At an early age, I learnt that volunteering i.e. helping others is the simplest way of impacting on the lives of people and making positive changes in my own life. At that time, it involved carrying out unassigned activities such as helping an elderly person or a little child, and doing other house chores. These are still relevant and I have come to realize that volunteering gives me the chance to do some humanitarian work and gain important professional experience at the same time. It has helped me to know and appreciate other cultures and traditions and the fact that all people are human and the same. This becomes more evident as I share their pains, fears, concerns, joy, hope and strides towards peace and development. Indeed, volunteering is a great combination of learning and sharing opportunities that has given me fulfillment and self development.
My first concrete work experience was through volunteering for the Liberian National Red Cross. I volunteered as a Peer Educator, Child Protection Officer and a Nurse Aid from 1997-2001, when I was in high school. All of these activities were done in displacement camps working with displaced people, returnees and refugees.
My second experience in volunteering was after I finished my studies at AME University. I was engaged as a Youth Volunteer for the Liberian National Youth Volunteer program in Grand Gedeh County, outside of Monrovia. I was teaching at a Public School where I organized the Girls Club. I also carried out Gender-Based Violence/Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (GBV/SEA) training and helped improve the teachers and students’ relationship. I also motivated the local community especially the women and youths to know that they need each other and have to be more proactive in shaping their lives. They also have to be aware of their environment, in order to know the inherent opportunities and challenges, as well as possible ways of progress.
I feel very proud and happy of this programme because it is my country’s own volunteer programme and I was part of the first group. It gave me the opportunity to work in other organizations and countries. Today I still feel very strong about my past volunteering experience and I believe it has given me the chance to be what I am today – a National United Nations Volunteer (NUNV).
Right now, I am working as a UN Volunteer with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) as a Community Mobilizer/Field Monitor Assistant in Public Schools that are under the School Feeding Programme, in Nimba and Bong Counties. I am a member of a wonderful team working on improving the School Feeding Programme in these counties. Under the direct supervision of the Head of the WFP Sub Office, I work in close collaboration with the School Feeding Unit of Ministry of Education and Partners, responsible for building the capacity of Parent Teacher Associations and communities to support implementation of the programme in all targeted primary school in the two Counties.
For my role, I review, coordinate and monitor the implementation of the assistance programme at the local level, in close collaboration with the partner organizations. This involves food deliveries, storage, transport and distribution at the site, as well as ensuring proper recording of all WFP activities and providing feedback to relevant authorities.
Presently, as a community mobilizer, I am the focal person of the school garden project in both Nimba and Bong Counties. Out of the 110 schools on the garden list in these six counties, I am responsible for forty (40 schools) in two Counties (Bong and Nimba). I will at this point focus on one school in Nimba County - Manbor Elementary Public School - which has a population of four hundred sixty-seven (467) students, who are fed by WFP.
When I started working in Nimba County, this School’s Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) was very weak and did not even have any plan or management structure in place. All of its activities were run by the principal along with other teaching staff.
The first step I took was to analyse the situation of the school in the context of the project objectives. I continued by organizing an in-house PTA/FMC leadership workshop to help the community members understand their roles and responsibilities. After this workshop, an election was held and the leadership structure was set up and put in place.
Since this school has excess land, with my help, the leadership setup a working committee and began working on the school land, without external support from WFP/FAO. After two months, the PTA had a garden of its own. They set up a day and time in every month to meet and have a discussion about the up-keep of the school and the community. The School and community members were able to work together as a team and understand one another.
Looking at the level of work of the school, WFP/ FAO/ Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) selected this school to be part of the garden project. It is currently among the twenty (20) schools in Nimba.
Women Empowerment and Participation: The women of the Manbor Elementary Public School PTA are now very strong and hard working. Before the election and setting up of the PTA, these women were not working at all. They used to say: “It is men’s business to go for meeting and take decisions”. They were just there to listen and do what the men will say. My presence as a woman NUNV working with WFP and the school made them very happy and they decided to participate in the project. As of now, the total number of persons working on the school garden is forty (40) with women taking the lead (25 women and 15 men).
The initial 1.5 hectares of land to be used for the school garden has been exceeded ato almost 2.0 hectares, with the community providing the seeds on their own for the additional 0.5 hectare of land. Produce from the school garden are used in the school feeding programme, while the rest of the crops are sold. The school has made about 58,000 LD from the garden. The money is used to help with the up-keep of the school system and other projects of the PTA in the community. From the proceeds, they have built a dining hall for the kids, a kitchen and has also has been constructed, while the school’s foodtball field was improved including repairing the nets. The latest project of the PTA was to fence the garden.
Following the great success with the garden, the PTA is now cultivating new land for the second round of seeds that were given to the school. Right now, school is harvesting corn, okra, pepper, and bitter ball for the garden. I feel so fulfilled from my association with these projects.
Reminisce of the pains of war:
The above is not all that I do; since the Ivorian crisis, I have had to deal with thousands of refugees streaming from the la Cote d’Ivoire to Liberia. Among others, I help with distribution of food to refugees and seeing to other welfare issues within the WFP mandate, in collaboration with other UN agencies. The pathetic situation of the refugees made me weep at times and reminds me of the rages of war and violent conflict that I suffered during the Liberian civil war. Violent conflicts should be avoided it at all cost. Besides the emotional challenges, I have had to endure the difficult and deplorable roads in the counties in order to reach my target beneficiaries. Sometimes roads turn into river during the rainy season, bridges into death-traps that need to be circumvented, yet we move on with courage and determination.
At the end of it all, and just like other volunteer work I have undertaken, I always go home each day fulfilled, knowing that my humble contribution gladdens someone’s heart and made their life better. This is my story on volunteering and I hope it will stir you on to volunteer, give someone hope and put a smile on faces of the needy.
Thank you for your kind attention!
