December 5, 2019  · AMY HECKMAN

For women and girls living in Liberia, life can be difficult. The country ranks 150 out of 159 countries on the gender inequality index (UNDP, 2015), with only 17 percent of girls receiving any secondary-level schooling. A girl in Liberia has limited options when it comes to her future, and 36 percent of girls in Liberia are married before the age of 18. This inequality leads to high rates of abuse and gender-based violence. Nazarene churches in Monrovia saw the need and have worked to meet it. They united to create the Empowering Women with Dignity project as a way to offer women opportunities to improve their economic conditions and affirm and restore their God-given dignity. This year’s NCM Christmas Project will provide support for vocational classes to empower women and girls. When you give, you’ll help open the door to new opportunities and create hope for a better future. Over the next few posts, we’ll share the stories of women who have benefitted from the program.

Yassah joined the Empowering Women with Dignity training program to become a caterer. Like many women in Liberia, she is illiterate. A trade like catering can make all the difference for women like Yassah. Her teachers immediately noted her passion for the work and desire to learn and reach her dreams. When the time came for Yassah to open her catering business, she took the bold step of employing a fellow student who lacked start-up funds. Now they’re partners, with Yassah sponsoring Tigge until she is ready to launch her own business. Yassah’s success means self-sufficiency. She’s able to provide for her family, and she’s enabled to generously lift up others like her friend Tigge along the way. This year’s NCM Christmas Project will provide for more women to train in a new vocation and find the same self-sufficiency.

Women in baking classes.

To give to the Christmas Project, visit ncm.org/christmas.