The New Social Worker Vol. 20, No. 4, Fall 2013 | Page 30

Marie Washington School Project: Paintings From the Heart
by Tierny Ulmer, BSW

I

would like to begin with a letter I received from the principal at the Marie Washington Elementary School,
Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa.
My heartfelt greetings to all of you who
for the cause of humanity have left your
important duties to show kindness to
the vulnerable and destitute children of
Liberia; whose appalling conditions were
exasperated by years of civil upheaval.
The Marie Washington Primary School
was established in 2000 to cater to
absorb the growing number of destitute
children who remain out of school because
they lack basic educational needs such
as tuition and uniforms. Our ten years

Tierny Ulmer and Caitlyn Tumulty went
to Monrovia, Liberia, to meet the principal,
Amos Quaye (pictured with his wife and
mother), and the Marie Washington Primary
School students (pictured on next page).
of operation has been an “uphill battle.”
On many occasions, we were faced with
problems of dealing with kids who slept
on empty stomachs and returned to school
on empty stomachs. It’s often times hard
to raise teachers’ salaries. Paramount
of all problems was how to mitigate
excruciating pain and mental tension the
kids encounter as a result of learning in
makeshift and superseded facilities. This
is why we are overwhelmingly excited
to hear about your timely intervention
in helping upgrade and modernize our
facilities. The project when completed
will help in the achievement of our
dream, namely: accommodate many more
students, elevation of the school to Junior
High level and above all it will dignify
the kids, regardless of their status; they
will feel a sense of human. (Principal
Amos Quaye, February 12, 2011)

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The New Social Worker

As I read this e-mail aloud to 80

people at our first fundraiser, thoughts
were racing through my head of “how
we would dignify these kids,” “how we
can make them feel a sense of human,”
“how can we raise $8,900?” It all seemed
simple in the beginning, around affluent
Rotarians who pass grants and complete
projects with sums of money as large as
$500,000. Our fundraiser, a Liberian
gala with traditional Liberian food and
Liberian music, was a giant leap forward.
We all felt ready and had the confidence
that this would be achievable, perhaps
even easy, after seeing 80 people show
up to our first event. It would be a
perfect choice for our first international
project.

Liberia is a West African country
located on the Atlantic Ocean—a country
known for its brutal years of civil war
from 1989 to 2003. Liberia was founded
to settle emancipated slaves from the
United States. Monrovia, Liberia’s
capital, is named after United States
President, James Monroe, as he was a
supporter of colonization in Liberia. As
social work students at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, we are often fortunate to sit in classes with students from
all over the world, and for us in particular, many students from Liberia. January
of 2011 started a stream of events and
inspiration for the Rotaract Club on West
Chester University’s Campus. Rotaract
is a service organization under the social
work school at our university and is the
18- to 30-year-old version of Rotary
International, the largest service organization in the world, located in more than
180 countries. Our classmate Oreta Zaza,
born and raised in Liberia, came to one
of our first Rotaract meetings.

In a small meeting room, Oreta
shared with us her stories of living in
Liberia during its civil war. We heard
heart wrenching stories about hardships
she endured while being a woman in a
conflict area and interventions she had
to take because of her gender. Oreta told
us of her dream of remodeling the Marie
Washington Primary School, a school she
had been donating to in her hometown
for years. Suddenly, Rotaract members
felt a call to action and asked Oreta
what we could do to help. She put us in
contact with Amos Quaye, the principal

Fall 2013

of the primary school. Rotaract and the
renewed service club at WCU started
their first ever international project of
raising $8,900 to reconstruct the Marie
Washington Primary School in Monrovia, Liberia.

Planning the Benefit Gala

Over the next two years, we would
go through the process of raising $8,900
and surpassing our goal by $2,500 for
students to regain their dignity and be
able to go to school in a comfortable
learning environment. After hearing
Oreta’s story that snowy January day, the
10 Rotaract members in our club were all
ready to tackle this project and change
the world, hoping that we could raise the
funds in a timely manner and send the
money to Liberia. After jumping into the
project and searching for ways to raise
the money, we noticed that collecting
$8,900 isn’t a simple task.

We noticed immediately the ebb
and flow of enthusiasm, as successes
were achieved and obstacles encountered. When our Rotaract Club members
heard Oreta’s story and dream, we were
all ready to take this project by storm.
We would sit for hours trying to figure
out how we could raise $10,000. We
would brainstorm different fundraising
techniques and ideas, Google grants that
assist international projects, and all kept
agreeing on starting off with one large
fundraiser that we titled “The House of
Hope Gala.”

As we planned the gala, enthusiasm
ran high, which helped energize our
efforts and kept club members actively
engaged. E-mails would flow about who
to invite, how we should set up the room,
how we could incorporate Liberia, how
we could reflect the need. Everyone was
thinking and contributing.

Those enthusiastic three months of
planning led to a successful event. Our
heads came together with the help of our
club advisor and teacher, Dr. Richard
Voss, and we created the idea of having
the children send paintings of what education meant to them. With such creativity coming from students, we were able
to sell some of their paintings for $300.
We left that night energized, raising more
than $2,500, which was a great start but
far from our goal.