Rehab Africa

As a young social entrepreneur, access to funding opportunities is already extremely limited. Being from Liberia complicates this situation further. On the other hand, Spending the Elevate Prize funding in Liberia allows for resources to go much further and make a large-scale impact. The Elevate Prize will improve the lives of thousands. Our goal is to establish a community space that will serve as a physical home for our (currently homeless) education, technology, and entrepreneurial programming. It will also allow us to augment resources that can be brought out into the communities, helping us tackle urgent needs for underserved Liberian Youth in low-income communities. The funding would not only allow us to pay for infrastructure costs, but also help us to cover operations expenses that would allow us to scale and accelerate our vital work. Currently, the entire staff that works on Rehab Africa, including myself, works as full-time volunteers in addition to full-time roles as students among other jobs.

Rehab Africa was founded in part by my personal experience. At the early stage of my life, I never had access to opportunities, but always wanted to create one for myself and those around me. Why? My sister dropped out of school because she got pregnant at 16. Before she was pregnant, we walked 15 miles to school each day—usually on an empty stomach. With breakfast nonexistent and lunch a luxury, we would see a meal at home on a lucky day. Our parents were extremely busy with work, but only earned $100USD in an average month. I come from a young country, and millions share my difficult story, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

The purpose of Rehab Africa is to “Transform Liberia Through the Power of Youth.” We envision a future where everyone, irrespective of gender or socioeconomic background, has access to mental health, education, technology, and entrepreneurial opportunities. We have created an organization for youth by youth, and together, we’re cultivating a better future.

Our goal is simple. We want to establish Liberia’s first National Youth Center, a free, physical co-working and community space that will help us break barriers for young people across Monrovia.

Rehab Africa is a registered nonprofit organization with the mission to bring Liberian youth out of social isolation, discrimination, and poverty through our pillars of Mental Health, Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Education.

Our vision is to “Transform Liberia Through the Power of Youth,” building a community for youth, by youth – one where they are empowered with skills to create better future opportunities.

Depending on how you view the current situation in Liberia, the problems outweigh the opportunities. But Rehab Africa has the power to help change that, bringing community and cultivating accessible and tangible skill-building opportunities to millions of young people. Specifically, our community focuses on 3M+ youth in Liberia, 90% of whom live in poverty and lack access to opportunities. In fact, youth are estimated to make up between 60-70% of Liberia’s population, plagued by poverty, hunger, poor education, forced labor, and high youth mortality rates. One in three young women is a teenage mother. And despite an estimated 2 million youth enrolled in high school or university, more than 50% of the country’s population remains illiterate. 

We address these problems through Outreach Initiatives, Exchange Programs, National Expo, Summit, Conferences, Student Financial Aid, and Workshops. 

While Rehab Africa may not sound extraordinary in the context of some countries, creating a community of leaders and cultivating skills outside the Liberia norm is truly an extraordinary feat. The experiences we create through our programs have the power to change lives and change the future of an entire country. We create infrastructure despite having none. We create access to education and technology for others, despite having limited access ourselves. We, as a team, breakdown barriers—because we don’t listen to those who say it can’t be done. We create our own path.

Simply put, most of the things that we do are things that have never happened in Liberia before.  Our programs are designed to deliver results and help people take action. Unlike most education in Liberia and other social sector programs, payment will never be a barrier to participate in- or benefit from Rehab Africa’s opportunities. Our offerings are open to everyone no matter your socioeconomic background. Everyone has the right to succeed. And our mindset alone is what makes us and our work innovative in our country.

At Rehab Africa we believe in education especially in the hands of entrepreneurs. Education represents the final and first pillar of our approach. In other words, Education is included in everything we do. We believe that holistic, engaging education is crucial to empower youth across Liberia. 

We use innovation and creativity as a tool to address specific problems affecting youth in Liberia all projects aligned to our mission and vision. We address those problems through Outreach Initiatives, Exchange Programs, National Expo, Summit, Conferences, Student Financial Aid, and Workshops. 

Our team put together these initiatives and programs based on the needs of young people. All Created to Create Access to equal and better Education, Developing Programs at a grassroots level, To promote Innovation and Creativity, Fight Poverty and Inequality, Making Mental Health a pillar of all institutions in Liberia - not just an ancillary mission, but a priority.

We want humanity to remember us as an institution that create a space for everyone to change their own life.