Our Mission of engaging and transforming societies through education is centered on one program - known and styled "Help A School (HAS)" Program:

THE "HELP A SCHOOL" PROGRAM

The HAS program is at the heart of our projects, with the overarching goal of empowering teachers and communities to become effective agents of education. Our approach focuses on strengthening teachers by conducting subject-mastery refresher workshops, using easily and locally made experimental materials for trainings, and teaching methods. We believe that one teacher can reach many students in several other schools. The "Help a School" program is not focused on a specific school, but serves teachers and schools from different counties all over Liberia.

Our subject mastery workshops are based on the curriculum of the Ministry of Education of Liberia for teachers. These short term professional development trainings are designed to stimulate the interest of teachers in contemporary pedagogy and key subject themes to help teachers upgrade their skills and knowledge. We use easily and locally made teaching-learning materials for experiments, where possible, or provide additional materials.

The Teacher Training Approach: Teachers equipped and inspired at the trainings return to their schools and teach multiple classes

To fulfill our mission, we seek partnerships with local and international institutions and organizations. In 2022, piloted a partnership with the “Center for Science Education” in Margibi county, Liberia to implement our 2022 Teachers Refreshers Workshops for two weeks. We also collaborate with the Department of Physics and Mathematics at the University of Liberia, which provides us with lead trainers for the teacher refresher workshops.

Our workshops have been funded by SPIE (Education Outreach Grant), OPTICA (through the 2023 Milton and Rosalind Pivoting Fellowship) and the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Helping Hands Network (English) from 2H Network on Vimeo.

Other Activities

In 2018, we entered into an agreement with the University of Liberia to serve as the main source of supply for the facilitators. As part of the agreement, the university's facilitators will also act as mentors for teachers, working with them to solve subject-specific problems.

Beyond our teacher workshops, we conduct outreach activities, particularly to inspire female students to take up science courses in High Schools and Colleges.

In 2019 and 2022, we worked with the Center for Science Education, the Ministry of Education and University of Liberia Department of Physics and Mathematics to organize two subject experts workshops for physics teachers. Our goal was to recruit at least two female science or physics teachers as participants. However, we were unable to recruit a single female physics teacher from the four participating districts!