After eating their delicious meal, it was time to distribute supplies. Students were called up individually to receive their packet of school items. Kelvin and Moses Lahai, UDS volunteer, handed out gift packages to Rogma's aspiring students from our Star Supporters generous donations. As shown in the four photos below, this day uplifted the hopes of children attending Rogma International School.

The program provided entertainment form children and youth. Our youth group created a play called "The Greedy Man" and it was performed by three of its members. The performance is filmed in three short video clips with our youth speaking Liberian English, which a brief summary is provided for each scene.

Scene 1: A teenage boy invites an older man to share his food. However, this older man, who happens to bring his own spoon, eats all the food without any concern for the boy. This clip features the man drinking from a mineral water from a bag. This is the plastic we use for our Backpacks for Peace project.

Scene 2:The boy's sister, who prepared his food, instructs him to not let this greedy man eat all his food again.

Scene 3:When the teenager sees the greedy man approaching him, he quickly takes appropriate action to prevent him from eating his food.

The moral of this story was to teach young people how to share and be good to each other. This was UDS Youth Group first performance and it had Rogma's children laughing throughout. Our youth decided to use performing arts to address social concerns facing youth in Liberia.

The program ended with UDS giving Rogma some reading textbooks, kick balls and other supplies. The reading textbooks were donated in 2012 from a supporter, who is a teacher at St.Vincent de Paul School in Minnesota. We shipped nine boxes with our annual supply drives in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Our original plan was to send all the books in one shipment, but paying $75 per box prevented us from fulfilling this goal. We definitely need help shipping the 19 remaining boxes to get these books in Liberian children's hands. Please read our Learning Center post to learn how to help.

Kelvin sharing to Rogma's community about the other supplies being donated to their school.

Our wonderful supporters made this program a huge success. Both parents and school staff were praising our generous donors for supporting their children's educational needs. Please view additional photos in our Facebook album.

Rogma Students holding their gift packages of school supplies.

Uniting Distant Stars Teams in Liberia and the U.S. offer our heartfelt Thanks and Appreciation for helping the children and youth we serve!

Photos and videos taken by Rodney John, UDS Volunteer

Liberia: Delivering School Supplies to City of Joy

Our generous Star Supporters helped spread joy to not one, but three schools with our 2015 school supply drive. This year we changed our campaign from collecting and shipping supplies from the U.S to purchasing them in Liberia as means to support their struggling economy. Our cups overflowed with joy on August 6, when of our lost 2014 shipment finally arrived. This miraculous moment increased our outreach by 200%. During September and October, UDS volunteers and youth group attended three back-to-school programs at City of Joy, Rogma International and Russ Wood Christian Academy to deliver supplies to their respective students.

On Sunday, September 6, City of Joy School in Congo Town held their school opening program. Pastor Nathaniel J. Gray founded this small primary school, which shares the same building as his church, to serve young children in his community. Pastor Gray partnered with Hossana Children Foundation, founded by Godfrey Solomon and Bernice Nyuma. These two young men and woman work together to improve the lives of children in their community. Both organizations are fairly new and working without an office or any sizable budget.

The morning of the program, UDS volunteers were busy sorting, organizing and placing the supplies into individual packages for each student. They also prepared popcorn for each student to receive with their package.

Left to Right: UDS Volunteers--Mohammad Sesay (gray shirt), Princess Fomba, Fayiah Nyuma (striped shirt), and Moses Lahai (not pictured) carefully prepare each school supply package for City of Joy.

UDS Liberian Co-Founder and Country Director, Kelvin Fomba, was invited as the guest speaker for this program. The event attendees included school staff and teachers, parents and guardians, students and members of the community. Kelvin opened his talk about UDS programs serving children and youth. He then invited students to visit our newly opened Learning Center to help with their homework. He ended his talk with a call-to-action to support City of Joy. The response was tremendous! Up to seven scholarships were given along with other financial and in-kind donations. It was nice to know how UDS supporters stimulated this community's desire to do more to serve young students attending grades pre-school to sixth.

Standing from left to right: Pastor Nathanial J Gray (City of Joy), Kelvin Fomba (UDS), Godfrey Solomon and Bernice Nyuma (Hossana), Daniel Lloyd (UDS volunteer and Russ Wood Vice Principal), and Moses Lahai (UDS volunteer)

Later in the program Kelvin and Moses Lahai presented each student with their gift packet of supplies and a bag of popcorn. They were assisted by Bernice Nyuma (Hossana) and our newly formed UDS Youth Group. The next four photos show students receiving their wonderful gifts made possible by our Star Supporters.

This program also showcased some talented young people. Our youth group organized and performed a popular song that lifted people out of their seats to dance. City of Joy students performed skits, sang songs and danced in celebration of their joyous day!

UDS Youth Group beautifully singing a popular song.

