Bendu is sitting outside her house on a bright sunny afternoon, her finger carefully tracing the words on a page in her favorite book. She begins to slowly read aloud, “I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High” (Psalm 9:1, 2, NIV).

She looks up, a broad smile spreading across her pretty face, “What God did for us is very fine. Some of us, we don’t know nothing. But God made a way out of no way.”

Bendu grew up in a small town in northeastern Liberia, dreaming of going to school. Unfortunately, her parents did not have enough money to pay the school fees, so Bendu went to work on her family’s small rice farm instead.

“It made me feel bad,” says Bendu of her parents’ decision to keep her on the farm. “I really wanted to go to school, but they said no.”
As Bendu grew, her dreams of an education began to fade. Her family struggled to make ends meet, and Bendu knew that the only way the family would survive was if she stayed on the farm and worked.

Then a brutal civil war broke out in Liberia and the little girl’s dreams faded to black. In 1989, rebel forces began to take control in the north-central part of the country. Over the next 14 years, an estimated 200,000 people were killed.

Schools throughout the country ceased to operate during the civil war, unable to open regularly. Today, an entire generation has never attended school, with an estimated 80 per cent of Liberians being both illiterate and without jobs that can sustain their families.

Last year, Samaritan’s Purse launched a literacy and livelihood program for rural women in northeastern Liberia. The program partners with local churches to teach women basic reading, writing, and math skills. Each class ends with a discussion of the Bible, to teach the women about the love of Jesus Christ and to strengthen the church in the community.

Bendu was at church one Sunday when her dream of going back to school was rekindled. The pastor announced that a literacy program would be starting up, and Bendu enrolled immediately.

“Today I am able to write my name,” Bendu says. “It makes me feel good. I want to learn more and more.”

Bendu has learned the alphabet and multiplication tables. The hope and confidence that learning to read has given her is remarkable.

Bendu is also part of an animal husbandry class offered by Samaritan's Purse, but she has bigger dreams than owning her own small business.

“I want to be a teacher,” she says with a shy smile. “I want to be teaching the small, small children one day. What I’m learning, let me put it in them, too.”

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Ways You Can Help
Pray Please pray that God will restore hope and dignity to hurting women around the world, and that He will provide abundant resources, effective partnerships, and meaningful opportunities to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.		Give Partner with Samaritan's Purse to break the cycle of poverty and exploitation that is oppressing women in the developing world. Donate Here.