LIBERIA

Liberia, the only former U.S. colony in Africa, is where the freed slaves who wanted to return to Africa after the Emancipation Proclamation were sent. Home to four million people, Liberia was the fastest developing nation on the continent until civil war broke out in 1989, after 100 years of peace. During the fifteen-year civil war, child soldiers as young as six were forced to leave their families and fight, schools were closed and there were food shortages. Important infrastructure such as electrical grids and modern water plants were destroyed. Almost two decades later, water still does not flow to all of its inhabitants, and in the capital of Monrovia, home to over one million people, many of the wells are contaminated.

The Waterbearers co-founder Spryte Loriano was living in Monrovia, Liberia when the 2014 Ebola outbreak forced her to return to the United States.  However, she remained passionate about the country, and its people, and became an advocate for clean water rights, and the empowerment of young girls.

In January 2017, Spryte and The Waterbearers Travel Team flew to Liberia to provide assistance to several rural villages whose only water sources were creeks contaminated with bacteria.  The 26 filters the team distributed have improved the lives of 513 villagers, including 175 school-aged children.

During this trip, the team collaborated with an all-girls school in Monrovia to launch a clean water program for the West Point slum area, home to 75,000 people. This project empowered the students and teachers to serve their own community by providing access to clean water.

In August 2017, another Waterbearers volunteer offered to further our Liberia efforts by transporting 200 filters to the country. However, upon her arrival, a devastating mudslide in neighboring Sierra Leone killed 1141 people and left thousands homeless. She quickly made arrangements for 100 of the filters to be diverted to the emergency efforts in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.

In 2018, The Waterbearers returned to Liberia to assist with the West Point slum clean water distribution, and distribute 100 filters to carry out additional training and follow up assessments at two other schools: the Becky Primary School (600 students), and the Butterfly Early Learning Center.