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The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has donated some backpacks to kids in our school.

The backpacks, fourteen in all and marked with the inscription “UNICEF,” were recently donated by UNICEF through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Liberia for onward distribution to a select group of kids.

Although the backpacks were not enough to cover all of the students, more than one hundred fifty (150) in number, the donation was appreciated in that Help Liberia Foundation Community School was one of few schools benefiting from the exercise. The fourteen items have since been given to fourteen students.

The administration of the school received the book bags and thanked UNICEF through the Ministry of Education for including the school in its backpack-donation exercise.

Our school will appreciate any form of donation made to it or to its kids. The donation could be backpacks, pens and pencils, copybooks, kindergarten materials, wall clocks, toys, used shoes and clothes and other items useful to the schools and its kids.

Our school has introduced the use of identification (ID) cards by the children attending it. The kids started using the ID cards recently.

Since its establishment six years ago, it is the first time that the kids have begun using identification cards, and it will, henceforth, be part of the their regular dress code.

The kids were not only happy to take their pictures for the ID cards, they were also excited to receive the finished product from the school. They happily and proudly displayed them on their uniforms daily.

We extend special thanks to all those who are assisting us to do what we are doing for the kids in our school.

World Food Program, WFP, has donated some dishes to our school in Buchanan, Help Liberia Foundation Community School.

The donated items include eating spoons, cooking spoons, plates, cups and a tub. The organization also gave some salt for the program.

The administration of the school expressed appreciation to the officials and staff of the World Food Program and appealed to them to continue assisting the school in its effort to provide hot meals for the kids.

It is important to point out that WFP usually donates food ration to us to enhance our school’s daily hot meal program. Although the food ration may not be much, it is regular – comes monthly. Food items given include burger wheat, beans, and vegetable oil, which are used to cook for the children daily, an arrangement that also helps to keep them in school, as most of them come from homes where only one meal is eaten per day.

Meanwhile, we are appealing to other individuals and institutions of good will to help us with funds or some other food items to augment our feeding program. We would like to buy fish and meat and prepare good soups for the kids. If possible, we would also like to start cooking rice for them.

The Government of the Republic of Liberia, through the Ministry of Education, has donated some educational materials/supplies to Help Liberia Foundation Community School, our school in Buchanan.

The materials comprise reams of sheets, teachers’ plan books, teachers’ roll books, chalk, pens, pencils, a calculator and other items.

The Registrar, Elwood Lincoln, receiving the items on behalf of the school, thanked the Ministry of Education for including our school among the schools receiving some form of assistance from the government, and promised the officials that the supplies will be used for their intended purpose.

Help Liberia Foundation Community School on Friday, March 23, 2012, carried out a clean-up – or rather, a clearing – campaign on the one-acre site on which the school’s proposed thirteen-classroom structure is to be built.

Although the school paid a group of men to do a two-week clearing and cleaning of the site, the kids and the staff participated in a one-day clearing exercise – weeding and cutting grass, raking the grass and helping to collect and pile it up.

It was wonderful and interesting to see the kids happily and possessively cleaning the land which they know and believe is their property – the future home of their school. It was moving. Some of them, responding to a question posed by a curious passer-by, said: “We are cleaning our future campus.”

Perhaps the most interesting was the presence and full participating of Catherine whom some thought would only come and sit somewhere to observe the process. However, to the surprise of many, and to the delight of all, Catherine joined the kids and started weeding the grass – and weeded it very well for almost an hour without stopping to sit down and rest. Some of the grass was thorny, but Catherine didn’t mind. She intermingled and interacted with everyone. It was great.

At one point, Paul, thinking that Catherine was tired, said, “It’s okay, Catherine. You may want to rest for awhile.”

“Why, Paul? I am not tired. I’m having fun doing it with the kids and the staff,” responded Catherine.

Encouraged by Catherine’s down-to-earth participation, all the little ones joined in the process, even if their fingers lacked the strength to weed out any grass from the ground. It was fun – real fun.

Interestingly, also, at the rear of the land where the hired men were brushing, they (the men) killed a black snake, cut its head off and placed the body in a plastic bag near them.

“Don’t go over there, Catherine. Those men just killed a snake, and it is right somewhere near them,” Paul tried to caution her.

She smiled and said, “I’m not scared. I want to see it and touch it.”

Quickly, the guys took out the snake and handed it to Catherine who was only willing to receive it. Paul, who is afraid of snakes, could not believe what his eyes were seeing. First, Catherine held it in her hands, and then she laid it on her left shoulder, smiling in the process. You should have seen Paul’s face.

One of the teachers named Elwood also held the snake for a few seconds before giving it back to the men, but Paul could not and would not try it.

Paul gazed at Catherine and only said, “You are really brave, Catherine!”

A day after the clearing, a gigantic billboard indicating that the spot is the future home of the Help Liberia Foundation School was put up.

It may be recalled that the school bought a one-acre piece of land last year for the purpose of constructing a thirteen-classroom school building. The proposed school is estimated at US35, 000. We do not have the money to build the school, but we are hopeful that individuals and institutions of good will come to the aid of the school.