ULAA: The Last Spark prompting my Travel to Liberia to serve

                                                                        August 20, 2013

I believe it was between 2004 and 2005 when Hon. Sam Mohammed Kromah was president of The Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) when he and his leadership including the Board of Directors appointed others and me on its Humanitarian Commission to help our folks back home in Liberia after a 14-year generalized anarchy of violence. 

 

ULAA has been and is the largest and oldest Liberian Diasporic registered society.

 

When ULAA was functioning in its early days, I was a teenager in high school in Maryland County; deep in the southeastern keyhole of the Republic of Liberia.

 

Little did I know one day I would be opportune to serve this great Liberian organization in the Americas and that it would be the place where I would receive my last and most important spark towards national service.

 

I can recall after Hon. Kromah left the stage of leadership for ULAA, his vice president Hon. Madam Roberta Rashid took over along with Hon. Morris T. Koffa as her vice. They met us on the Commission and kept us working in the same direction.

 

The folks I worked with at the time were Dr. Carver, Saah N’tow, Martha Sinoe, Gail Farngalo, Dr. Mariah Seton and others.

 

Our term of reference was to solicit funding to help provide food and services for Liberians at home after the war and to help usher them back into the society. It was a humongous task. But we were measured up to it.

 

I recall, Hons. Kromah, Jackson (former board chairman) and Koffa traveled to Liberia to introduce our first project. During that trip, they distributed rice and other food items including educational materials and toys for kids from the Humanitarian Commission. That was the most successful and meaningful contribution of time. Liberians at home and abroad were very grateful.  

 

We continued our service to our country on the Commission until elections were held in ULAA. A new leadership was born. It appointed its own corps of Commissioners. And so we (the old commissioners) moved on to private life.

 

It was at that point my spark to go deeper into humanitarian work and national service gained momentum.

 

Even though I was no more on the ULAA Humanitarian Commission, but I could not have been so encouraged to get involved in such work that I do today in Liberia had ULAA not given me such opportunity to serve it. I am grateful to ULAA!

 

After my service on the ULAA Commission, I was so energized I began to reach out to friends and others with whom I worked on the Commission to begin this same kind of work in the same direction to help our people and country.

 

Some saw it the way I did; others did not.

 

Those who agreed with joined me to extend our work to Liberia. Some of them prefer not to be mentioned in public. So I will not mention their names herein. But thanks to them for the courage and support they have given. Some day in the future, I’m sure, they will receive their proper dues.

 

Even though service to my country did not just begin with ULLA’s boost, it was already there and sitting in me waiting for the right time. But ULAA made a significant difference on me.

 

I knew that someday after the war in Liberia, I would return to my country to help in the reconstruction effort.

 

2007 came and I was ready to move to Liberia temporarily to start my work. Family members and friends did not expect me to have done so that fast. But my passion wouldn’t allow me to wait any longer. Quickly I took off.

 

My dad had already trained me in community work. He also trained me to love my country. My Church, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, helped. The high school I graduated from, Bishop Ferguson High School, had its motto based on service: “Enter to learn, go out to serve.”

 

When you combine all of these factors and look through my work, there’s no reason why one cannot believe how addicted I am to national service.

 

In fact, when I graduated high school in 1980, the Government of Liberia granted me a scholarship  to travel and study in a sister African country, Ethiopia.

 

Upon my return from Ethiopia, I am one of the very few individuals among many who gave back to Liberia. I served the country for two unbroken years pro bono before returning to Ethiopia for studies on my own accord and risk.

 

I serve my country as supervisor of the adult education and literacy program in Lower Bong County. I was particularly assigned in the Faumah District. I ran the area of Zaweakomu Clan – from Bongtown, Zaweata, Hneyea (my spelling) straight through Mawah to Haindi. Every village and hamlet within this Clan saw my face and enjoyed my service. I walked distances that took me more than three hours. I left my living quarters at 7am and returned at 12am the next morning each time I went to work. I helped construct schools, centers and encouraged leaders, women and others of each community and village to learn how to read and write.

 

 I am proud to report, some of those young people who did not take education seriously prior to my assignment in the area, as a result of my help, some of them are successful today in Liberia academically. Some of them met me in Liberia and thanked me for the change in their lives.

 

Addition to ULAA boost, President Sirleaf traveled to the United States. She asked Liberians in the Diaspora to return home and help her government in its reconstruction drive. By then, I was already set and ready to go to work. I had already set up an NGO that established and registered in the US. The NGO was already functioning on the ground in Liberia. Community centers were operating; facilitators were receiving monthly Honorarium; educational materials were made available for the kids and elders who gained tremendously from the programs. We paid rent for structures and provided electric generators to provide lights for the environment and movies for the kids as part of our “Kids-After-School-Program.” 

 

In 2007 when I touched the soil in Liberia I already had work being done on the ground.

 

People who did not understand why I came to Liberia are now convinced of my work. Some of them thought my decision to come to Liberia was a “stupid” one. They thought Liberia was/is not the place for me to come and work. Some discouraged me.

 

As a result, some of the people surmised that my coming to Liberia was because I was “deported.” Others said I came to search for “big” jobs and other political greener pastures.

 

Today, there are some who claim I work for the CIA. Otherwise, they don’t understand why I am refusing to accept government’s offer for jobs. And why I am refusing to accept petitions from those who are convinced of my sacrificial work to my country for me to take elective positions.

 

All in all, I believe in not too-distant future, my critics and detractors will agree my stories are true and my work has won me significant scores.

 

 

 

I am Thomas G. Bedell, a volunteer worker; working and speaking on the ground in Liberia, a victim of police brutality and candidate for citizenship repudiation.