Monrovia – The Cummings Africa Foundation is not a publicity stunt or public relations arm of for the Presidential bid of its founder Alexander Cummings; rather it is a non-profit organization whose aims and objectives stretch by far beyond the timeline of the impending 2017 general and Presidential elections.
Report by James Harding Giahyue – [email protected]
“The whole idea of setting out a non-profit organization, Cummings Foundation, is to claim some space in the governance sphere in Liberia, where Liberians can also be responsible for empowering themselves and empowering each other.” Fatu Gbedema, Country Director of Cummings Africa Foundation
Though founded in the latter part of 2015, Cummings Africa Foundation has already implemented 27 projects, some of which have impacted people within the 15 counties.
Its focus is in the areas of health, education, agriculture and arts & craft, a decision reached after a rigorous period of consultation with stakeholders.
Notable among these projects are the Foundation’s WAEC and computer lab projects.
The WEAC project saw the payment of exams fees for some 2, 322 students across 21 schools in each county, while the innovation computer lab project has led to the furnishing of computer laboratories in at the St. Clements University College and the University of Liberia. Plans are underway for the other universities.
Country Director Fatu Gbedema says Cummings Africa Foundation is here to bridge the gap between local and international nongovernmental organizations to assist government in delivering services to the people.
To achieve this, Gbedema says, the Foundation partners with several local and international organizations in targeted areas to meet specific results. My Heart’s Appeal, Vital Voices and Games Changers are just a few of the Foundation’s many local and international partners.
Unlike everyone else
There have been several foundations related to politicians in Liberia that vanishes right after elections. Cummings is the political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC) and Gbedema recognizes that there is a huge burden of public mistrust the Foundation has inherited.
“That is one of the reasons why we have a lot of skepticism about the Foundation because they think we are like everyone else,” admits Gbedema.
She said the Foundation had a series of consultations with relevant stakeholders in all of its areas of interest to know the needs of communities to make an impact.
“When Alexander Cummings founded the Foundation, his plan was to build others up,” she recalls.
“He’s a retired Coca Cola executive, and he’s worked in most of Africa—in countries that come from nowhere and have gone somewhere.
With all his experiences across the continent and internationally, he found himself in the position where he had relationships, he had network of professionals that he had worked with for many years, he sat on international boards and he sees the opportunity to be able to leverage those types of relationships to create a nonprofit organization in Liberia that will empower people in the areas of education, health, agriculture and other areas in general,” she tells FrontPage Africa in an exclusive interview.
“His intention is not to set up a foundation and then it fizzles out. We are most likely the only NGO that started looking at our work by meeting stakeholders,” she says.
“The Cummings Foundation is going to be here for a long while. Mr. Cummings is a kind of person…; he doesn’t need to be President. He can sit down and enjoy his retirement but he is a giver. He is somebody who gives.
He is somebody who wants to help solve problems. It had time for Africans to take charge of their own country, their own continent.”
Claiming space, bridging gaps
Generally, Ebola taught Liberia and the West African sub-region a lot of lessons, including lack of health infrastructure. However, Gbedema sees more to that. She sees the impact of the epidemic as far as exposing the gap between local NGOs and their international partners, stressing the need for bridging such gaps through partnership.
“International NGOs should be able to partner with local NGOs to build their capacity to be able to implement. What we saw was that we did not have the capacity; we did not even have the knowledge to know who to manage the kind of wealth that was coming to Liberia so that we put vision into place, to put infrastructure in place for preventive actions,” she says.
“What I am trying to say is that we took ownership of our country, but we are still very under-resourced. Most local NGOs don’t have resources to build their capacity to do what they need to do to help the government achieve its goals.
They are totally reliant on the donors who dictate their terms to them. Those terms may not be what we really want but because we don’t have choice—or maybe we think we don’t have choice—we take what they give us. That is why you have the situation where local NGOs always change their mission and vision to suit the person who is funding them.
“The whole idea of setting out a nonprofit organization, Cummings Foundation, is to claim some space in the governance sphere in Liberia, where Liberians can also be responsible for empowering themselves and empowering each other,” she says.
She adds that the Foundation had resolved to be a nonprofit organization because of the demand for business to focus on community-centered projects in the age of corporate social responsibility.
Partnership
The Cummings Foundation has partnered with several local and international NGOs in those 27 projects it has been able to run. Partnership is keen to the structure and system of the Foundation.
Whether it is with the YMCA, Coca Cola, Chicago Bright Foundation, My Heart’s Appeal, Game Changes and Vital Voices or with international organizations in the United States and the Europe or even in Africa, Cummings Foundation places emphasis in collaborating with them achieve a variety of things.
With the WAEC fees project, the Foundation partnered Caritas, YMCA and FACE Africa and a horde of former principals and social workers to monitor the performance of the 2,322 students in those 21 schools, who also benefited from the tutorial and feeding program for the students.
The project cost US$106,000.
On the innovation lab project at St. Clements College and the University of Liberia, the Foundation partnered with Coca Cola to equip the computer laboratory at St. Clements, while a 30-seater computer lab is being finalized for the University of Liberia.
The Foundation has disclosed plans to take the innovation labs to other universities. Each of the universities costs US$10,000.
The Foundation is also partnering with My Heart’s Appeal, a local NGO that supports people with disabilities, to set up another innovation lab for the disabled community.
Another project, a water and sanitation project, where wells were dug in several communities, was collaboration between the Foundation and the Chicago Bright Foundation.
“We are certainly trying to change people’s perception that it is only government you can work with. No! There is more work outside of government that you can even imagine,” according to her.
“We all have to blend together to build the country.”
Handicraft
The Cummings Foundation also focuses on the handicraft sector, with Gbedema recently traveling to Marrakech, Morocco for a handicraft trade and impact seminar, where she represented Liberia.
The Foundation works with Vital Voices, a United States-based organization, on the handicraft project.
She says she established contact with international foundations such as the Graça Machel Foundation, Canadian Businesswomen Association and others that she discloses are willing to mentor Liberian women into the production and trade of handicraft and others.
People in Australia, UK, US and South Africa who want to assist as well, she discloses.
Locally, the Foundation works with My Heart’s Appeal and Game Changers in the handicraft program.
There is a boutique being set up at the Foundation’s Old Road offices to serve as showroom for the exhibition of locally produced handicraft made by women.
There, the Foundation hopes to attract expatriates in the proposed “Tourism, Trade and Impact Store”. It is expected to open by the end of October.
Gbedema added that African crafts from several countries will also be on display to be inspired and do the same.
“That is the beginning of industry. Liberia technically looks down upon that but that is the beginning of industry,” Gbedema avers.