Students Give Forward - Visit to Fassavolu July 2010

This July we saw another demonstration of the integration of different parts of Rebuild Africa's Adaptive Community Development Process when seven scholarship recipients visited Fassavolu to 'give forward'.

On July 1st, 2010 our Liberia Field Coordinator, Robert Chiewolo, (whose story was featured in June), took 7 of our scholarship students to Fassavolu for 3 weeks. Isaac Kerkula, Emmanuel Kolonight, Ballah Yengbeh, Thomas Korvah, Aaron Dennis, Philamena Miaway and Norwu Yorgbor arrived the next day and got straight to work.

The five young men helped bring construction of the first house to completion. The villagers were overjoyed, and Town Chief Solomon Ngaimai Kehelee said, "I thank God for Bill Massaquoi and the entire Rebuild Africa family. I also want to say thank you to all of my town people for the hard work. It is about time that we work even harder to make sure we build our whole town."

Vacation Bible School

141 students registered from Fassavolu town and a nearby village called Bonolahum. It was led by Philimena, Norwu and Isaac, and made a tremendous impact on the lives of the children. Prior to the Vacation School, parents and teachers in Fassavolu reported 90% of the younger children were unable to write, distinguish small letters from capital letters and pronounce letters properly. Thanks to the School they are now they are able to do so.

T. Francis Jallah, Principle of the small school in Fassavolu said, "The Vacation School was the fist of its kind in Fassavolu. The presentations and teaching methods used by the Rebuild Africa Team have tremendously changed our kids over a short time period. The impact of the vacation school is a life long experience in the lives of our kids".

Alex Momoh, a teacher, said, "The kids have shown more interest in school since the RA Community service team started the vacation school. There is no doubt that the kids have changed both academically and morally in the short time period through the team presentations in class”.

Having worked with the School for two weeks, Philimena and Isaac see the need for Rebuild Africa to provide in-service training for the current teaching staff. Presently the School has only one teacher who is formally trained. However, as a way of providing some immediate interventions to this need, Isaac and Robert (Chiewolo - Rebuild Africa Field Coordinator) met with the teachers and conducted two hours of lectures on the “Characteristics of a Good Teacher” and Basic Teaching Methods”.

Work at the Church

Robert, Norwu and Philimena had the chance to challenge the girls. Robert spoke about 'Fearing God' and Norwu and Philimena shared their success stories, challenging the young girls of Fassavolu to surrender their lives to Jesus and to begin to prioritize education above early marriage, which is a major limiting factor to their educational pursuit. Helena and Oretha were just two of the girls who said they were greatly impacted as a result.

In partnership with the youth ministry of the Fassavolu Evangelical Church, the team conducted a grand youth service on the 18th of July. There were about 70 young people in attendance. Isaac was the keynote speaker of this event. He spoke on the subject, “Maximizing Your Youthfulness”. In concluding his presentation, Isaac challenged the young people to give their best to Rebuild Africa Reconstruction Project, which is meant to better their living condition. At the end the message, seven persons gave their lives to Jesus while the rest of them rededicated their lives.

	Kids with a future!