Update - Spring 2026

This Village School Project really has captured hearts! Donations continued to come in throughout the long season of rains in Liberia and this enabled the builders to purchase in advance the wood, nails and sheets of corrugated metal that would be needed for the roof once the weather turned favourable. (Incidentally, for a couple of years or so now, it’s been observed that rainy showers are continuing well into January, which has previously been predictably hot and dry). In no time at all, the roof was up and the villagers were out celebrating! Drums were beating, women were dancing and singing in the school courtyard and the children were running round and around the building shouting for joy!

On the following two Sundays, the local church welcomed several newcomers who wanted to show their appreciation to God for giving them hope for the education of their children. A school right there in their very own village!

Now it’s March, and the building team is currently occupied with making a cement floor and plastering the walls. Although tiny by our standards, nevertheless this is a school, and the job requires a large quantity of sand, cement and plaster. Transportation costs are very high because of the poor roads and rural tracks and the great length of time the delivery journey takes.

The next stage will be to install some basic electrics before putting up the ceiling and then proceeding to construct all the doors. Spencer Harris, the architect and chief builder, has judged it prudent for his team to then make all the classroom chairs themselves.

Here at Wildwood Church, we’re now filled with fresh vigour for further fundraising, and have our sights set firmly on visiting a fully functional school in early 2027. Please join us in working to make this a reality. Every donation is significant, no matter if it’s small or large. We need to raise around £20,000, and we need help. We are currently able to provide some financial support to the three schoolteachers who have sacrificially relocated to Whankai’s Town from Monrovia city. Some of the villagers are farming crops of rice and fruits for the sole benefit of these teachers to show their appreciation.

Ordinarily in Liberia, parents pay fees for their children to attend school, but in the countryside areas, very few people work for a wage so they have no cash to pay with. We’re very much hoping to build up our financial support so as to encourage additional teachers to join the academic team. Regular monthly sponsorship donations are encouraged for this and if you’re interested, you can find details on our church website www.wildwoodchurch.co.uk

Finally, as an offshoot from the school building project, we’re excited that plans are in place to dig a well and install a water pump in the village. Before Christmas, we heard that many children were falling sick as a direct result of drinking water from the nearby creek, so we released funds not pledged for the school to commission this small but vital little project. A little money can go a long way in Liberia and we can’t wait to receive the first photos of children using the pump and drinking fresh water.

Whankai Town School Update – January 2025

In January this year, The 2025 Mission Team from Wildwood Church Stafford made a long and arduous journey along dirt tracks through the Liberian jungle to the remote village of Whankai town. We were keen to meet with the people again and view the progress of the school being built. As we entered the village, we were delighted to be greeted by around 70 children bearing banners, welcoming us on behalf of the newly formed Whankai Town School system. As we got out of the cars there was a tangible feeling of hope in the village, which had not been there on our last visit.

We discovered that 3 University graduates have left their families in Monrovia in order to enroll the village children into a newly formed education system and have begun to teach them already, in a small, dilapidated hut in the village, entirely free of charge, and without a salary, in the faith that a school will soon be built there. At great personal sacrifice, these men have instilled in the children a love of education, and given parents hope that their children may, in the future, be able to secure jobs and elevate themselves from the poverty in which they currently live.

Obviously, the teachers cannot work unpaid indefinitely, nor can they continue to advance the learning of so many children of different ages in one small room, so completion of the school build as soon as possible is essential for this great work to continue. The progress is looking good, bricks are being made onsite, and now that the rainy season has passed, with the necessary funds, building can continue in earnest.

Any amount you can donate will make a difference and help to get this much needed building completed and functioning as soon as possible.

We are also looking for regular sponsors to provide the teachers with a salary, until the system allows more self-sufficiency.

Imagine a village in West Africa. There is no clean water, no

electricity, no road transport. No one has ever seen a doctor or

visited a hospital. Food is grown in the fields and cooked over

wood sticks on an open fire. Children don’t go to school

because the nearest one is much too far to walk to. That village

is Whankai Town in rural Liberia and it captured our hearts

during a visit in January 2023. Playing games with the children,

giving healthcare talks to teenagers and worshipping in the

local church left a lasting impression that has impelled us to

join together in fundraising for a school!

Our target of £25,000 will provide for a traditionally-built

school that can accommodate the children of all the local

families. Currently, there is no school at all and the best hope

for an education is for a child to be sent away to live with a

family in faraway Monrovia.

A lack of education is a key factor keeping generations of

Liberians trapped in poverty. Please join us as we work with

Whankai Town Church to build for a brighter future.

We are also inviting pledges of monthly sponsorship donations

towards teachers’ salaries. For further information and how to

get in touch, please visit our website www.wildwoodchurch.co.uk.

Thank you for reading!