MONROVIA — An international Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) named and styled Mary Himmie Youth Rehabilitation Foundation, based in the United States and Liberia, has ended a one day awareness program aimed at giving hope and instituting plans and programs to curtail the huge number of disadvantaged youths across the country.
Disadvantaged youths are commonly known as “zogos” in Liberia.
The awareness program was held at the foundation’s home in the Chicken Soup Factory Community in Gardnesville, outside Monrovia on Monday, March 15.
Speaking during the program, the foundation’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Pastor Mary Himmie disclosed that her decision taken to seek adequate care for disadvantaged youths is in line with a revelation from God.
She added that the vision also sparked up when she saw a baby sucking one of the breasts of her mother who was killed during the 1990 civil war in Liberia when she had already gathered several children to flee the war.
Pastor Himmie noted that though the sucking child was abandoned by others, she pitied her condition and fled with her along with the other children she was carrying.
According to her, the sucking baby who was motherless at the time is now a high school graduate, and one of the managers of a local company trading medicines in Liberia.
She recounted the ill-treatment meted against her by an unidentified lady who took her from a village in Cape Palmas, Maryland County to reside in Monrovia, after her biological mother fell ill at the age of 7.
Pastor Himmie recalled that the situation led her to abandon the home at an early age to sleep under market tables during the late night hours.
This situation, she added, motivated her to extend helping hands as a “dreamer” to cater and provide basic necessities to needy Liberian citizens.
“When I went to America, God revealed another revelation to me that I should take care of the less fortunate children instead of the orphanage home because; these children are big, big in the streets and nobody to help them”.
“In the night (during the war) children will be crying under sometimes five to six men and we will take flashlight to go there and the men will start running away. I want to let you know that Jesus loves you and Mary Himmie love you too. That’s why I am here to help you”.
She disclosed that as part of a long term plan, an agriculture initiative will be implored by her foundation to ensure that disadvantaged youths who have been rehabilitated, engage into rice farming to help contribute to food security in Liberia.
For his part, a member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation, Mr. Montgomery Wolo, disclosed that the organization remains committed and willing to provide adequate support and care for “zogos” through various stages.
According to him, the group will firstly create intense awareness aimed at discouraging the minds of young people against substance and drug abuse across the country.
He noted that the Mary Himmie Youth Rehabilitation Foundation will take disadvantaged youths from the streets and placed them in dormitories, and provided all of the basic needs needed to survive as part of efforts to dignify and ensure that they go through rehabilitation void of any hindrance.
Mr. Wolo added that these disadvantaged youths taken from the streets will be fed three times a day, while Pastors and Imams will also be invited to preach the word of God or provide counsel on a regular basis.
According to him, a vocational school will be established by the Foundation to provide skill training to those who have been taken from the streets and rehabilitated to make them self-dependent and leave unwholesome practices.
“This is about our society Liberia. Some of our friends here are just unfortunate. No care and some of them it is just because of peer pressure. We are not better than them; some of them if they tell their stories, they are even better than us. We know most of the things our brothers and sisters are going through; but those are not things that you should go through. We have bigger dreams for you once you are transformed”.
“Nowadays Liberians perception about you is that, you are not anybody. But for us, we say you are somebody. Some of you sitting here today will be transformed and will be example of other people out there. We pray that one of these days one of you will have the opportunity to leave from here and go to the United States to explain this organization to the people there to let them know that this thing is not a joke”.
Mr. Wolo urged the disadvantaged youths to be willing and decisive to be rehabilitated in a bid to contribute their quotas to the growth and development of Liberia and the wellbeing of their respective families.
For their part, the disadvantaged youths commended Pastor Himmie for having “good plans” for them during these difficult times in the history of the country.
They expressed willingness to desist from taking in dangerous substances and drugs, sleeping in ghettoes and engaging into other bad habit, but the lack of adequate support from government and others makes it difficult for them to do so.
They claimed that though most of them are skillful, there exist no clear opportunity for them to be hired to carry on masonry, plumbing, carpentry, tye and dye, tailoring, among others.
They, however, vowed not to abandon or downplay the dreams and aspirations of Pastor Himmie and other members of the Foundation’s Board of Directors.
In 1994, the Mary Himmie Youth Habilitation Foundation was established as an orphanage in Monrovia. The orphanage was later registered in the USA as a non-profit and charitable organization.
In August 2019, the Foundation’s Founder/CEO decided to amend the original corporate structure of the orphanage to reflect the current trend of youth in Liberia.
Pastor Himmie then transformed the orphanage into a foundation under the captioned: Mary Himmie Youth Habilitation Foundation.
The primary objective of the Foundation is to facilitate the development and rehabilitation of Liberia’s homeless and wayward youths into productive and responsible citizens. The group seeks to also establish vocational, technical and academic facilities to develop and empower young Liberians regardless of political affiliation, religion or tribe.
Its goal is to produce “high quality-minded” youths that would be inspired to help contribute to the economic, political, social and cultural development of the nation.