Doug+Collier

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=Doug Collier and Sackie Kwalalon=

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Background Information:

My name is Doug Collier and I am one of the founders of Serve the Children. Stephanie Shinn gave me your email address. We operate the All Gods Children school system in Liberia, West Africa. Have you seen the movie Blood Diamonds? We opened our first school in 1997 serving 125 child soldiers. Liberia financed the war in Sierra Leone with the diamonds that they mined there and sold through Liberia. We are very interested in being involved at the World Summit. We could talk about educating children of war on Friday night. Did you know that in the capital city of Monrovia, 80% of teenage girls finance their education by prostitution? This is because of the lack of education opportunities (75% of the schools were destroyed during the 14 year civil war) and the availability of UN peacekeepers. Another area of interest is the establishment of small businesses in a war torn country. Anyone with money, left the country (there are an estimated 20 medical people left in Liberia serving 3 million people). We need to re-build the middle class. We have opened an internet cafe to raise money for our schools and to provide jobs. There is not an operating communication system in the Liberia so internet cafes and very popular. People go there to communicate with the outside world and charge their cell phones (there is not an operating electrical grid in Liberia). We have also started a taxi company. The public transportation system was destroyed during the war so taxis are the only way people can move around except by foot.