Dear Friends of HOPE,
Maybe you've never received a Dear John letter. If not, count yourself lucky. If you have, I guarantee this will be a much happier one.
Recently, our principal, Joseph, sent some photos of the bathrooms they are installing in the newly constructed 15-classroom building that your generosity and love built, together with the hard labor of our Liberian team. I teared up immediately, not fully understanding why.
I was brought right back to the photos we have of when we first leased the school back in 2008. There were no bathrooms. There was only a flimsy piece of metal hung to offer some privacy between the two outdoor stalls. There wasn't even a pit. Imagine for a moment, the 100s of students and staff using these "facilities" daily.
You, the community of HOPE, stepped in and helped us put in pit toilets. We built a structure, and later installed non-flushing toilets and doors and it has been this not so "Dear John" situation for many years.
So you can imagine the deep symbolism of the new bathrooms. The gravity-fed flushing toilets that will soon be the norm for over 1,000 students. In the photos above, you can see this entire decade-long transformation. It is both a small and gigantic happening, like so many of the things that happen at our little/big school.
As Liberia continues to recover from the deep destruction civil war brought, these bathrooms show one country and one school moving forward to brighter things. YOU did this! WE did this! TOGETHER we are amazing.
Happiest of Flushing,
Jackie Frazier
Executive Director