Swaggart Island Community Development
Grand Cape Mount County Initiatives
Swaggart Island Community Development
Swaggart Island is a small island in Gardenersville, a community on Bushrod Island, just outside of Liberia's capital city, Monrovia. The island is part of Liberia's wetland coastal complex, and is surrounded by shallow inlets and mangroves that flood during the rainy season. FUEL Youth works on Swaggart's island to support the United Christian Academy--the first FUEL Youth supported school in Liberia--and community development projects that benefit the youth and larger community.
- United Christian Academy (UCA)
UCA opened its doors in 2006 to 100+ students eager to learn. It has since grown to a size of over 150 students, with teachers from the surrounding community offering their service for modest salary. The dedicated teachers at UCA have varying levels of education themselves. UCA is a work in progress and FUEL Youth has a focused set of priorities to help UCA reach its full capacity and potential and serve the youth of Swaggart's Island to the best possible end. Additional needs at UCA include:
*Liberia Ministry of Education-issued school books for every child
*A simple fence to surround the school grounds for security and keeping children in school
*Electrification of the school building (this will also allow for adult education classes in the evening and other opportunities for revenue-producing Internet facilities, with revenue to be fed back to the school); FUEL Youth is considering traditional gas-fed generator solutions as well as feasible solar solutions.
*Establishment of a school lunch feeding program to keep children in school for more than 5 hours at a time
(Also see the Swaggart Island scholarship program for more info on FUEL Youth's dedication to professional development of UCA teachers)
- Swaggart Island Scholarship Program
FUEL Youth offers university scholarships to eligible youth and adults on Swaggart Island who participate in a civic and community service initiative. Students who successfully pass the university entrance exam are provided with scholarship for university tuition in return for community service on in the home community. The program was established as a ways and means to provide the teachers at UCA with professional development as educators but was extended to all eligible youth when the potential to establish this positive cycle of community service was realized. FUEL Youth plans to expand this program beyond Swaggart Island to other communities.
We are always looking to offer more scholarships to larger numbers of deserving students. Please see our donate page to give to this program.
- Swaggart Island Community Water Tower
In early 2009, FUEL Youth helped to construct a water tower next to UCA as part of a planned water infrastructure to offer a clean water source to the community of Swaggart Island. The youth at UCA have no dedicated water source currently. The project will support the youth at UCA and all community members on Swaggart Island. The water tower project is only partially complete as of July 2009, and FUEL Youth is soliciting support to complete the water project on Swaggart Island.
On January 3, 2009, the FUEL Youth team participated in the groundbreaking ceremony of our latest school building project in Messima Village, which is located in Grand Cape Mount County (Garwular District, Tallah Township). The village, located two hours northwest of Monrovia near the Sierra Leonian border, lacks a proper school facility, though a crude structure currently serves as a school for hundreds of children from Messima and surrounding villages. While in Messima, we met the four elder men in the village who are serving as the children’s teachers, and we were pleased to present several students with Certificates of Achievement to reward their excellent scores on the West African exams.
FUEL Youth is very excited to work with the people of Messima to build a school that will prove to be an investment in the future of their village. The village has already begun the process of making bricks for the structure, and we will focus our efforts on raising funds to pay for other infrastructural needs, as well as a water filtration system, school furniture and educational materials. We will be working hard in 2009--along with the people of Messima--to get the school up and running, and will be working with the Liberian government and other Liberian groups to solicit governmental sponsorship of the school and recruit qualified teachers, to make the Messima school a successful and sustainable project for the community.
