Thank you for all your concern, prayers and donations to help us through the terrible loss by fire of our newly opened computer lab at the Liberia Sinkor School.  We appreciate your help through this crisis.   Our goal is to raise at least $30,000 to replace the computer lab, and we are almost there!

We decided to sell the damaged building for several reasons, including the cost to rebuild, the location on the ocean and the condition of the building after so many years of heavy use.  We purchased this building in 2004 for $45,000 and spent thousands more on improvements and repairs over the years. We sold it for $100,000, including closing costs. The Board decided to rent a building close to our current site in the Sinkor District of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, and we plan to sign a 3-year rental agreement soon.   

We wanted to stay in the Sinkor District to continue to meet the needs of the children here.  We will use some of the funds raised to remodel one of the classrooms to use as a computer lab and we will purchase around 40 laptops to replace what we lost in the fire. Our server was in the shop when the fire hit so we still have that and all of the Kahn Academy software we use. We are thankful for that.

Our next project will be to raise $350,000 to purchase a new facility in the Sinkor District.  We plan to make it a top of the line school in Liberia with modern classrooms, a fully operational computer lab, a science lab, a library and a vocational school.  It would provide hope and a future to the children in the surrounding area and to parents seeking to improve their lives and be a place where our staff could accomplish great things for the community. Imagine how we could impact this country, one of the very poorest in the world.  Providing these children a great education with computer skills can be a game changer for their families and Liberia.

Come dream with me for the future! Did you ever dream about having tons of money as a kid and think about what you would do with it?  Do you still dream like this? Sometimes we get so distracted by day to day issues of life we forget to dream; to think about life from the eyes of our childhood.  I don’t know about you, but I think my blood pressure would be lower if I did this more often.

If we had, let’s say, $3 million dollars today for Serve the Children, what would we do with it? Here is what I’d want to do: 

Liberia: fund a top of the line school to replace the Sinkor School

Zambia: spend $500,000 to build a first-class school for children of all ages so they could achieve the full potential God has given them.  The school would be able to teach the children every subject they would need to learn to attend college or vocational school and continue to help their country move forward. 

India: can we make a difference in child trafficking in India?  Yes, we can!  We can give young boys and girls educational opportunities that could make an eternal difference in their lives as well as provide them the skills to move into successful careers.  We would build schools and provide vocational training to children and young people who dream of these futures just like our kids dream of them. 

Middle East: open centers and support full-time people to serve thousands of people impacted by war.  We would provide comfort rooms where they could go to escape the horrors of war and have peace for a short while at least.  A place where they could rest, eat a meal and not worry about life and about their families.

Expand the vocational training programs we have in India to other countries.  I dream of empowering women to achieve their full potential by providing them a quality education and workplace skills that give them a well-paying job to support their families and keep them away from human trafficking.

Come dream with me, to give hope and a future to more children and families around the world.

Dr. Doug Collier