LET
c/o AllAfrica Foundation
920 M Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
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For information contact infolet@comcast.net |

The Liberian Education Trust (LET) was established
to support the restoration of basic education in Liberia. Unfortunately,
seventy percent of the population in the country is illiterate.
Most schools throughout the country were destroyed during the
conflicts, and during that time many teachers fled or were killed.
Few children of any age have received any education over the 14
years of wars and the small numbers of schools which have been
re-opened since the end of the conflicts are overcrowded. Less
than half of the school age children living in Liberia are enrolled
in school and most teachers are working as volunteers.
Girls face a particularly difficult challenge
in enrolling in school and staying there. There is a historic family
preference to send boys to school, and girls who do go to school
face the well-documented and pervasive practice of sexual and labor
exploitation by male teachers who dominate the teaching profession.
The drop out rate among girls is high and teenage pregnancy is all
too common; additionally, the HIV-AIDS rate is rising.

The Liberian Education Trust is directed by
its President, Dr. Deborah Harding. An Advisory Board composed
of U.S.-based corporate, academic, legal, and philanthropic professionals
raise funds and make grant decisions. Located in Washington,
D.C., LET has been set up to operate with minimal overhead costs
so that funds raised go to programs to the fullest extent possible.
The president and the advisory board of LET are giving their time
at no cost.
LET has established a small locally registered
Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Liberia, LET-Monrovia which
will be positioned to take over fully from LET-DC in three years.
LET has tax-exempt status as a project of the
AllAfrica Foundation, a U.S. public charity, that focuses public attention
on critical issues of African development. All contributions to LET are
tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by federal law.
Dr. Deborah Harding worked for roughly half
her career in Africa on grass roots development and half her career
in philanthropy. She spent a decade at the German Marshall Fund
of the US, and then joined George Soros as vice president of his
foundation where she managed some $500 million in grants annually to his
28 national foundations in Eastern Europe. She retired in March
2005.
The original advisory board of U.S.-based professionals
is chaired by Robert Sirleaf, son of President Sirleaf and Managing
Director of Wachovia. Other members in addition to Deborah Harding
include Dr. Allida Black, editor of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers
at George Washington University; Dr. Julianne Malveaux, economist
and author; and Judy Slotkin, a New York-based corporate director
and non-profit trustee.
For information contact
infolet@comcast.net
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