LIBERIA
By Bisi Iderabdullah

It has been 18 years since I first met Plenty when I came back to the U.S. from Liberia where my family had moved five years earlier.  I was desperate for solutions to respond to the unfolding devastation I’d witnessed as a result of the Liberian civil war.  Starvation, mass migrations, poverty, tribal massacres, destruction and war were all but ignored by the international community.  I expected that calls to groups like CARE would get all the food we needed for Liberia’s starving masses.  President Doe had been killed in September of 1990 and I thought that my calls to Jessie Jackson, Randall Robinson and other prominent Black leaders, would get them to mediate the conflict between warlords Charles Taylor and Prince Johnson.  There was no law in the Liberia, and everything was being destroyed and I’m convinced even today that a US-brokered mediation could have ended the war 14 years earlier and avoided the subsequent wars in Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.

Bisi (right) meets with Imani House staff in Liberia.

But no one seemed to be interested. I soon became exasperated by the number of “not now”s and “sorry”s and disillusioned by the lack of interest by Americans who I thought would have raised their voices to end the war in Liberia, a country founded by African-Americans in the early 1800s.  At some point during all of these let downs I decided that if Liberia was going to get help, I was going to have to do something myself.  I didn’t know how to begin, but I knew that I had to learn quickly.

I called my husband who had stayed behind in Liberia and asked him to give me the phone number listed in the back of a book we used for our home birthings, Spiritual Midwifery.  I didn’t expect much help, but I had been inspired by the founders of the Farm for years and felt if anyone could help maybe they could.  After all they had a listing in the back of their books that offered to help poor communities with food. I didn’t even know if the number was still active but I decided it was worth a try.  What a pleasant surprise when someone answered the phone and I got a “maybe” on my first call. They told me about Plenty and asked that I call the Plenty office and tell them my story, which I did.

The rest is the history that has me writing an update on my recent trip to Liberia just two weeks ago.  Plenty has been a friend of Imani House and mine ever since. Not only did they find the funds to send agricultural specialists Chuck Haren and Gomier Longville to Liberia with me. They also sent me to Nigeria to study tropical agriculture and soybean growth and utilization, helped us raise funds, sent our Liberian Physicians Assistant to Senegal for dental training, hosted my visit to Nicaragua in 2006 to learn how a successful soybean enterprise for grassroots people works, and Plenty has continued over the years to offer Imani House support, advice, friendship and assistance.

While Imani House was never able to feed everyone in Liberia in need of food, or directly end the war, we stuck it out and our small group has been able to give free health care, send much needed relief supplies, needled the international agencies to do more, and opened clinics, demonstration farms and self-help projects. While we are still a small fry in a sea of fast voracious fish (the international giants), the impact of our response, the dedication, sacrifices and skills of our Liberian members and the continuity of our efforts, have become legendary in Liberia.  Our current programs include a Maternal and Childcare Clinic in the rural area of Brewerville, Adult Literacy and Life skills classes for Market Women, and Demonstration Farming. Our objectives now are to expand our Adult Literacy throughout Liberia (illiteracy in Liberia is over 70% among women), establish mobile health units to go into rural areas where health care in non-existent, and set up soybean growth and utilization enterprises that will improve the health of Liberia’s children and earned income for women’s groups throughout the country.

Imani House welcomes support for our programs in Liberia.  We also accept volunteers who are willing to work at least six months on the ground with Imani House Liberia.  Please visit www.imanihouse.org, or call 718 638 2059 for more information.