Organization History
The Liberian Education Fund was founded by American Kim Ouillette and Liberian Joe Hoover in January of 2007. Kim was introduced to Joe through Stan Stalla, a mutual friend who was working in Liberia at that time. Joe, who was born in Liberia and spent his whole life there, knew first-hand the hardships of many Liberian teenagers. The public education system was corrupt and scattered after fourteen years of civil war, and so the only place to obtain a quality high school education was at a private school. However, fees at the private schools were usually between $200 and $300 per year, which made them far out of reach for most Liberians. Lacking money, many Liberians are unable to complete high school, or even attend junior high school.
Kim, at this time, was a sophomore at Belfast Area High School in the State of Maine. Hearing of these challenges, she thought there might be a way to organize some students at BAHS to fundraise and support high school students in Liberia. Thus, it was based on this principle of students helping students that the program was launched in 2007. The first semester 4 Liberian students were sponsored, but by the second 8 more students were added, bringing the total to 12.
Since then, every year students from Belfast Area High School have sponsored between 8 and 13 students in Liberia. As our support base in Maine grows, we have been able to support more students in Liberia.
In Spring 2011, LEF Leaders Maya French and Kim Ouillette were able to travel to Liberia to meet many of the students. They all are amazing individuals with incredible stories. Each one has worked very hard and overcome a lot to get to where they are today. They are all very passionate about their education, and extremely thankful for the scholarship opportunity provided by LEF.
In the future, LEF hopes to expand its fundraising base to include other high schools in Maine. We are planning to launch a program to fund LEF scholarship students to attend universities in Fall 2012, since many of them want to continue on to pursue higher education. We are also hoping to start a program whereby students that have worked on fundraising in Maine can go to Liberia to engage with the Liberian students in a 2-week cultural exchange and educational retreat. However, all of these things will require support, so we thank all who have helped us in the past, and we are always looking for new people to join our cause!
