Liberia Youth Development for
Integration and Access
(LYDIA-Liberia)
An environment where the rights of young people are promoted and the youth have the capacity to influence and control their lives, being free of all forms of violence and are socially and economically empowered to lead in their communities.
To support, protect, and develop young people and avail them to livelihood opportunities that empower them to participate in decision-making processes with a collective effort to improve structures and systems that govern them.
Upcoming Events
LADIES' RECRUITMENT:
At the moment, we are recruiting ladies for the first boarding cohorts in the Transformation Life. These are women who will benefit from our home life, vocational training, free housing, free feeding, free clothing, free medication, free counseling and a safe space for living and learning. Selected women who have child or children that they directly care for will be taken and boarded with their children
Contact us at contact@lydialiberia.org for more information and be a help to our initiative.
Voters' Registration Awareness:
LYDIA Liberia will work with the public in Montserrado, Margibi, and Bong counties to create awareness to encourage Liberians to turn out and register to vote in October, 2023.
contact us:
Email: contact@lydialiberia.org
phone: +231-886-515-260 / +231-775-506-222 / +231-886-222-665 / +231-778-346-330
LYDIA HOUSE
WOMEN'S RESIDENCE CONSTRUCTION
WOMEN'S RESIDENCE FURNISHED
In early 2023, LYDIA Liberia received funding from Lydia House International and has furnished the ten-bedroom residence with 60 beds. The residence is now ready to host its first cohort of residents with their children to undergo Transformation Life
Healing and transformation
Life at Lydia House is called The Transformation Life. Residents experience the renewal of their mindset and attitudes, and they have the opportunity to mentor other women in the same way they were ministered to.
Most residents at Lydia House have experienced GBV or exploitation throughout their lives, and need a safe place to heal from their trauma and discover a true purpose for their lives. Our young women develop confidence and a sense of their own value as they learn their rights to property ownership, access to justice, education, self-decisiveness, equality with men and boys, speaking our freely against issues that affect them and experience true love and develop a deep sense of national contribution and success.
A 2-year cohort at Lydia House will afford a woman master at least 2 vocational skills and learn develop basic literacy skills that will enable her effectively manage her life and economic values with a sense of personal and collective responsibilities.
Donate now and help change a life!
LYDIA Liberia Help to Learn (H2L) Program
Liberia is significantly behind most other African countries in nearly all education statistics. It has one of the world's highest levels of out-school children, with an estimated 15 to 20 per cent of 6–14 year-olds who are not in class. Just over a third of pre-schoolers have access to early childhood learning programs and only 54 per cent of children complete primary education. 71 per cent of students are three years older than the appropriate age for their grade with a very high risk of dropping out of school. Overage enrollment is basically the result of late entry into grade one and lack of enforcement of the age appropriate enrolment policy.
The lack of trained teachers is yet another ripple effect from the civil war. Quality learning is difficult in Liberian schools because 36 per cent of primary teachers and 29 per cent of secondary instructors are unqualified.
Ensuring children receive quality education is fundamental to Liberia’s progress and prosperity. It is also a key program within LYDIA Liberia in an attempt to reinforce children's right to education.
We work with schools & the local government to provide scholarships to deserving students from grade one to grade 12 to help students get quality and timely education for the most disadvantaged children.
To support children’s early learning and prepare them for formal education, LYDIA Liberia is inviting sponsors, well-wishers, organizations, individuals, to help us enroll and keep children in school in Liberia.
Based on sponsorship, students select their preferred schools (as close to their homes as possible) and we directly pay fees and provide a copy of receipt to the families.
We also seek scholarships for untrained teachers to attend local inservice Teacher Training Institutes to better equip themselves for the teaching task.
For more than 2 years now, LYDIA Liberia has worked with schools in the 72nd community of Liberia and provided over 230 students with scholarship. There are yet thousands of students who are roaming the communities and streets selling petty markets while others are in school. With your help, you could see a future president of Liberia get prepared for the task.
We have provided stories of some deserving kids and youth. We ask that you select a story and sponsor the child/youth of your choice. Only sponsors get to see photos of the student (s) they pay for as we do our best to secure our beneficiaries' identity.
Cynthia Morris is 18-year-old and lives with her sister’s friend’s daughter. She is 4 years overage in the 9th grade and has been sexually abused several times by her host’s father. Now she runs the risk of not ending her education after grade 9 since there is no help to move it forward. Kindly help her move ahead with her education. A year for her in an average school is $250 but you can help with whatever you can afford. Only as a sponsor, you will see her photo and full name.
Bendu Guson is 12 years old and is the oldest of 3 out-of-school kids wo live with their grandmother in a slum in Monrovia. As a student in grade 5, she has been out of school for 2 years while selling along the road and in the community to help feed her little brother, sister and grandma. Their father died as a drug addict some 5 years ago. She has experienced 6 separate attempted rapes with other successful abuses. Donate and get her in school and off the streets. Her sponsor will see her photo and full name.
Bendu, Grace, & Prosper all live together with their grandmother.
