Steve Griffith and Chris Dickey established the Friends of the Garden School , a donor-advised fund at KBFUS, in 2018 to fund the construction and operation of the Garden School in Gbarnga, Bong County in Liberia through the Liberian non-profit Standard Early Childhood Development. The Garden School is a community-based school in Liberia based on developmentally appropriate practices in early childhood education. Located in Gbarnga, Bong County, the School focuses on young children (ages 3-5) through an innovative model unique in the West African nation. According to the African Early Childhood Network, there are no free early learning services in Liberia. The Garden School provides active discovery learning to meet that need for Liberia's youngest citizens. Early childhood education is critical to the foundational development of productive and healthy children. The Garden School provides two meals every day. Breakfast draws the child to school; lunch keeps the child at school. The meals give children the nutrition they need to focus and perform during these early, formative years of learning. The School fosters active parent participation as well. Every child has a parent who volunteers at the school to enhance education and build school community. Parent workshops help parents see what their children are learning, how they can help, and what they can do with other children at home. The school offers a support system and built-in "extended family" of role models for students, consistent with the African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child." The design of the school grounds further promotes an important feature of the traditional African approach to conflict resolution in communities. In the center courtyard of the campus is a palaver hut. In Liberian society, the palaver hut was historically a meeting place for leaders to help peacefully and candidly settle disputes in the local community. The palaver hut is a particularly poignant symbol in a country that experienced a violent, 14-year civil war, in which tens of thousands of children were forced to fight as child soldiers with psychosocial effects in a harrowing conflict that divided their country. "The impact [of the war] on a generation of Liberian youth, compounded by the 2014 school closure due to the Ebola outbreak, [has] had a huge impact on the education system," according to UNICEF. Today, on the campus of The Garden School, there is conflict resolution training. The palaver hut is an optimistic, hopeful symbol, a way of signaling and teaching peaceful conflict resolution for Liberia's next generation. When students are not in class, they will be able to develop their natural and social skills in student gardens and play areas. And when school is not in session, the school buildings and grounds can be used for the community. Today, the Garden School serves not only as a place for 3, 4, and 5-year old children to build critical, foundational learning skills to set them up well on a path for a positive education and life. The school is also designed for local teacher training. Through workshops, the school's teachers spread their evidence-based teaching model to other educators in the community. SUPPORT THE GARDEN SCHOOL How you can support:
$10 to $20 helps cover the cost of a parent attending a one-week educational workshop to teach parents and guardians how they can help support their child's learning and development
$25 to $50 helps cover the cost of one primary school teacher in Bong County, Liberia to learn the methods of early childhood education, and prepare elementary schools to receive young, capable graduates of The Garden School, perpetuating the cycle of educational growth and development in the community.
$80 to $100 covers the cost of two nutritious meals per day for a student for an entire school year.
Donations in any greater amount will be put towards the uses described above.
Donations can also be put to a particular use if the donor wants.