Hope and Steadiness

Friends of Hope,

Your support during the holiday season, and every other season, makes it possible to provide living-wage salaries to the teachers and staff at Hope International. We would like to celebrate principal, Mark Howe, who exemplifies #WeAreHope beautifully. 

Recently, Mark shared a photo on Facebook and the comments announcing #WeAreHope started appearing right away.

When our founding principal, Joseph Cummings, semi-retired last year, Mark stepped into the principal role. An ever-present educator since the very first days of Hope International 15 years ago, he has become part of the foundation from which everything has grown. He personifies hope and steadiness. 

Mark Howe and Joseph Cummings

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We asked Mark to give us a photo timeline of his day as principal this past Monday at Hope International.

Before the start of the school week, Mark and his family share a meal together Sunday evening. 

Monday morning, as early as 5:15 am, the family is up doing the morning chores. The swish of the ratan broom is a pre-sunrise background soundtrack of Liberian households.  All the children help. 

The youngest of Mark's kids get a motorcycle ride to school, while the older children walk the 30-minute commute. 

Mark walks down the deeply rutted road off the highway that leads into the neighborhood where the school resides. 

This week the students are attending school on a staggered schedule due to the testing period that marks the end of the second term. Mark spent the morning ensuring each of the classrooms and teachers had what was needed for testing. 

In between testing he connects with the students to see how they are doing. 

At home after school Mark’s older kids help the younger ones do their studies.  When Mark’s wife, Patricia, returns in the evening, after attending her college classes, she does more studying with the kids. 

It will all begin again in the morning at 5:15. 

The hope that the school staff brings each and every day is everything. Hope is showing up each day and supporting the students. Hope is preparing lessons and correcting papers. Hope is arriving early and staying late. Hope is giving years in service to Liberia’s future leaders. Hope is seeing these educators and students and supporting them, making a way where it once seemed impossible. 

Mark, his fellow educators, the students, the surrounding community, you, me…all together, and only together.

Together, #WeAreHope.

Meet The Denmans

Friends of Hope,

As we reflect over the past 15 years, it is clear an unpredicted alchemy has happened.  The students, the teachers, the community members, the ALL OF YOU, have joined and formed something beautiful.  Something that is best summed up with #WeAreHope. 

Throughout this holiday month, we will be highlighting some of the groups and individuals that are part of Hope, celebrating together what has been made possible, only because we have done it together. 

It Starts With You

Underlying, in support of, lifting up, making ways for, all the amazing things unfolding in Liberia are you, The Hope Project Partners. The ones that have come together to generously give in support. We see you and what you provide.  

One of our partners featured on the front of our holiday card this year is the Denman Family: Joleen, Bryan, Natalie and Elliott.  They represent the many of you who year after year, have supported Hope International students and staff in the work they are doing. 

The Denman Family have been recurring donors for many years. They have hosted parties for us at their home, attended our events and shared, month after month, year after year. They see themselves as a part of the collective we have all become. 

While Bryan was serving in the reserves overseas, he supported our OneShirtOneGirl campaign in an amazing way.  Read his story here.

The Denman Family has a foundational part in all the amazing things unfolding in Liberia. You do too. Without the collective generosity of you reading this, Hope International would not exist. This is simply true.  
 
For 15 years, hope exudes from all these students who continue to have the opportunity to anchor in education and possibility. The Denmans do this. You do this.   

Together, #WeAreHope.

#WeAreHope

Friends of Hope,

In this season of love and light, we wanted to add some of our particular HOPE into the mix. Over this past year, something quite beautiful and student-generated has been emerging from Hope International.

The students and alumni started sharing images on social media of life on campus, photos from sporting events, achievements, losses, celebrations, graduations, student elections, you know, all the stuff that makes a school community. The students began tagging their photos with #WeAreHope.

Each time it is posted the statement is so profound. Yes, they are students at Hope International School, a school that began and continues with a deep dose of Hope. But the additional meaning, that these students, in all that they are doing, are the literal Hope of Liberia.

That alone is a beautiful holiday message. But wait, there is more.

You who are reading this. If we could share a photo of each of you and tag it with “WeAreHope”, we would. While life in the U.S. does not mimic the struggle of our Liberian friends, that does not mean there is no hardship.

These last few years have been, and continue to be, a time of struggle individually and as a nation. We have faced deep health and economic challenges, educational and employment interruptions, disconnection and decreasing mental health. Through all of that, our country continued to share what they had, even while certainty decreased.

On a national level in 2021, people gave 5.1% more money than the year before. You, friends of The Hope Project gave 29% more.

Some of this was for scholarships, or large gifts to build the new building, or COVID relief, or to keep the teachers paid…all of it, each and every penny in support of Liberia’s students who know that they are Hope personified…and so are you.

As economic uncertainty continues to permeate our news cycle and, for some, our reality, the needs of those we have partnered with continue even more profoundly. The only change may be that we feel as though we are not giving out of our extra or surplus but choose to give anyway. Some would suggest that this is the very best kind of generosity. We give up something in order for another to suffer less. How beautiful is that?

Each year, we depend on holiday generosity to provide $20,000 towards our school operations.

 

Can you join us in meeting this hope-filled need with a holiday gift?

Ways to Give:

• Online 

• Venmo under Charities: @hopeproject_liberia

• Check: The Hope Project | P.O. Box 1095 Leavenworth, WA 98826

• Questions? Contact us at (509) 699-6307

Wishing you a season that is filled with hope, comfort, and shared purpose.

Together, #WeAreHope.
Jackie Frazier