Hannah Lenore: "God bless the Amani Girls Club of Liberia!"

The following post was written by Hannah Lenore, the Amani Liberia Director. Hannah is an American missionary and a fashion designer who uses her creative skill set to partner with and empower women in Liberia. After spending some time in Liberia, and seeing many women and young girls end up in prostitution, Hannah was compelled to start the Amani Girls Club. Its mission is to educate girls early on and encourage them seek better futures.

Amani Liberia has started a wonderful program called Amani Girls Club. We are finding that in Liberia there is a severe problem of young girls not finishing primary school. They leave school at an early age due to responsibility at home, or simply a lack of support from family and community. This makes them more susceptible to young pregnancy and high-risk jobs, like prostitution. Statistics say that if a girl can succeed past the sixth grade, she has a higher chance of graduating from high school. Support to stay in school for the girl child is essential.

The Amani Girls Club’s goal is to give value and self worth to the young girls in Yekepa. We want to build these girls up and help them understand the importance of education, in hopes that they will be self-motivated to set their sights high. The Girls Club has over 150 girls already. Girls ranging from 8-13 years of age attend one of the five weekly meetings.

.

We thank God and give Him the glory for this. He has brought a wonderful team together to build the club. We have an Art Therapist who has done and incredible job designing the curriculum and spearheading the beginnings of the club. We also have great Liberian college students running the meetings, and a few compassionate local mothers reaching out to the community.

At the beginning of the meeting, the girls join in a circle and say the Amani Girls Club promise. They join their hands to form a heart with their fellow sisters.

Amani Girls Club Promise

We promise for the rest of our lives to serve God and our community.

To respect ourselves and others,

And, to live by the Amani Girls Club values:

To be confident,

To be courageous

To be honest

To be kind

And, to stay in school!

God bless the Amani Girls Club of Liberia!

____________________________________________________________________

Enjoy some more photos of the Club!