SHIFSD Liberia Organizational Profile

Date of Establishment:

SHIFSD was founded in the Central Region of Ghana by a group of Liberian Refugees on November 11, 2000. Today, the organization is duly incorporated as well as accredited (MPEA/NGO/AC#0369) in Liberia and has relocated its office to Monrovia, Liberia.

Head Office Location: Bend & Stop, Bardnersville Estate Road, Monrovia, Liberia

Zwedru Office: In Zwedru, SHIFSD has a functional Field Office located in Boley Community, Sinoe Road , Grand Gedeh County. This office coordinates our work in the southeastern part of Liberia.

Vision:

SHIFSD envisage a just society free of illiteracy and poverty.

Mission Statement:

SHIFSD exists to reduce poverty through access to Functional Adult Literacy and Entrepreneurship. We believe that through ensuring access to functional adult literacy and economic entrepreneurship, SHIFSD will be contributing to the fight against abject poverty and the lack of resources which breed social imbalances that lead to conflicts. We believe also that sustainable development is inextricably linked to the active promotion of Human Rights.

Core Values:

Our core values are:

• Integrity-For us it means doing what you say you will do, when you say you will do it, and how you say you will do it.
• Justice- reliance in the rule of law and ensuring full participation of all stakeholders
• Transparency and Accountability- openness in our entire program work and becoming answerable to the donors, partners and project beneficiaries.
• Good Governance- it means consensus building and shared leadership

SHIFSD's core program objectives are to:

• Increase access to quality adult education (using REFLECT as the main participatory tool) for underprivileged people in rural communities in Liberia;
• Improve school performance, and community participation in school governance;
• Increase youth civic responsibility and Liberian Pride through educational activities on rights and responsibilities, gender, health, human rights, peace and tolerance, and environmental care;
• Increase micro-enterprise development opportunities for disadvantaged people through skills training, the provision of micro-loans and refurbished tools;
• Enhance youth and adults leadership skills and self-confidence through training and information sharing.

Expected Outcomes in relation to core program objectives:

• Significant improvement of and increased access to quality adult education for underprivileged people, especially women and youth, with a focus on basic literacy and numeracy
• School performance enhanced, and community participation in school governance improved
• Liberian youth demonstrate civic responsibility and Liberian pride through engagement in related programs and activities
• Rural women and men attain self economic empowerment by driving the own development agenda;
• Youth and adults gained leadership skills, self-confidence and their access to information increased.

Human Resources:

SHIFSD currently has 15 full time and over 50 part time staff including one volunteer; many of whom have background in education. The management holds periodic staff meetings to discuss and make decisions; all decision makings are participatory. The organization also has a seven member Board of Directors.

Financial resources (i.e. cash and in-kind donations):

SHIFSD's institutional donors and/or supporters are: American Jewish World Service (AJWS), MIVA/onemen; Stichting INITIAT, Wild Geese Foundation, ZOA Refugee Care Liberia, Norwegian Human Rights Funds (NHRF), Gered Gereedschap, Ibis Liberia, Universal Hope Initiative (UHI) and IREX/WANEP Liberia.

Who does the NGO receive technical support from?

SHIFSD receives technical support from the American Jewish World Service (AJWS), Ibis Liberia, ZOA Refugee Care Liberia, National Adult Education Association of Liberia (NAEAL) and IREX/WANEP Liberia.

Overview of projects:

The nature of our programs/projects and day-to-day decisions or choices is informed by our vision. Our areas of intervention are:

a) Functional Adult Literacy (FAL):

• Functional Adult Literacy Programs using the Regenerated Friarean Literacy through Empowering Community Techniques (REFLECT) with focus on women's participation;

b) Ent:repreneurship:

• Microfinance/micro-enterprise development;
• Provision of access to entrepreneurial skills training;
• Sourcing and distributing of re-furbished tools for entrepreneurial purposes;

SHIFSD's target beneficiaries are: the youth, refugees and women in deprived communities.

SHIFSD seeks out and partners with local and international organizations or institutions with which it shares similar mission.

Achievements: current and past activities highlights:

• In May of 2009, SHIFSD started and still runs a Microcredit with Education Program in the Pleebo-Soloken District of Maryland County with support from AJWS and Stichting INITIAT. The Innovative Micro-credit with Education Program, having been piloted by SHIFSD in Ghana, is solely intended to provide micro-loans along with entrepreneurial skills training, health and nutrition amongst others for returnees and rural poor women in the Southeastern part of Liberia.

The number of program beneficiaries rose from 40 to 187 women presently. The program uses the group solidarity model as described by the United Nations Capital Development Fund's (UNCDF) best practices and includes an informal educational component as designed by Freedom from Hunger. However, following SHIFSD's program staff acquisition of knowledge and skills in the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Microfinance Distant Learning Course including the ILO organized Generate Your Business Idea/Start Your Business (GYBI/SYB), and the Start & Improve Your Business (SIYB) Training of Trainers' program, SHIFSD integrated the SIYB into its entrepreneurial skills training activities for improved and sustainable impact.

• In August 2011, SHIFSD entered into a former partnership with Ibis Liberia to implement a 3year REFLECT & Literacy along with a women empowerment project in Grand Gedeh County following series of activities for which SHIFSD was contracted by Ibis -Liberia to develop rural teachers training resource materials for Ibis' ALP Teachers and trainers based in Buah District, Grand Kru County. Besides that, the organization also with support from Ibis did student councils sensitization and leadership training in 25 ALP schools in Maryland & Grand Kru; developed two resource materials entitled "Student Councils Trainer Manual" and "My ALP Student Council Handbook". The group was before that contracted to train the Ibis Youth Education Pack (YEP) trainers, Fish Town, River Gee County, in the REFLECT methodology and subsequently a REFLECT Facilitators manual entitled "Basics of Reflect: A Trainer's Guide" for Ibis' YEP, and in July of 2010completed work on a guidebook entitled "Ibis' Approach to Teacher Training in Liberia", amongst others.

