Global Philanthropic Report 2019 - SECT, VKF & Go2C

Charlotte and Claudia enjoy the facilities at a KEEP reading room
Along with her husband and children, Brenda prepared 150 educative packets that contained
math and English worksheets, colouring pages, and learning supplies like crayons, pencils,
sharpeners, erasers, etc. Each week, she would take a new set of lessons to the children in her
immediate community. If the families worked with the children and they completed the lessons,
she would give a new set, all at no cost to the parents. Members of her community thought it
was a good idea and joined the weekly outreach activities, and it grew to about 25 volunteers.
The volunteers were all from diverse backgrounds. Ultimately, the initiative reached over 7000
children in 7 months in more than 70 communities in Liberia.
As Brenda went about implementing this initiative she realized she needed many more hands to
join her at the grassroots to lift Liberia from its current state. She also realized that there was a
long way to go in developing the education system and left a lot to be desired, with many of the
teachers she interacted with themselves direly in need of additional training. As she visited over
30 communities in rural Liberia and came face to face with poverty, it broke her heart and
motivated her to do more.
KEEP was birthed in the midst of this multifarious need, growing soon into a structured
organization that now works in several counties in Liberia providing various kinds of support in
the education sector, particularly at the primary school level. KEEP currently enables
communities to create spaces that attract children to reading, positions parents to hold schools
accountable, and cultivates national awareness around literacy and the importance of reading.
KEEP identifies under-resourced public schools by working with the Ministry of Education. The
schools are selected based on population, accessibility, and community interest. They then go
ahead to foster a partnership between the school, family, and the community. Through dialogue
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