FUEL Youth Fall 2011 Update

Dear <<First Name>>,

Greetings from the FUEL Youth team! Autumn has officially taken hold here in Washington, DC. The cold weather reminds us of yet another reason why we, at FUEL Youth, love warm, colorful Liberia. It also presents a good time for reflection on the year thus far, and upon reflection, we realized we have a lot to catch you up on!

April 2011 Trip

As many of you know, a subset of the FUEL Youth team (Edward, Sean, Alison and Katie) traveled to Liberia this past April to check on our projects: UCA, our school outside of Monrovia, and the school-building project in Messima village. Like always, it was an adventure - thanks to some travel issues, an overnight stay in Messima village, and a theft of personal items from the local Nigerian gang. Overall, though, it was another successful trip.

While most of our time was spent in and around Monrovia, we were fortunate to have a day and a half in Messima village to check in on the school-building project and to spend time getting to know everyone in the community. We played "Duck, Duck, Chicken" (this video is priceless) and Uno with the kids. At the town meeting, the village elders thanked us for being the first white people to spend a night in the village! We were pleased to see a great deal of progress has been made on the construction of the school, which will educate children in Messima, as well as children from three nearby villages that are connected not by roads but by waterways. Since our visit, the village masons have built the walls up to ceiling height, thanks to all of you who contributed to our Cement-o-Meter fundraiser in Washington, DC last December! Now that the rainy season has ended, construction is again underway.

In addition, the UCA community continues to grow - with nearly 400 children enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 9th grade classes. We are hoping to send our small group of 9th graders on to high school nearby. To add even more value to our visit, Alison led a workshop with UCA teachers, and Sean and I organized a media workshop for the UCA Press Club. The water tower, which was erected in Spring 2010, is providing a source of safe, clean drinking water to the UCA community, thanks again to support from you, the Friends of Liberia organization, and Concordia Lutheran School in Peoria, IL. While there, we explored the possibility of developing a library in one of the UCA classrooms, and we identified a handyman on Swaggart Island who could build the necessary shelving.

Upon our return stateside, we developed a grant application to Friends of Liberia for the UCA library project, and we're proud to report that we were awarded funding for the project! Our grant will cover the construction of the bookshelves and seating, as well as a series of trainings for students and teachers on proper use of the facility (there are very few libraries in the country). The only missing ingredient is.... BOOKS!

Holiday 2011 Bookdrive

This holiday season, FUEL Youth is launching a Holiday Bookdrive to collect new or used literature to populate the UCA Reading Room. We would be delighted to have you participate in any of the following ways:

1. Purchase books through our Amazon wishlist
2. Send us your gently used children's books
3. Make a monetary donation through our website

FUEL Youth is very excited about this library project and the potentially transformative effect it could have on the entire community. Not only would it offer UCA students access to hundreds of books, but it would cultivate a passion for reading throughout the UCA community. FUEL Youth views the establishment of a school library as a launching pad for several other exciting projects, such as reading clubs and a computer lab. Stay tuned for more information on the bookdrive!

FUEL Goes Solar

FUEL Youth is raising funds to help with the installation of a solar electrification system at UCA in March 2012. The setup will allow the school to have dedicated LED lighting and electricity for the first time. This is big news for UCA, as it means we can work to install a computer facility on-site and to develop adult education night classes. FUEL Youth needs to raise $5,000 to complete this project, including shipment of parts, installation, etc. We're also working to make this a sustainable project by considering how the computer facility can serve as a community Internet cafe after school hours to generate income. Please spread the news and help us raise the necessary funds today.