In 1990 Plenty got a call from Bisi Iderabdullah, an African American woman from Brooklyn who was living in Liberia with her family. Liberia had erupted into a civil war and Bisi started IMANI HOUSE International (IHI) to help take care of some of the victims in the capital, Monrovia. She had opened a clinic and orphanage and was calling Plenty for assistance. Since that time Plenty has sent soy agriculture and food processing technicians to Liberia to work with IMANI HOUSE on a project helping small farmers and also to introduce soy foods to Liberian families, internal refugees and at the orphanage. During the past few years the fighting among government and rebel forces in Liberia has continually worsened forcing the resignation of the president and the intervention of peacekeepers this summer. Following is the latest report from Bisi to Plenty:

Statement from Bisi Iderabdullah
9/10/03

On April 9, the IMANI HOUSE clinic and site for over 10,000 Liberian’s displaced by war was attacked by LURD rebels. The area is located at Jahtondo Town, a rural area located 13 miles outside of the capital city of Monrovia. LURD forces were responsible. They began their fight in 1999 to Liberate Liberia from what they considered the undemocratic repressive regime of President Charles Taylor, former warlord turned head of state.

LURD's attack was brutal, with shelters being burned, people killed, relief food intended for the Internally displaced (IDP’s) stolen, our clinic and work facility ransacked and looted and two staff, a young ward of IHI and a patient abducted.

The head Administrator of IMANI HOUSE, Benjamin Grant, had his home looted in March and he moved into my home with his children and extended family for safety. In July my home also fell victim, this time to government soldiers bent on destroying Monrovia since their President, Taylor, was being asked to leave. The occupants of the house were chased out, everything was looted and they shot up the ceiling causing rain to come into the house and finish the job they had started. Shortly after that the only IHI facility still untouched was our headquarters, a converted apartment that we used for Adult Literacy and sewing classes for market women. Two bombs hit the building and looting of that entire area by government soldiers began and ended when everything was gone.

While IMANI HOUSE has taken serious losses of morale and property, our members remain whole and willing to continue the struggle. With the arrival of outside troops to secure the city, the four people kidnapped from IHI returned safe and unharmed and this has raised hopes tremendously. Currently, our members are cleaning up the clinic to reopen it in order to offer services to the IDP’s and surrounding residents. They are cleaning up the house, the headquarters and have cut back on all cost which were barely minimal anyway. I have set up a series of forums on this side to attempt to get the American public outraged at what is going on in this tiny country and in other countries like it. Liberians on the continent live in squalor, empty schools, open fields, sick from the rains, fearing for their lives and subject to cholera and other diseases which are on the rise. 40% of the children are malnourished and 80% of the country is still warring and unsafe to return to.

I’m attempting to raise emergency funds to at least equip the clinic and cover the cost of repairs and replacements on the headquarters so that classes can begin again. We don’t want to go out like this after 17 years, the people we work with are depending on us to keep it going and I’m trying my best as always.

I’ve been asked by a filmmaker to join him to do a film about Liberia that would be used as a vehicle to bring attention to Liberia’s history and the need to save it as a legacy to the African Americans and indigenous people who built and turned it into an independent republic which inspired the rest of Africa to seek their independence. There is so much that is not known about this tiny country, hopefully a film and campaign such as the one done for South Africa will bring all of this to light and get more people involved in helping to find sustainable solution that we hope will spread to other warring countries.

I can be reached for comments, concerns, alliances, those who want to help in any way at 718 638 2059 or IMANI@imanihoue.org. Thanks,