In our last post, I wrote about the growth which the Rilo School Foundation has been through over the last months. As we received a lot of questions about it, I thought a little recap might be helpful.
In 2019, we were introduced to Morris Matadi, a former child soldier in Liberia, who was recruited from age 11 to 20 (1990-2000) by the same people who killed his family. He lived through hell, lost everyone he loved, and like many other former soldiers, had no place in society when the civil war ended.
Most of the child soldiers ended up living as outcasts in ghetto's, often addicted to drugs from their child soldier days, with families and not able to give their children a better future.
Morris wanted to break that cycle and started an after school program (ASP) to help children stay in school and support them in education. He was already supporting 45 children in 2019 when we met.
Together we transformed the ASP to a full junior high school, providing free education to over 400 children. Morris is the working force and the soul of the operation, we help with finances, documentation and contracts. We've had our differences and misunderstandings, often caused by culture clashes and misconceptions but we also had to move location (twice) due to growing number of student, and are now officially registered with the Ministry of Education, introduced structure with rules and regulations. Sometimes we are still figuring it out along the way.
The school is 100% dependant on donations. Rilo Connect covers the school building rent, teachers payments, government registration and whatever unforeseen cost fits in our budget.
Though the school is growing so rapidly that we could really use your help to support the growth. You can do this by purchasing one of the items most needed for the school, from the list below.
Please reach out and we'll set it up for you either through Rilo Connect or directly with Morris.
Items most needed: (Prices are in USD)
Chair and desk combination for the new 9 grader students x 20 = $250,-
Chairs for the teachers x 14 = $140,-
Tables for the teachers x 14 = $140,-
Teaching materials (lesson books, test books, etc) = $488,-
Drinking water barrels x3 = $75,-
Buckets for the water = $ 36,-
Washing detergent for the year = $200,-
Fabric for new school uniforms = $512,-
Motorbike transport for Morris to travel to school including registering cost = $1,500,-
The children of Monrovia thank you for helping them to a brighter future and we all wish you a wonderful holiday season!
