Paynesville – Serving Humanity for Empowerment and Development (SHED), a national non-governmental organization, on Tuesday, July 22 donated a consignment of essential medical supplies to the Bureau of Corrections and Rehabilitation (BCR) for distribution across five prison facilities in Liberia.

By Francis G. Boayue

The donation, valued at over US$4,500, was made possible through support from the European Union under the ongoing project, “Strengthening Democracy and Respect for Fundamental Human Rights of Prisoners in Liberia, Phase II.”

The medical supplies are intended for use at prisons in Kakata, Bondinway, Gbarnga, Sanniquellie, and Robertsport. Items donated include drugs for the treatment of malaria, skin diseases, infections, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), along with hepatitis test kits, sanitary pads for female inmates, and nose masks.

During the handover ceremony at SHED’s office in Paynesville, SHED Executive Director Joyce Q. Pajibo expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health, and other partners for their cooperation in implementing the EU-funded initiative.

“We are here to present another consignment of drugs to BCR for the benefit of inmates in five prison facilities across Margibi, Bong, Nimba, and Grand Cape Mount counties,” Pajibo said. “With continued support from our donors, SHED remains committed to ensuring the rights of inmates, particularly their access to medical care.”

Receiving the donation on behalf of the government, Assistant Minister for Corrections and Rehabilitation Gabriel F. Ndupellar thanked SHED for its ongoing support to Liberia’s prison system.

“On behalf of the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General of Liberia, Minister Natu Oswald Tweh, we extend our sincere appreciation to SHED,” Ndupellar said. “Beyond medical supplies, SHED has contributed to strengthening our infrastructure, including training for record and database officers and rehabilitation programs such as tailoring for inmates.”

Margibi County- A non-governmental organization, Serving Humanity for Empowerment and Development (SHED), as part of effort in promoting orange fleshed sweet potatoes in Liberia, has launched and harvested its first orange fleshed sweet potatoes farm to market agricultural products in Margibi.

By Francis G. Boayue

SHED with funding from BMZ, in collaboration with Welt Hunger Hilfe (WHH), on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, launched and harvested outputs from its first Orange Fleshed-Sweet Potato (OFSP) project in Margibi County.

SHED Executive Director Madame Joyce Q. Pajibo, providing an overview of the Orange Fleshed Sweet Potatoes project, said the project is a US$1.6Millon project and expected to last for 36 Months with 180 demonstration sites containing 25 members each, 4,500 individual farmers that result from the 180 groups at the demonstration level and 1200 for vegetable farmers in four counties (Montserrado, Margibi, Grand Bassa, and Bong County).

According to Madam Pajibo, the orange fleshed sweet potatoes are new in Liberia that haven’t been eaten by Liberians, adding that the project currently has 80 demonstration farms in Montserrado, Margibi, Grand Bassa and Bong County.

“Is how time that we begin to look for markets and do more awareness on the benefits of the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes on the body and also provide more income and improve the livelihood of farmers in Liberia,” she added.

Serving as launcher of the Orange Fleshed Sweet potatoes harvest, the German Ambassador to Liberia, Dr. Jakob Haselhuber, lauded SHED, WHH, the farmers for first harvest of the orange fleshed Sweet potatoes as he promised to always patronize the orange fleshed Sweet potatoes for consumption.

In remarks, Deputy Agriculture Minister for Planning and Development, Min. David K. Akoi praised SHED through its ED Madam Pajibo and all farmers which he described are the main people who are doing the job of ensuring the visibility of the agriculture ministry.

Kakata- A non-governmental organization, Serving Humanity for Empowerment and Development (SHED) with Support from the European Union, on Monday, August 12, 2024, paid an official visit to the Kakata Central prison along with a huge European Union delegation and Liberia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti and others as part of its phase two project: “Strengthening Democracy & Respect, for Fundamental Human Rights of Prisoners in Liberia.

By Francis Boayue

The Strengthening Democracy & Respect for Fundamental Human Rights of Prisoners in Liberia project is being funded by the European Union and implemented by SHED and RHRAP with the sole purpose of providing psychosocial support, vocational training, improvement of prison conditions for inmates among other activities in Margibi, Bong, Nimba, and Grand Cape Mount Counties.

The executive director of SHED, Mrs. Joyce Q. Pajibo, giving the overview of the project, said the visit of EU Ambassadors and other Government officials such as the Foreign Minister, Education Minister, and Agriculture Minister was part of an EU-supported project under the EIDHR instrument for democracy and human rights. 

According to her, the visit was intended to view SHED’s work over the last five years in the inmates’ cells, records room, recreational center, vocational skills training center, and clinic as part of phase two of the EIDHR project.

She said SHED has been working with the Kakata prison for the last five years providing legal aid support to pretrial detainees through our team of lawyers, providing computers to the record rooms, supplying medical drugs to the prison clinic, and providing psychosocial support to inmates. 

In addition to that, she further noted that SHED also works with community leaders and the religious leaders in the community, training them through the EIDRH instrument for them to be able to mediate some of the smaller cases and issues within the community to help with the decongestions situation of the prisons which are already overcrowded because of too many petty cases which could be settled by community or religious leaders.

Robertsport – A non-governmental organization, Serving Humanity for Empowerment and Development (SHED) and Rural Human Rights Activist Program (RHRAP) with Support from the European Union, on Thursday, launched Phase Two of its Strengthening Democracy & Respect, for Fundamental Human Rights of Prisoners in Grand Cape Mount County.

By Francis G. Boayue

The Strengthening Democracy & Respect for Fundamental Human Rights of Prisoners in Liberia project is being funded by the European Union and implemented by SHED and RHRAP with the sole purpose of providing psychosocial support, vocational training, improvement of prison condition for inmates among other activities in Margibi, Bong, Nimba, and Grand Cape Mount Counties.

The executive director of SHED, Mrs. Joyce Q. Pajibo, giving the overview of the project, said as the project is being launched, it will begin effective fast-track courts in the county for pre-trial detainees, adding that the project is expected to last for 36 months to offer psychosocial, tailoring, and other services to bring relief to prisoners.

“Following our level of work with inmates within the various prisons compound across Liberia through the grace of God and hard work through SHED and RHRAP we have been awarded phase two of the human rights project which has incorporated the Robertsport prison for which we are here.

According to her, the Robertsport prison is expected to benefit from all of the services provided to the other four prisons. 

“From this launch, we have began effective tailoring classes for inmates, psychosocial counseling for inmates, and recreational facilities will also be provided along with community engagement with community leaders to mitigate cases to reduce prisoners. We also want to appeal to the government of Liberia through the Ministry of Justice to expand the infrastructure of prison facilities across the country to avoid the consistent over-crowdedness at prison facilities in the country,” Madam Pajibo said.

Launching the project, the head of the European Union Delegation to Liberia, H.E. Ambassador Nona Deprez, lauded SHED and RHAP for their commitment and hard work to improve the livelihood of prisoners and further stressed the need for rehabilitation and reintegration of prisoners.

“We want to commend SHED and RHAP for their hard work of impact and what can be done to improve prison facilities. With this new project, we want to continue with this specific expertise to find a complete solution to fix these challenges of the correction system in Liberia in four counties: Nimba, Bong, Margibi, and Grand Cape Mount,” Ambassador Nona Deprez said.

In remarks, The Attorney General and Justice Minister, Hon. Natu Oswald Tweh, thanked the European Union, SHED, and RHAP for ably executing their project extension in Cape Mount in an effort to build the capacity of inmates through trade.