Category: Liberia - Foundation For Women

Letters for Liberia: two years ago Ebola began its unprecedented impact on Liberia.

3/28/2016

La Jolla, CA - Two years ago this month Ebola began its unprecedented impact on the people and country of Liberia. Thousands of people became infected. Thousands of people died. Nearly 5000 people survived, only to face an unbelievable reality – life with tremendous loss.

I am deeply touched by this recent article in the New York Times "Ebola, Ruthless to Families, Leaves Liberian Man Alive and Alone". I know many Ebola survivors. Yes they thank God for their good fortune, but trying to make a new normal after Ebola is not easy.

I am working closely with the men who ran the crematorium from August – December 2014 at the height of the crisis. They are heroes, not just for Liberia but for the world. Without their heroic efforts, who knows how the virus would have continued to spread, who know how much higher the death toll. Yet the men of Marshall are now outcasts; cremation in Liberia is viewed as sending a person to hell.

Letters for Liberia: One Global Family

3/22/2016

La Jolla, CA - I started today as I do every Tuesday when I am not in Liberia. At 7:00AM here in California I answer a Skype request from Anna and say hello to my dear Liberian team. Soon we ask our partners at Edify to join us. We begin a weekly global business meeting, all together thanks to Skype.

Before we began today’s agenda, our Foundation for Women Liberia COO David brought up the recent terrorist attacks in the Ivory Coast and then yesterday in Mali. He mentioned that there is a heightened security awareness now in West Africa; it is all very close to home now. We offered a pray for peace in the world, not knowing at that moment terrorists were striking again – this time in the heart of Brussels, the subway system and the airport. So many dead.

Be a part of our post-Ebola recovery program

8/1/2015

Last week was the first time the three most affected West African nations recorded no new cases of Ebola since the unprecedented crisis began in March 2014. According to the World Health Organization, there have been more than 11,000 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. There is no assurance that the disease is complete. Liberia had been declared free of the disease in May 2015 when a flare up occurred in June. It is now disease-free for the second time. The impact on Deborah and her sister Florence and cousins Mattie and Ingrid has been tremendous. Schools were closed for six months. Simple human touch – a handshake or a hug – has all but disappeared. Deborah no longer shares her lunch or water with friends at school. Her classroom holds fewer children, all of whom must sit further apart than before Ebola; many children have not returned to school.

ONLYLOVE Documentary Film Released Today

7/24/2015

On this day when I was due to be landing home again in Liberia, I am delighted to share with you the first documentary short film in our project sharing the stories of those whose voices are not heard in the Ebola crisis.

ONLYLOVE FoundationForWomen.org DEBORAH LINDHOLM - Filmed in Liberia by Liberians from Surf's Up Studios on Vimeo.

ONLYLOVE FoundationForWomen.org - DEBORAH LINDHOLM - Filmed in Liberia by Liberians

USD collects bleach to stop Ebola in Liberia

10/2/2014

SAN DIEGO - As the fear of Ebola spreads through the U.S., three San Diego women are collecting buckets and bleach in an effort to stop the spread of the epidemic in Liberia. “I talk to Liberia everyday and the culture of the country is completely traumatized. There are no handshakes, no touching, no hugging; there is just complete and utter fear in Liberia right now,” said Deborah Lindholm, founder of “Foundation for women.” Lindholm, along with Paula Cordeiro, Dean of University for San Diego and professor Joi Spencer spent weeks in Liberia on a mission to help women in third world countries through education and business development. “They’re so proud of the educational system they are trying to set up and when you realize that every school we visited is now closed … our hearts were so touched,” said Dean Cordeiro. They left in August when all non-essential Americans were asked to leave because of Ebola. Read the full article online at fox5sandiego.com.

Ebola-stricken Liberia is descending into economic hell

9/30/2014

By Fred Barbash - The Washington Post
Liberia, the West African nation hardest it by Ebola, has begun a frightening descent into economic hell. That's the import of three recent reports from international organizations that seem to bear out the worst-case scenarios of months ago: that people would abandon the fields and factories, that food and fuel would become scarce and unaffordable, and that the government's already meager capacity to help, along with the nation's prospects for a better future, would be severely compromised. They are no longer scenarios. They are real. While these trends have been noted anecdotally, the cumulative toll is horrific.

Read the full article online at washingtonpost.com.

Ebola closes local group's Liberia office

9/19/2014

The Ebola virus triggered closure of the Foundation For Women's office in Liberia’s capital of Monrovia Thursday after its generator repairman, Victor, died of the disease. All workers will be tested and the building and two vans sanitized before a projected Oct. 1 reopening, reports FFW founder and CEO Deborah Lindholm, of La Jolla. She returned to San Diego Aug. 8 when the U.S. government ordered all nonessential personnel to leave the country. Her nonprofit organization delivers microloans to women, enabling them to start small businesses and become self-sustaining. A popular FFW center manager in northern Liberia, one of the hardest hit areas, also succumbed to the disease while caring for patients. “It is getting worse, worse, worse,” said Lindholm, who is in constant touch with her Liberian colleagues.

Read the full article online at sandiegouniontribune.com.

Lindholm gives news interviews on Liberia

8/19/2014

Letters for Liberia - URGENT - I have been away from Liberia for 10 days now and as our US Ambassador to Liberia recently said to me, "The news is grim." The changes in the last few days are dramatically awful. I am heading a grassroots effort now in America to help. Please share this message with everyone you know who cares about humanity. We urgently need US$20 to sanitize the home of every Foundation for Women borrower and staff in Liberia. Doing this will help keep them safe from ebola. That $20 donation helps at least 10 people on average be safe. We have the grassroots network in place in Liberia to distribute these supplies which are available and will be purchased in Liberia.

Please see this story on NBC news last evening and the story today in the San Diego Union Tribune. While the US government is obsessed with killing people in Iraq at the moment, I am obsessed with saving lives in Liberia. Please make a donation on our website, call (858) 483-0400 or send a check to Foundation for Women P.O. Box 2786 La Jolla, CA 92038.

Our human family in Liberia is waiting for our help - and the need is urgent! With great gratitude, Deborah

San Diegan wages war on Ebola virus

8/18/2014

By Diane Bell
When Deborah Lindholm left for the airport in Liberia on Aug. 8, the doorman at the hotel that has been her second home for more than six years, pleaded: “Deborah, please pray that we are alive when you come back.” In our corner of Southern California, the deadly Ebola virus spreading in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea in West Africa seems a world away. But for Lindholm, who set up a microfinance network to help women start their own businesses in Liberia in 2006, it is right next door.

She pays for the education of a young boy named Moses and found him a home with the vice principal of a school run by the Christian charity Samaritan’s Purse. He lives only three doors away from the infected American missionary Nancy Writebol, who recently returned to the United States for treatment. The sister-in-law of a dear friend of Lindholm was infected with virus while working as a nurse. She died and her husband and entire family were exposed.

“No one touches anyone any more. No one shakes hands. No one hugs,” says Lindholm. “This is a very caring culture. It is awful to watch.” Read the full article at sandiegouniontribune.com.