The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Self-Development of People (SDOP), Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) ministries of the Compassion, Peace and Justice ministry area are leading the way in the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the world is taking notice. The West Africa Initiative (WAI) was one of 800 nominations from 113 countries recently selected to receive the prestigious Equator Initiative Award. The WAI is a SDOP, PHP and PDA–led partnership between several U.S. denominations, including the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the United Church of Christ (UCC), and the Disciples of Christ, and ecumenical partners in Liberia and Sierre Leone.
One of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize winners, Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian activist who helped bring her country out of a brutal civil war, said on Oct. 7 that the best way to achieve global peace is to start in local communities.
On Oct. 19. Isaac Monah makes his second trip home to rural Liberia since he fled the war-torn country in the mid-1980s and subsequently emigrated to the U.S. in 2002.
CINCINNATI — Isaac Monah knows how valuable education is and how difficult access to it can be in many parts of the world. That’s why he’s trying to build a school near his home village in Liberia.
There was no school anywhere near the rural village where Monah was born in 1970, so as a young boy he moved to Tolee, a city where his uncle lived, to attend school. “I lived there for two years in an apartment with 12 other people, the young man says.
But then he had to drop out of school and support …