Arthur Jackson is 15 years old in the 6th grade and who lives with his mother in Monrovia. As a student in grade. Arthur's mother sells locally made soap to educate and feed her 5 children. He helps her mother sell the soap around the community but it can not feed the family left alone to pay school fees. Their father left their mother under the hand of death and left nothing for them to live by. Please help get Arthur in school.
Abednigo Jackson is 13 years and in grade 5. He is one of 7 children raised by a single mother whose first husband was killed during the war and Abednigo's father abandoned his mother after having additional 4 children by her. Abednigo and his sibblings are living in one room with their mother who is a local bitter-ball seller. Abednigo helps a local mechanic in his garage to be able to eat with the other mechanics during the day but he receives no wages for his work. His dream is to become a road engineer.
You can help Abednigo realize his dream!!!
Lesmond Barnes is 7 years old living with his grandmother. While on the "hustle", his father got missing on a gold mine in Southeastern Liberia when Lesmond was just a few months old. He never got see his father. Lesmond usually begins school almost every year and then drops after the first period because his grandmother is not able to afford the tuition along with food and clothing for them. He is 3 years overage in the Kindergarten 1 class. He stands around a local community school while other students are in class, hoping that one day, he too will be in class - you can help his hopes come true.
Winnifred Courage is in the 3rd grade at 9 years old. She is the oldest of 5 children. She lives with her mother and sibblings in a one-room zinc shack along the Samuel Kanyon Doe Boulevard in the immediate outsketch of Monrovia. Due to lack of funds to keep her in school, she continues to begin school each year and drops before the end of the first semester. She was sexually abused by her "uncle" and the case compromised in a family manner so as not to expose the "uncle". She lives with the hurt of it crowned by her inability to learn. "I can just feel so bad to see my friends in school while I sit home doing nothing; but I have the hope that one day, I will be in school - I just hope it won't be too late for me." says Winnifred.
Angel Courage is at the appropriate age of 6 and in grade 1. She is one of Winnifred's younger sisters who the mother barely pays for in school. She needs help because she does not have note books, uniforms, shoes, and other basic needs so she is bullied by her schoolmates for being "poor" and dirty. She once said, "They are laughing at me because their parents have the hand and my mother does not have hand like them; but one day, someone will help my mother to pay my school fees and buy my shoes and other things and we will all be equal".
Nerissa Fayiah turns 14 in May of this year and she is in grade 6. She lives with her grandparents because her mother left the home because of hard-time. The father is an unskilled laborer who goes around daily seeking work for his class. She has testified of numerous sexual and gender-based abuses from men and boys in the community and home. Nerissa said, "I want to be like Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who was rapped but kept pushing on until she became president - I can make it too".
Help Nerrisa achieve her dreams and become great!
Education and vocational training
Young women at Lydia House will be assisted in completing their educations. New residents who do not have a foundation in primary school will be given the opportunity to acquire their primary school diploma equivalency through a compressed curriculum.
Vocational training and apprenticing are offered to all residents, to full proficiency level, and they may expect to develop financial self-sufficiency by the time they graduate and leave the home. Residents who show exceptional promise and motivation may be assisted to attend college or university for further training.
KEEPING GIRLS IN SCHOOL
LYDIA Liberia distributes sustainable hygiene kits to in-school girls who are at risk of dropping due to the lack of protective hygiene pads during their monthly periods. Thousands of girls have totally dropped from school for this reason and thousands are threatened to drop if they do not get sustainable kits. In each lifted bag, you will find 3 sets of menstruation pads that will last between 3 - 4 years, 2 pairs of underwear, a bar of soap, a set of clothes pins, a spare plastic bag and a few other things.
LYDIA Liberia Promotes the Rights of Women and Girls With the Help of Men and Boys.
promoting women's rights
Speak Out is our SGBV prevention/awareness education program, a resource which educates local leaders and communities about how to increase reporting of SGBV and prevent further harm by addressing gender inequality and helping women to access justice.
Our Transformation Life Program educates resident and non-resident women and girls about women’s rights and gender equality, reporting of SGBV and legal rights. Participants in this program become mentors for school-age girls and teach them women’s rights in a community setting.
If you have an organization (NGO, school, church, mosque, etc.) that needs to use the Speak Out program, we can help train your team free. We also have a teen version for students. Just send a mail to: contact@lydialiberia.org or call us on +231886222665 / +231770287145.
Support Us
Ways to Help:
You Can Send a Check to LYDIA Liberia Ecobank account, or Make a Deposit into the below account:
Account Name:
Liberia Youth Development
for Integration and Access
(LYDIA Liberia)
Account Number:
6101692992
Swift Code: ECOCLRLM
The Bank is Ecobank Liberia
In Person Donation
Appear at The Lydia House in Melekie, Gbarnga District, Bong County.
Please be sure to obtain a receipt or certificate for your contribution
Or
Appear in person at our Monrovia office in Congo Town behind the Orange Fence
Over the Phone
It's easy to donate offline too.
Tel: +231886222556 / +231880655905 / +231770287145 / +231775506222