August 2009 budget update

Here's a summary of our August 2009 income and expenditures by project:

Robertsport Community Campsite
Income
Campsite fees for 4 people $20

Expenditure
Shower thatch $6
Bench $10
Upgrade to bathroom thatch $4

Sub-total: $0

Women's Sewing Cooperative
Income
10 beach bags $5

Expenditure
6 sets of lapa from Waterside $44
6 sets of lapa from Waterside $54
Beach bag branding $7
Beach bag branding $5
7 sets of lapa from Waterside $63
Buying beach bags from the Coop $151
Buying beach bags from the Coop $46

Sub-total - $365

Surf Liberia Scholarship Fundraising
11 Surf Liberia t-shirts $55

Project summary
Robertsport Community Campsite $0
Women's Sewing Cooperative -$365
July 2009 Community Fund -$265.50
Surf Liberia Scholarship Fundraising $55

Community Fund as of August 2009: -$630.50
Surf Liberia Scholarship money raised: $55

To support our projects and buy beach bags or Surf Liberia t-shirts, visit www.robertsportcommunityworks.org.

Behind Surf Tourism

Now and then Robertsport Community Works is approached by international journalists who seek a better understanding of our mission and our projects. In a recent interchange with a journalist who has considerable experience with surf publications and sub-Saharan travel, we were asked a question that gets to the heart of surf tourism:

"How much are you interested in increasing surf tourism in the area, and how much are you interested in just seeing to it that whatever comes is positive, clean and beneficial to the locals?"

Waves can only handle a certain number of surfers before they get crowded and become an unrelaxing hassle. All of the expatriate locals in Liberia enjoy waves that are shockingly uncrowded; they can be hesitant to embrace programs that provide Liberians with more surfboards or initiatives that attract more foreign surfers.

This journalist's question probably splits surf communities apart more often than it knits them together. My original thinking was definitely protectionist. I wanted to "see to it that whatever comes is positive, clean and beneficial to the locals" and I looked forward to enjoying the uncrowded waves with a few good friends. But against my own better interests as a surfer, we're focusing more and more on "increasing surf tourism in the area."

Why work to clutter up something that sometimes feels special because it is so isolated? The answer can be found in a raft of analytical documents about Liberia's current vulnerability. Youth unemployment is estimated at around 50% (at the absolute lowest) and opportunities for education and employment border on non-existent. This is the most destabilizing fact about this country--and it is a fact that is making many investors (private and governmental) too worried to inject real cash into the Liberian economy. Tourism can add to the nation's stability by providing lots of low-skill jobs and by providing a clear incentive to control violence and the country's public image.

I'd rather see more surfers in the water if it brings more jobs and if they help to jump start the tourism industry of Liberia. Sitting at the inaugural meetings of the Tourism Association of Liberia--to which Robertsport Community Works is offering support--makes it clear how much work must go into rebranding a country that is still widely associated with terrible things. Surfers are often some of the most adventurous travelers, some of the people who are most willing to give image-challenged nations a second chance--and then to brag about it to everyone they know.

Liberia doesn't need a closely guarded secret; Liberia needs help.

Beach bag almost ready for the shelves

The women of Robertsport and I have been working on creating a hand-sewn product we can sell locally and internationally for almost three months. First, a small group of us talked about the project as I nursed a surfing wound in front of Nana's Lodge. Next, I brought the small group a sample of a large, slouchy monk bag, which they innovated into a sleeker, sturdier version, using West African batik fabric and sewing supplies I sourced cheaply from Monrovia. Then, we worked on quality control, standardizing the pattern and ensuring that edges had hems, knots were tightly tied, and that the seams wouldn't split.

Even before they'd sold a bag, the small group you see above had grown to ten. "Let's keep ourselves at ten," Bendu, the eldest and the Cooperative leader, advised. She's the one teaching women to sew and doing the first rounds of quality control, so fair enough.

Thanks to Myles Estes for this photograph, which shows from left to right Bendu, Tina, Mariama, me and Vivian at work. Bendu is the Cooperative Manager and now has a mobile phone so we can better coordinate orders and supply, and she, Tina and Vivian were the ones who came up with the project with me.

We'll be selling the bags on our website starting next week. They're $10 each, plus $8 shipping and handling anywhere in the world with a little less than 2 weeks to arrive. We'll accept payment on PayPal and have photos of the 18 different patterns you can choose from. Email me at elie@robertsportcommunityworks.org if you'd like to make an order!