City of Joy students joyfully sing to their adorning audience.

All the photos from this day show how our supporters' generosity and kindness put smiles on the faces of City of Joy students knowing their education matters.

Please visit UDS Facebook album to see more photos of City of Joy's program.

Our next two recipients of our 2015 school supply drive campaign are Rogma International School on September 13 and Russ Wood Christian Academy on October 11. UDS started supporting Russ Wood in 2012 and were eager for the students to receive their supplies in our youth-made backpacks. These backpacks were part of project piloted in 2014 during the height of the Ebola crisis.

The continued support, encouragement and concern for our youth in Liberia from our generous community is forever appreciated. Our work is made possible, because of your support. All of UDS is extremely grateful for that!

Photos and videos taken by Rodney John, UDS Volunteer

Meet UDS Auto Mechanic and Driver's Ed Graduates

Uniting Distant Stars promotes a blend of education and innovation with our programs. At the height of the Ebola crisis in 2014, UDS piloted two initiatives from September to December 2014. Both programs were in response to our youth seeking to obtain skills while schools were closed. The first program is our backpacks project where ambitious youth were trained how to transform recycled material into durable goods. The other is our lesser known vocational training program focused on auto mechanics, auto electrician and driver's education.

Kelvin Fomba

UDS Country Director and Co-founder Kelvin S. Fomba spearheaded this program, because he is a seasoned automotive technician and commercial driver working with both light and heavy duty machinery and vehicles. Throughout his career he has taught young apprentices in the field or students in the classroom as an instructor at vocational training institutes.

He quickly heeded the call of 14 young men and started their training with no money since it was not included in the UDS budget. Kelvin used his owns tools and vehicles he inherited from friends who moved to the states or were beyond repair. Kelvin and his students raised about $450 from contracted jobs to service vehicles or generators. This was used to purchase parts and supplies like engine oil, rent welding equipment or pay services of other professionals. Kelvin enlisted some of his fellow technicians to volunteer their expertise when needed.

The student's first assignment required dropping an engine from a Toyota Camry (Japanese made) with a fuel injection system and standard transmission into the chassis of a Toyota Tercel (U.S. made) that had fuel injectors and automatic transmission. Basically this was putting a square peg into a round hole, because it required several conversions to make it work such as replacing the failed fuel injectors with a carburetor. This is where students learned how to create and weld both an intake and exhaust manifolds, and engine seats to securely place this heavy chunk of metal into the Tercel's chassis. Our students triumphed with their assignment and now had an operable vehicle for teaching driver's ed.

UDS Students working on an engine while interested youth observe the process.

The results of this effort were impressive. Out of 14 students trained in one or two of three trades--auto mechanics, auto electrician, and driving, are presently independently working for themselves and supporting their families. The others decided to stay with UDS for continued training. Although they are qualified to start their career, they opted to receive advanced training to land better paying jobs.

Below are photos and stories of some of the UDS graduates from auto mechanic, auto electrician and driver's education programs.

Amara Kamara at the back and Abrahim Kamara at the front during their practical test to overhaul the Honda Passport engine, which they successfully passed.

UDS sponsored both young men in 2013 for six-month auto mechanic training program at Humanity First Ahmadiyya Vocational College. Kelvin was instructing this course at that time. When Liberia shut schools and markets during Ebola's onslaught in 2014, Amara and Abrahim sought out Kelvin to provide advance training to hone their skills. This additional training paid off, because both are working for themselves today.

On the left is Ismael Boakai. He is a high school graduate and also was sponsored by UDS to attend Humanity First auto mechanic program in 2013.

In 2014, he took both UDS auto mechanic and driver's training. Ishmael is very patient and obedient student and this led to him receiving his professional driver's license for exceeding the requirements. He decided to continue his training to advance his skills as an auto mechanic while waiting to enroll in college if he can get the support to attend.

On right in the same photo above is Lamin Massalay, a graduate and beneficiary of UDS auto mechanic trainingGrand Cape Mount County about 90 minutes from our site and stayed with Kelvin to complete his training. He's passionate about this work and took his time learning all aspects of this trade. He is now working and supporting himself.

On the right is Mohamed Koromah during his practical test to assemble a Toyota four cylinder engine. He graduated in auto mechanics and driving, and received his professional driver’s license.

He lives in Duala, another suburb of Monrovia. He heard about Kelvin from his older brother when he asked how he could take his training to another level. He worked hard throughout his training and now supports himself as an auto mechanic.

Emmanuel Zayazy and James Kolli in the truck doing their practical test while Kelvin supervises. Emmanuel and James both trained as auto mechanics and drivers. They received their driver's licenses and now working for themselves.

Mohamed Sesay, at the rear right, is receiving training as an auto mechanic and auto electrician. This determined young man graduated from both programs and started his own garage.