• With support from Action Aid Liberia and Pamoja West Africa, SHIFSD successfully undertook a one month Policy Analysis of Non-formal Education Policies and Poverty Reduction Strategy Documents and subsequently concluded the study with a validation workshop on the findings in September/October 2010; as a result of the policy research, SHIFSD was asked by the Core Education Skills for Liberian Youth (CESLY) to develop a chapter of the national Non-Formal Education (NFE) Curriculum comprising of 19 lessons. Also in November of 2010, SHIFSD was invited to make a presentation on Reflect & Its Relevance to Life Skills at the Ibis, Concern Worldwide and partners' West Africa Regional Meeting (WARM) on Education; the presentation was successfully made and this led Ibis and Concern Worldwide to choose Reflect as their main tool for teaching Life Skills. In the same vein, SHIFSD has got a contract to train Ibis and Concern staff in the Reflect Methodology.
• In partnership with ZOA Refugee Care Liberia, the organization is presently carrying out Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) project in 80 communities covering 3 counties (Montserrado, Margibi and Bong). In one of these communities know as Low Cost Village, SHIFSD recently started a Sewing Skills Training project for 45 women attending the literacy classes with sewing machines donated by Gered Gereedschap. Prior to the FAL project, HIV/AIDS prevention coupled with Educational Instructional Support activities in 78 communities located in Montserrado and Margibi counties carried out with support from ZOA. And before the AIDS project, SHIFSD successfully organized a 2week HIV/AIDS Prevention through Peer Education for Youth and Trainers' training workshop, December 3-17, 2008, in collaboration with the US-based Peer Education Program International and with sponsorship from ZOA Refugee Care-Liberia and FOHRD.
• SHIFSD is member of various civil society organization networks in Liberia such as the New African Research and Development Agency (NARDA), the Liberia Education for All Technical Committee (LETCOM), and the Development Consortium – Liberia (TDC-L).
• Our organization has provided literacy and numeracy skills to hundreds of Liberian Refugee Women through its Adult Literacy (REFLECT) Program then in Ghana with support from Action Aid Ghana and the Ghana REFLECT Practitioners Network commonly known as PAMOJA Ghana. SHIFSD also contributed to the improvement of the literacy and numeracy skills of out-of-school children through its former Children Better Reading Project. In 2005 the project was upgraded and transformed into the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP). ALP was been funded by Ibis West Africa, and enrolled 420 mostly Liberian refugee children between the ages of 8-17 whose parents could not afford to send them to school in the camp. Health Education: SHIFSD significantly contributed toward the increment of students' knowledge on HIV/AIDS & STDs, Hygiene, Malaria, etc. through the formation of student Anti-AIDS Clubs, amongst others, in schools within the Buduburam Refugee Settlement. In addition, the group trained over 193 HIV/AIDS Peer Educators. Awarded full sponsorships to three (3) needy Liberian Refugee Children in April 2006 with support from Mrs. Susan Middleton and Family based in the USA. The Child Sponsorship covers tuition, books and others, and is expected to run from primary school up to university level.
• SHIFSD fed over 167 ALP pupils with one hot meal daily (i.e. Monday to Friday) for 2 years through its School Lunch Program then in the Buduburam Refugee Camp. Health Education activities were integrated into the school lunch program. The group provided nine-month skills training to several Liberian Refugee Women through its Accelerated Skills Training Project (i.e. sewing) in 2007. These women and others also benefited from the SHIFSD's Micro – Credit with Education Pilot Program, of which the accelerated skills' training was an integral part.

• Constructed a two-block building containing three offices, a conference room, a cafeteria, a kitchen and a store room; it also constructed a 4 classroom building, with funding from CORDAID and Ibis.
• Launched a Human Rights Education & Peer Mediation Pilot Projectfor primary school children, particularly pupils of ALP, in April of 2007, following the conduct of series of peace, tolerance, and conflict resolution workshops by interns from the Stanford Law School. Conducted Needs Assessment and Refugee Survival Strategy Survey in collaboration with the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA) at the Settlement in 2004. Conducted a baseline survey on the State of Education at the Buduburam Refugee Settlement in May 2005 with support from Ibis West Africa and organized series of Gender Training Workshops for Buduburam Refugees in collaboration with ABANTU for Development.

Main challenges:

Our main challenges include:

- Lack of long term funding;

- Website administration;

- Completion of the SHIFSD Multipurpose Youth Training Center

Lessons learned based on our experiences:

- A very thorough and well documented baseline survey is always necessary for proper monitoring and evaluation of any serious project since it will be very difficult if not impossible to know how far one has come unless he/she know where s(he) started from;

-Another lesson is that the future of any group of change agents lies on the will, energy, expertise and knowledge of its members, leaders and supporters, and that nothing can change unless their "hearts are in it";

-Project success depends largely on the availability of resources; proper use of meager resources coupled with accountability and transparency; respect for the views, values, cultural beliefs and shared ownership of the project by beneficiaries.

Future Plans:

SHIFSD's future plans include but not limited to:

- construction of a multipurpose youth training center to provide Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to vulnerable youths and women; and building of a viable organization that would cope with changing times.

Profile updated March 4, 2013.