Denver man raising funds to rebuild a school in Liberia

“Who breaks down a school in one of the poorest country in the world? What did the children do?”

Ebenezer Norman is originally from Liberia, he now lives in Denver, but he’s still very much connected to the country of his birth through the non profit that he founded – New Dimension of Hope with a view to building schools. Last July, he opened the first school, Troya Town school, and welcomed 102 elementary school children. But at the end of May, just two weeks before the first kindergarten graduation, Norman received reports that the school and the entire village had been demolished.

Ebenezer Norman, founder of New Dimension of Hope and Josh Dunne, the Assistant Director say the University of Liberia is responsible for tearing down the school in Troya Town and the entire village because the University claims they own the land. They have not had an official response from the University and they are calling on local and national government officials in Liberia to investigate the destruction of Troya Town.

Ebenezer Norman says he grew up in poverty in Liberia, but he says the poverty he witnessed in Troya Town was on another level. He says that makes it even more tragic that efforts to help the children in that community were being destroyed. “Who breaks down a school in one of the poorest country in the world? What did the children do? Are we criminals? Did we build on the governments land?”

After the village and school were demolished the kids had nowhere to go. Josh Dunne says the Kindergartners were extremely upset as they were looking to graduate in 2 weeks. . Norman and Dunne say that they have not lost hope and are committed to rebuilding the school as soon as possible so the children will not miss out on their education. They have launched a go fund me campaign to raise $25,000 to build a new school.