From all over Monrovia - I went to bed last night and stayed there for nearly 10 hours – the tremendous joy and the tremendous grief… seems the magnitude of this unprecedented ebola crisis took my energy… I surprised myself, but surrendered. This morning – prayer and meditation, review of US emails, a workout in the gym – and then off again for another amazing day in Liberia. I started at the ELWA Hospital, the epicenter of the ebola crisis.
A special stipend was promised to all health-care workers by the Liberian administration last fall; it is now March of the next year and still no promised gratitude funding, though employees were all told to open US$ accounts to receive $5000 each. Nothing. Today a rumor that the stipend is only for public institutions (most all of which closed during the crisis) instead of private institutions – though ELWA with the support of Doctors Without Borders took care of the vast number of ebola patients… Why? Reality in Liberia.
Then a visit to a long-time member and FFW Center Leader Gladys in a district in Monrovia, Red Light. When I bring you to Liberia, you will not come here. The car could not reach to Gladys’ home or her community. I did not have on proper flat shoes, but with her help I climbed “a mountain in Liberia” to her home, actually a very large hill – but it did remind me of climbing a mountain in Nepal more than two decades ago to visit one of my first microcredit programs.
Once the film crew and I arrived, I asked Gladys to show me where she traveled several times a day for the nearest water. When she pointed beyond a white house in the far distance, I was stunned – more than a mile back and forth, up and down this steep meager hillside path. When she offered me a plastic chair from inside the house she shared with several families, all I could say was, “This is 2015. So many adults and so many children. No water. No light. A mile to and from water up and down this challenging path. This is 2015…”
This is 2015 and part of our human family continues to live in these conditions while so many of us stay connected to our personal devices, have plenty of food, and sleep in comfort with water and electricity. WHY???
Asking you to join hands with me and Gladys and all in Liberia please ~ Deborah
Then a visit to a long-time member and FFW Center Leader Gladys in a district in Monrovia, Red Light. When I bring you to Liberia, you will not come here. The car could not reach to Gladys’ home or her community. I did not have on proper flat shoes, but with her help I climbed “a mountain in Liberia” to her home, actually a very large hill – but it did remind me of climbing a mountain in Nepal more than two decades ago to visit one of my first microcredit programs.
Once the film crew and I arrived, I asked Gladys to show me where she traveled several times a day for the nearest water. When she pointed beyond a white house in the far distance, I was stunned – more than a mile back and forth, up and down this steep meager hillside path. When she offered me a plastic chair from inside the house she shared with several families, all I could say was, “This is 2015. So many adults and so many children. No water. No light. A mile to and from water up and down this challenging path. This is 2015…”
This is 2015 and part of our human family continues to live in these conditions while so many of us stay connected to our personal devices, have plenty of food, and sleep in comfort with water and electricity. WHY???
Asking you to join hands with me and Gladys and all in Liberia please ~ Deborah
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