Promoters of Good Health

Robertsport Community Works has been looking for a way to support small scale agriculture in the uptown region of Robertsport. Thanks to the friendship and generosity of Simon, an Agricultural Specialist from Germany, we have begun taking steps in this direction.

Simon spent several hours in a group discussion with nearly a dozen members of the Promoters of Good Health, using the sand floor as his blackboard and topographical map. After assessing their agricultural situation and gauging their level of experience along with the complexity of their farming techniques, Simon began a detailed explanation of local crop rotation, composting and the repurposing of human waste for fertilizer.

Members of the Promoters of Good Health expressed great enthusiasm in implementing Simon's suggestions and are hoping for some pamphlets and written materials to help them recall the most pertinent lessons of the workshop. If Simon's core messages are adopted, it should have a positive impact on the cleanliness and good appearance of Robertsport as well--since he stressed community hygiene and spoke against burning felled trees and brush debris.

More on this as it develops.

Surf Liberia Scholarship Fund

Our Surf Liberia shirts are in production, with the profits going towards a surf scholarship program for Liberian surfers. We intend to continue Surf Liberia fundraising with t-shirt, rashguards, stickers and an annual surf competition.

At the moment, we’re raising money for school fees and associated costs for Benjamin McCrumuda, Alfred Lomax and Peter Swen, but all sponsorship will be annual and based on merit, so we hope to expand the pool in the future as well as bring in corporate sponsors to supplement our costs.

Sponsorship will include surfer scholarships, equipment and career mentorship, with the surfers contributing to their school fees through surfing lessons, branded boards and rashguards, and community service.

All shirts are $10, not inclusive of shipping and handling. Profits go 100% to the Scholarship Fund. We have women's shirts in assorted colors, styles and sizes and men's white t-shirts in Medium, Large and X-Large. We ship around the world and take PayPal.

Email scholarship@robertsportcommunityworks.org to order shirts and support our Surf Liberia Scholarship Fund!

July 2009 budget update

Here's where we are, at the end of July, on a project-by-project basis:

Robertsport Community Campsite
Income
Campsite fee $15

Expenditure
Stamp pad, ink and stamp $8

Sub-total: $7

Beach Clean-up Project
Expenditure
Beach Cleanup T-shirts for the Cleanup Crew to wear $50

Sub-total: -$50

Women's Sewing Cooperative
Income
1 market bag sold $0.50

Expenditure
6 lapa from store $20
Sewing supplies $1
2 yards solid cloth $10
12 lapa from Famatta $38
Sewing supplies for 5 sewing kits $9
July expenditure sub-total $78

Sub-total: -$77.50


Project sub-totals
Robertsport Community Campsite: $7
Beach Cleanup: -$50
Women's Sewing Cooperative: -$77.50
June Community Fund: -$145

Community Fund total: -$265.50

In August, we'll be starting a larger fundraising project that will help us turn the Community Fund from red to green. Stay tuned!

Community Member Profile: Benjamin McCroumada

As we involve more and more people in the projects of Robertsport Community Works, we will be introducing new team members to our online readership.

Benjamin McCroumada, our contractor/groundskeeper, has been instrumental to the preparation of the RCW campground. Liberia is an incredibly fertile country where untended plots of land thicken to the point of impassibility within a few months. In late May the campsite was overgrown, the shelter surrounding the latrine had vanished and there was a large hole produced by illegal sandmining immediately in front of the social area.

Benjamin has organized a small group of men from the uptown community and worked to better the campsite on a week by week basis. As a result of his labors we now have considerably fewer "parasite trees" (something akin to the strangler fig) and more space for camping. Visitors can walk around the entire base of the cotton tree and move about at night without fearing a sand trap.

Benjamin is a lifetime resident of Robertsport, though he spent ten years deep in the interior of the country, when Liberia's civil war rendered Robertsport unlivable. It was in his grandfather's village, named "Camp Four" where Benjamin learned to make traditional, "country" shelters with bush materials and where he learned how to farm and hunt.

He lives with his father and his four year old son, who he supports with his labors for RCW and as the net dispenser of a fishing team--a position of importance second only to the boat captain. While Benjamin loves the ocean and enjoys fishing, weeks can go by when the ocean is too rough for their hand-made dugout canoe and weeks and even months can pass when the fish supply seems to dwindle, sorely impacting the Uptown community's bottom line. And while Benjamin enjoys rough sees as one of the more talented surfers in Robertsport, he is grateful to have employment that does not depend on the weather.

While Benjamin will continue to work as our dependable contractor and groundskeeper, we look forward to leveraging his knowledge of the forest on our upcoming walking tours of the rainforest and surrounding area.