HELENA: S412-LUG

September 2021: Thanks to the generous donation from Lisa & Mia VanderMause, Helena has been re-enrolled into school for the 2021/2022 school year. She received an incomplete for the 2020-2021 school year. Due to COVID-19 outbreak, schools in Liberia had irregular school schedule. This combined with the lack of technology in the schools, some schools made the decision to keep students in their current grade level for the 2021-2022 school year. Helena was kept in her current grade level of K-1 for the upcoming school year. She continues to live with her sister and still wants to be a paster when she grows up. (Please note: The town was practically deserted due to the outbreak of the Marburg Virus in the neighboring Guinea. Therefore, majority of the students from this town were not present to receive their school materials. Their school materials were left with the school authority to be given to our students upon their arrival.)

September 2020: Thanks to the generous donation from Lisa and Mia VanderMause, Helena has been re-enrolled into school for the 2020/2021 school year. She is in the K-1 grade this year and still wants to be a pastor when she grows up. She continues to live with her sister.

October 2019:  Meet Helena, who has been generously sponsored by Lisa and Mia VanderMause. She is 7 years old and is going to school for the first time this year in ABC. Helena lives in Lugbeyee, Liberia with her sister.  After the death of Helena’s father 2 years ago, her widowed mother had given Helena to her older sister to raise as the mother could not afford to feed all 4 of her children still living at home. Unfortunately, Helena’s sister is only 21 years old and does not have the funds to send Helena to school.  She hopes to be a pastor when she grows up.

*The roads leading to Lugbeyee are in extremely poor condition. They consist of dirt roads that are often muddy, particularly during the rainy season, and bridges constructed from wooden blocks. Whenever we visit, we typically encounter challenges such as getting stuck in the mud, having to push the car out, and requiring everyone to exit the vehicle to cross the bridge while hoping to make it safely across.*