This is Abrahim Massaquoi, a high school dropout, working hard on a Chevy truck. He shared his unfortunate story about how he had no financial support to continue his education after 10th grade, but had a strong desire to learn and acquire skills. After being introduced to UDS, he jumped in and started as a trainee with the backpacks and auto mechanic programs. He appeared in our backpack video and shared why he was seeking this training.

From his steadfast dedication to learning both trades, Abrahim received a scholarship to return to school as a 11th grader in February 2015. He is now a high school senior and will be graduating next year (2016).

Kelvin continues to train UDS students and provides practical experience for his students at a vocational training center where he teaches part-time. Most of his students are male, but has one female student who is a rising star as an auto mechanic.

UDS plans to start a vocational training institute in the future that teaches both perfect and imperfect world application of various trades. Our programs have shown youth how to be innovative in transforming unlikely resources into workable vehicles or usable products like our backpacks. Both projects established their core curriculum and learning objectives in 2014. Our next step is to scale our programs by locating a suitable space and searching for potential funders.

While Ebola devastated Liberia, it did not deter its young people from gaining knowledge and experience to improve their lives. UDS heard their pleas in 2014 and provided vocational training they needed to become self-sufficient.

Books on Shelves Advances Learning of Children

There are many things we are grateful for as we reflect on what we accomplished in 2015. There is no doubt our success is your success, because we are UNITED together to support young STARS in Liberia. We are extremely thankful for the additional $110 donated on Giving Tuesday to upgrade our learning center. We currently have raised $250 or 10% towards our goal of providing quality after school programming to future educators, entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders in Liberia. Your investment in the UDS Learning Center yields a lasting return for the children and youth we serve.

UDS Learning Center Library in Liberia.

Today I read this New York Times article "Our (Bare) Shelves, Our Selves" from December 5 that supports our initiative. It highlights how a physical book is essential to advancing a child's learning development as cited below.

After G.N.P., the quantity of books in one’s home was the most important predictor of reading performance. The greatest effect was seen in libraries of about 100 books, which resulted in approximately 1.5 extra years of grade-level reading performance. (Diminishing returns kick in at about 500 books, which is the equivalent of about 2.2 extra years of education.)

Libraries matter even more than money; in the United States, with the size of libraries being equal, students coming from the top 10 percent of wealthiest families performed at just one extra grade level over students from the poorest 10 percent.

Books donated and shipped from Minnesota in 2014 that are now on library shelves in Liberia.

Most children in Liberia grow up without books in their homes or libraries in their communities. Uniting Distant Stars Learning Center is filling this critical void in the community we serve. We currently have about 100 books on our shelves varying in topics from math to science, and cultural literature to young readers series. Our youth compiled a list of books required in their classes, but not available in their schools or affordable to their parents.  Also, they asked for other materials such as chairs, tables, computers, etc. to improve their overall learning experience.

Liberian student working on his homework on the porch of UDS Learning Center

A $10 minimal investment towards a child's education can make all the difference in their academic achievements and career aspirations. Please help us meet our goal of $2,500 to fulfill our youth's wishes during this season of giving by clicking DONATE for debit/credit cards or contributing by check to Uniting Distant Stars and mail at:

Uniting Distant Stars
4010 Lawndale LN N
Plymouth, MN 55446

Sincerest gratitude and appreciation for your continued generosity, kindness, and prayers for our youth in Liberia!

Uniting Distant Stars Gives You Thanks!

Dear Star Supporter: Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. and we want to extend our heartfelt Thanks to you! Your generous support put smiles on countless Liberian children and youth through our Backpacks for Peace training, Nobel Peace Prize Youth Forum Google Hangout, school supply distribution, learning center opening and so much more. Our Liberian volunteers, youth group, and all students are extremely grateful for your prayers and concerns for their safety and well-being with having to endure Ebola. Your love and kindness gives them hope and joy to continue to move forward with their goals.

We appreciate you more than all the stars in the universe!

Peace and blessings from Uniting Distant Stars

Press Release: Announcing 2 New Board Members

Minnesota, November 23, 2015: Uniting Distant Stars is happy to announce our new board members Philip Kaleewoun II and Florkime Paye, who were officially installed on October 25. Philip is new to UDS while Florkime has served as our volunteer project coordinator since 2014. Philip is a very active youth leader in Minnesota with organizations like Volunteers in Partnership, Rotaract, and Athletics Committed to Educating Students (ACES). Florkime is an international development professional, volunteering with Minnesota International NGO Network, interned in Liberia with Women’s Movement for Sustainable Development, and taught English in South Korea. Both Philip and Florkime bring a wealth of experience to UDS and we are fortunate to have them on board. Please read more about our new board members on our About UDS and Team.

Congratulations Philip and Florkime!!!

