funerals and hope

today william, the man in charge of the purses i sell, called to tell me that one of the women benefiting from hope's free sewing classes, veronica brown, had passed away.

she left behind one 6 yr old boy who we currently have on scholarship, veron brown, and an older daughter who i dont know.

their father died in the war and the rest of their family is in liberia. a relative should be coming back to the camp to care for them, we hope.

right now, hope is struggling to figure out how to make funeral arrangements and what will happen to these kids. from what i understand, a good portion of purse profits will be spent on these details this month.

i was reluctant at first to advance hope the month's profits for this purpose.

funeral arrangements don't hold much significance to me personally - something i am very grateful for. they are however, massive in liberian culture. ive seen a few happen, luckily rarely for people i knew well. they are a huge celebration that can last all night. they're full of singing and dancing. its not nearly as teary and somber as they are here... although the younger the person, the more i notice the sadness. money is a huge component of liberia camp funerals, from what i can tell. normally a church community and your neighbours/family pitches in. when someone dies you give money, not casseroles.

it seems as though these kids are pretty alone. i admire william, esther and the rest of hope foundation for making this sacrifice. the next month will probably be tricky, especially since they have just moved into a new office and have all the responsibilities that come with it. they have signed on the older daughter onto sponsorship as well, and are looking for ways that she could maybe get to university.

its only been a few hours so this is all coming in slowly. hope is holding meetings to figure out where their responsibilities lie.

im starting to see how complicated it is to sponsor a group of students. along with paying school fees, uniforms rip, textbooks are updated and kids need feeding. parents also seem to die, which complicates those needs all the more.

so... buy your purses. the money goes to a pretty selfless and hard working organization.

http://eattofeedliberians.com/shop.html