Back to school is a wonderful, exciting season for students and parents alike. Imagine, though, it’s not “back” but “to” school for the first time or to a regular school for the first time.

Thanks to Agents of Positive change in Lower Johnsonville, Liberia, local families now have a school nearby — no more two-hour walks each way to the nearest school.

The initial literacy project, sending a 40-foot shipping container with library and school supplies to serve as a library serving 10 area schools, was sponsored by LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, with the aim to promote literacy and thereby empower civic participation. School4Schools Foundation has been training area teachers in literacy teaching and general pedagogy.

As Head of Rule of Law for LexisNexis, my wife, Teresa (“Terry”) Jennings, sponsors programs and initiatives to develop the core principles of the rule of law:

• Equality under the law
• Access to the law
• Independent (and consequently unbiased) judiciary
• Access to remedy

Literacy is an inherent and essential component of each of these aspects of an equitable society under rule of law, so LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation generously sponsored the project.

When Terry visited the site last May, the local residents asked if the library couldn’t be expanded to include a school. Of course, she replied, and as of the end of August, the officially registered school was launched.

While the literacy program continues, School4School Foundation is assisting the build-up of the site into a formal school facility.

Our first fundraising campaign will help construct a perimeter fence, an extended roof for the container, a playground, and miscellaneous school supplies and equipment. We are also looking for donors to sponsor tuition for families — which costs one hundred dollars per year — and salaries for teachers (about $1000 per year).

The next campaign will focus on construction of a permanent school structure.

Please see the Liberia Literacy & School Project – School4Schools Foundation to learn more about the project and here to Donate (or directly via Paypal here,

Please call me at (703) 271-5334 to discuss your ideas and help for this amazing project.

– Michael

School4Schools Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity corporation. Donations are tax-deductible.