Uniting Distant Stars™, Inc. is a 501(c)3 tax deductible organization registered non-profit corporation in Minnesota, and accredited and registered no-government organization (NGO) in Liberia, West Africa. Its programs serve youth in Liberia. We provide educational support with scholarships and school supply drives. We also offer innovative programming such as our Backpacks for Peace to cultivate future leaders. For more information, please contact us at info@unitingdistantstars.com.

Enjoy a Tour of the UDS Learning Center in Liberia

What an exciting week! Thursday, October 15, our little learning center was visited and utilized by 35 students of all ages representing different schools in the community. Students either participated in one of the study classes covering subjects like math and phonics or completed their daily homework assignments. This post will give you a tour of our learning center that started with a few donated library books and microscope. Please enjoy a cup of coffee or tea as we warm your heart with these captivating photos of Liberia's studious young boys, girls, men and women taking full advantage of our facility. These beautiful photos were taken by our fabulous volunteer Rodney Johnson.

Welcome to the Uniting Distant Stars Learning Center Pictorial Tour!

We will start our tour on the porch where we hold our Backpacks for Peace training. Here you will find one young boy focused intently on his homework while a few students behind him attend a study class run by one of our youth leaders.

Now as you enter through the front door, you will find students sitting on a sofa along the left side of the room doing their homework.

This view is along the same wall, but looking towards the front door. Each student finds their particular space to work on homework. There is a constant flow of young people coming to the center after school. If you look toward the front door, you will find another study group run by a second youth leader.

Here is one happy little boy enjoying the books he selected from the library. Behind him is another view of the study class by the front door with students of varying ages.

Let's stop and say Hi to Rodney, who was busy posting these photos on his Facebook page. He is our IT guy, who has fixed one of three desktop computers donated early this year by Agnes Fallah Kamara, founder of the Straight From the Heart Center. We hope he can get the other two working, so he can start teaching the highly demanded basic computing skills class in our center.

Kelvin Fomba, UDS Co-Founder and Country Director, is helping these four young boys with their homework. Kelvin wears many hats with UDS from training auto mechanics to conducting study classes with our younger students.

This larger room might look familiar to you. This is where we hosted the Google Hangout with 50 Liberian youth for the Nobel Peace Prize Youth Forum at Augsburg College in Minnesota this past March. The white sheet on the wall is the projection screen for showing inspirational videos like the one created and published (click here)by our amazing youth leader volunteer Anna in Minnesota. Now let's enter though the door at the left of the screen to complete our tour.

As you step into this room, you will see it contains the library filled with books and the microscope, and also serves as a small classroom. Kelvin and a third youth leader are teaching a study class to another eager group of students.

As you turn to the other side of the room, you will find two youth scanning the bookshelves of the library while other students are busy with their homework at the table. This photo is priceless, because it shows how invaluable a library is to our students regardless of its size. We are extremely grateful to provide such a service for Liberia's aspiring youth.

We hope you enjoyed the tour of our learning center and thank you for taking the time to view each photo and caption. Uniting Distant Stars is dedicated to the education of Liberia's young people and this learning center is important part of our mission.

If you are interested in doing more to help improve this center for our youth in Liberia, there are many ways you can support this initiative.

• Donate by credit card by clicking the button below

• or by check at:

Uniting Distant Stars

4010 Lawndale LN N

Plymouth, MN 55446

• Select Uniting Distant Stars as part of company's annual United Way Campaign. One of our sustaining supporters, an employee of the University of Minnesota, added UDS to their annual giving last year and is doing it again this year.

• Utilize your company's Employee Match program. Another sustaining supporter has been utilizing their company's program since 2014.

• Shop at AmazonSmile and 0.5% of your purchase price will be donated to Uniting Distant Stars.

• Help us ship the remaining boxes of reading textbooks and library books that have been waiting to reach the hands of students in Liberia. The photos below were taken in 2012 after we had received the donated textbooks from St. Vincent de Paul School in Brooklyn Park by my cousin, a teacher at the school. We have shipped nine boxes of textbooks with our annual school supply drives in 2012, 2013 and 2014. We acquired three more boxes of library books late last year. We currently have 22 boxes to ship and the price per box was $75 (this includes clearing charges) based on IBXpress shipping costs from 2014. The total cost to ship the 22 boxes is roughly $1,650. Although IBXpress did finally deliver our 2014 shipment of school supplies on August 6, 2015, we have not received any communication that they are back in operation. So, we are looking for other alternatives for shipping companies and means to reduce or eliminate the cost with our 501(c)3 status.

  

We welcome your support, encouragement, and ideas to help us improve the quality of education for students in Liberia. Please share this post with others, who can help us achieve our goals.

Thank you again for your continued dedication, generosity and kindness in uplifting Liberia's bright young stars!!!