Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I send you very warm and cordial greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our prayers are also with you during this very turbulent hurricane season in the United States of America and the Caribbean Islands.
I do hereby write you this letter of endorsement on behalf of the Lutheran Church in Liberia to confirm our partnership with Bethany Lutheran Church of Slidell, LA. We are teaming up with Bethany to address the health problem and need of Kuwaa people which is mostly due to contaminated drinking water, by digging wells that people will use hand pumps and the building of clinics.

The Lutheran Church in Liberia will use its 100 plus years experience with such undertakings to manage the well and clinic project. Although the LCL will initially own the project, it is our intention to turn the facilities over to the local congregations and citizens within three to five years in the various towns and villages for ownership and sustainability. These churches have assured us that they have plans in place for sustaining the project and even expanding it for the common and greater use of all.

We are very excited about this project and strongly support it. As we look forward to partnering with you, please accept our best regards in the mighty and matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Sincerely yours,

Rt. Rev. Dr. Sumoward E. Harris, BISHOP, LCL

Director of Literacy for the LCL,

and

Kuwaa Bible Translator and Literacy Developer

Dear Rev. Dr. Thompson:

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

Thanks for all you are doing for the Kuwaa people. May God bless you and all those trying to help us.

According to the recent census conducted in Liberia, the Kuwaa District has more than 17,000 inhabitants. This district lies in the north west of Liberia. It is also one of the remote areas in our country.

The infamous Belle Yella Prison was located in the Kuwaa District. It was used by past regimes to silence their opponents. Because of this, no motor road was laid in the area.

Those regimes had the fear that a motor road would enable the prisoners to escape. It was only in 1986, a logging company called FAPCO laid first motor road to the Kuwaa District. But the past civil crisis stopped all developments from reaching the Kuwaa People. At present, there are no None Government Organizations working in our district.

SANITATION

Since the creation of the Kuwaa District by the Liberian Law Makers in the “80s”, there have been little or no sanitation programs in this district. The sixteen Kuwaa Towns have no wells. People in all of these towns get their drinking water from rivers or streams. Most of these rivers or streams are also used as latrines. Even the bushes around these towns are also presently being used as latrines. This has created a serious health hazard for the people.

Water born diseases like diarrhea and cholera are prevalent in the district during the dry and rainy seasons. Our referral hospital is in Bopolu, the county’s capital which is125 kilometers from the Kuwaa People. Also the bad motor road conditions have made the people to carry the sick in hammocks to get to the hospital. Sometimes patients died while in route.

All of these put the Kuwaa People in a very hash condition of survival. Child mortality rate is very high among us. Even this very rainy season as I write this paper children are dying from running stomach and malaria. We, the Kuwaa People, are in need of latrines and wells. This is the only means by which lasting sanitation can come to the Kuwaa People.

Your Brother in Christ,