Hi, I’m John and I wanted to share a little about what the team and I will be doing this year in Liberia. We will be bringing in laptops to help kick-start a computer lab at our Sinkor School in Monrovia.

Our flagship school is in the Sinkor (pronounced ‘sin-core’) district, smack-dab on the beach, just outside the downtown district of Liberia’s capital. Nestled by the beach, Sinkor is truly a beautiful area. Every day, hot, sandy ocean air blows inland, swirling throughout the halls, into classrooms to tickle toes and to cool down the sweltering concrete rooms where class is held. This constant gale brings a refreshing cool as well as a salty glaze to the campus. Looking closer, everything seems to be passing through various stages of corrosion, from the engine of the Jeep that sits patiently nearby, to the concrete walls that sag near the shore; wear and tear are a part of life. This is not an ideal place to plant a computer classroom, but this is where our students are and this is where they will learn the ropes.

Salt and sand are fine if you’re a student but not if you’re a computer. The computers of Liberia have an interesting, unsung story, one that boils simply down to survival. If the conditions aren’t enough to corrode away the sensitive components, the chance of damage, theft, or worse, neglect, is all too real. This is partly why you won’t see too many fancy electronics in Liberian classrooms. And while corrosion is tough, it pales in comparison to the bottom-line reason you don’t see even mundane technology throughout the halls of most Liberian schools. The country is too poor.

These kids we teach are smart. We are providing an opportunity for computer-literacy with this project. What Liberia needs is Liberians at the helm, armed with knowledge to help shape their communities. Serve the Children is empowering the next generation of professionals. This year, we will be setting up roughly 40 laptop computers at this beach-front school. We will teach typing, how to use Microsoft’s productivity suite of applications, such as Word and PowerPoint, and we will even teach some introductory HTML. The teachers will receive this training, then they will build their lesson plans to teach our students computer skills.

It’s my hope and prayer that the training we provide will help advance these students’ careers and broaden their spheres of influence, helping bring hope back to their country. Our team is aware of the challenges surrounding a project like building a computer lab from scratch. With proper care and maintenance, the laptops should last a long time. With the right safety precautions, we shouldn’t lose any machines to would-be thieves. We will set up the teachers and students for success, then pass the baton off for them to run the show. I’m confident that our friends there won’t just like the new computers; they will fall in love and excel.

Sinkor is truly a special area and I hope you get a chance to visit our students and staff there, salt and all.

– John Keay

Steve Jones, one of the founders of Serve the Children, visited our Liberia schools in July 2017. The lack of any computer skills, access to computers or computer education for our students or staff shocked him, since we in America are so used to using electronics in every facet of our lives. He returned to the United States determined to change this. He spoke to businesses and individuals and personally raised over $12,000 to start the process of acquiring 40 laptops and software to ship to our schools in Liberia. We have purchased the computers, have almost finished updating their operating systems, and can ship them to Liberia soon. Our goal is to have the laptops in Liberia before the STC mission team arrives in June so the team can help set them up and start training the teachers. By the time our students return from summer vacation in September, the teachers will be ready to start teaching them computer skills. We also plan to open up a night school for adults in the neighborhood who would like to pursue a computer education. This will increase their chance of employment and provide a better source of income for their families.

Can you help?  Our goal is to raise an additional $10,000 to pay for a generator, additional tables and chairs, training costs and upgrading a room to be a computer lab. 100% of the funds raised will go to Liberia and are tax deductible. You can send us a check, call in your credit card info to our office, or use the PayPal button on our website. Please mark all donations, “Computer Project.” Thank you for your continued support.

– Dr. Doug Collier