TEN DAYS is a very hands-on, grassroots volunteer opportunity for ordinary people to be involved in extraordinary projects in the developing world. We’re a part of The Strongheart Group, sister to The Name Campaign and Strongheart Fellowship. We’re small, targeted and effective. We work hard and smart. We do amazing things in just ten short days.
Our next two missions are in October 2008 & January 2009 to Robertsport, Liberia to do an extreme home makeover on STRONGHEART HOUSE.
The Strongheart House will be a home – and place of healing, learning and excellence – for exceptional young people from extremely challenging life circumstances. Often orphaned or displaced by conflict, the kids chosen to live in the Strongheart House are called “Strongheart Fellows.”
The Fellows are all chosen based on an innate intelligence and inner resilience. This sets them apart and reveals a glimmer of the potential leaders they could be, if only given the right environment in which to grow. With these incredible opportunities available, our young Fellows can heal, learn, thrive and excel in their lives, and in turn strengthen their communities.
That’s where you come in – we’re going to help give them that right environment in the form of Strongheart House.
Strongheart House is a huge rambling older beach house in the beautiful little fishing village of Robertsport, Liberia. The city has been through a war - the house itself was looted substantially by people just looking for anything to sell to get enough food to stay alive. Even the electrical wires in the walls were stripped out. Now that the war is long over - and peace is the main agenda of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - it's time to rebuild the house and country back to a state of beauty and modernization. But we also have a remarkable opportunity to leapfrog over old technology and teach our kids to use renewable resources through solar power and green practices. Our goal is to be online and offgrid.
The first six Fellows have already been chosen – they’re amazing young people from a refugee camp in Ghana and will be moving to Strongheart House in Liberia to experience the first home of their own that some of them have ever known.
First - we'll fundraise. Each volunteer will be responsible for raising $2,500 in addition to their airfare, which you can either fundraise for or pay for yourself. We'll help you every step of the way - you'll have a great online fundraising webpage that will make everything easy. You can see a sample of one here. We've never had a volunteer not be able to raise all of their funds. Once people hear that you're going to be personally overseeing where their donations are going - and doing the hands-on work involved - they open their hearts and contribute to your dream.
Secondarily, if you choose to be on the design team - we're all going to have specific rooms assigned to us to help design and plan. You could have the kitchen, the boy's room, or even the library. That means you'll get to work on a list of what's needed in that room. We'll then post an online registry and send it our friends and family who can help by buying those needed items directly. We can also encourage friends to throw STRONGHEART HOUSE SHOWERS - to spread the word and help us make this house as lovely as it can be! (These purchases won't generallly count toward your fundraising because we need the money to help with expenses like a new roof and water systerm but if you have a donor who wants to make a big purchase - our solar power system for instance - we'll work it out. ) The items will then be sent directly by the stores to our shipper here in the US, who will make sure they get to Strongheart House. You don't have to be on a design team - you could just show up at the airport and jump in working once you're on ground in Liberia. It's your choice.
Once in Liberia, we have a LOT of work to do. We're going to be painting, designing, building a bamboo wall, making beds, putting new clothes in dressers (!) , getting each room exactly right for the kids to move in. At the end of our January trip, the kids will actually arrive and you'll get to see the look of wonder and joy on their faces as they see their home for the first time. You can even be on the airport pickup team to welcome them back to their home country.
SHOTS: You will need some shots and medicine to travel. We'll provide all information and you can make the appointments yourself. Medical costs are not covered by us - you'll need to provide this yourself.
PASSPORT & VISA: Our uber-cool volunteer directors will walk you through this process.
AIRFARE: We have a travel agent who will coordinate all our airfares and flight schedules. We'll fly through Europe to Monrovia, Liberia on Brussels Air. Robertsport is a few hours away from the main city.
TRAVEL MEDICAL INSURANCE: There is a hospital in Robertsport and we also require everyone who travels with us to sign a waiver and buy a travel medical policy. The policies are available online, can be purchased in minutes, and are very reasonable. (Usually less than $100 for a ten day trip.) However, this is a fairly strenuous trip and we ask that you be in good health to join us. You don't need to be able to do pull-ups but please be in good enough shape to scurry around and brandish a paint brush.
CREATURE COMFORTS: There will be some creatures. And not a lot of comforts. You will however have the comfort of knowing you're suffering through a little dirt, grunge, and some bugs to save the world. In other words, if you're strictly a Ritz Carlton kinda person maybe you should just wish us well and skip this trip. But you CAN help us decorate the house!
On a grander scale, we are working together with the community of Robertsport (located in Grand Cape Mount County) in an effort to revitalize this once-thriving village out of post-conflict poverty. Establishing The Strongheart House is just the beginning – our first step on the path of healing, restoration and sustainable growth for our friends in Robertsport.
If you just google Liberia, you're going to see a lot of articles about the war and the post-conflict situation. We've just undertaken two advance volunteer trips and both have been amazing. (One of our volunteers wants to petition the State Department to put up an announcement about how incredibly welcoming and friendly the people of Liberia are on the Embassy web page!)
If you’d like to read a few recent articles about the conditions in Liberia, click on these links:
We’ll spend most of our time in the beautiful beach community of Robertsport…one of the top surf spots in Africa. Check out this Lonely Planet article, Surfing Liberia about the hidden treasure that is Robertsport. Also, you can see the incredible waves at Sliding Liberia. It's a beautiful surf film made about our little city.
If you feel moved to join us in this incredible project or have further questions, please e-mail Strongheart Fellowship founder Cori Stern at coristern@strongheartfellowship.org.
If you'd like to help us but can't go on the trip, we still have LOTS to do! Maybe you'd considering "adopting a room" with your friends and family - basically helping us plan a room and raise the supplies for that room. We'd LOVE to have you!
Additionally if you have a friend whom you’d like to recommend as a possible participant, please pass the word on.
View of Robertsport Beach
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
~ Margaret Mead
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