Wealth Meets Youth’s Poverty on a Beach in Liberia
Hard against a poor Liberian coastal community in an outlying area of Monrovia called Kendeja is the country’s first new hotel in 20 years, the 76-room Kendeja Resort & Villas, which occupies 13 beautiful oceanfront acres.
The stark juxtaposition suggests the resort’s interesting background story. Two years ago, U.S. business magnate Robert L. Johnson attended the Clinton Global Initiative where he heard Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf appeal for private sector reconstruction support. He committed to mobilizing $30 million to help her troubled nation and, by March 2009, had opened the RLJ Kendeja Resort & Villas.
The proximity of such wealth, however, did not necessarily offer relief to the impoverished youth of Kendeja, who, like so many in Liberia, remain profoundly at risk. For one thing, Liberia’s 14 years of civil war interrupted school for many of them—hence one eighth grader at Kindeja High School is 24 years old. The lack of economic opportunity has created another overarching problem for these young people: schooling often seems irrelevant.
Thanks to enlightened hotel management, which saw a way to help youth through the ACDI/VOCA Agriculture for Children’s Empowerment (ACE) program, the resort has become more a source of opportunity for young people than a reminder of poverty’s frustration.
“If we can benefit these people, why not do it? It is not difficult. We just need to do it,” says Ronald Stilting, the resort’s general manager. This no-nonsense Dutchman has only been in the job four months, yet he is acutely conscious of the resort’s responsibility toward the community. He also wants to add value to a stay in his hotel.
Stilting is trying to make the resort an economic catalyst for the community, pursuing income generation through soap and paper making, recycling food waste to support a piggery (which the resort would buy from) and mounting a cultural expression program involving schoolchildren since, as he says, “Education is key to the whole story.”
The cultural expression program, which was run through the Kendeja school with ACDI/VOCA’s coordination, took the form of weekly culture nights at the resort as part of the dinner service. The events were a big hit and served to enhance cultural identity among the youth, while providing a vibrant sense of locale for hotel guests. The resort compensated for the singing, dancing and drumming performances with needed roofing sheets for the school building.
To help foster economic opportunity, the hotel mounted a 4-week internship program for 12 students. The curriculum consisted of a week each in stewarding, food production, landscaping/gardening and housekeeping. Originally, the idea was to reward the three best performers with scholarships, but all participants performed so well that a broader reward program is being contemplated. More important, the resort is committed to extending the program, and some participants will be considered for jobs during peak periods at the hotel.
According to ACE Chief of Party Mahawa Wheeler, “The kids told us that participating in these activities kept them focused, goal oriented and more interested in remaining in school. They also stress the sense of pride and achievement that resulted. Our objective was to impress upon the community that good things happen in school. I give a big thumbs-up to the resort for making that happen. They took a huge gamble which led to something positive in the lives of these kids and their families.”
Now under discussion is a way to link the community to the hotel’s supply chain. ACDI/VOCA staff drafted a memo of understanding that lays out the hotel’s requirements that the vegetables it buys for its restaurants come from the community’s smallholder farmers.
The resort also is interested in procuring crafts made by families in the community, and in supporting school arts, crafts and gardening activities. Wheeler says student participation is a sought-after privilege because of the opportunities to learn new skills. It is contingent on cleanliness, good grades and regular attendance.
Stilting is not naive about the challenges that change can bring, and talks knowingly about obstacles to mutually rewarding relations, such as the garbage dump that spontaneously developed on the resort grounds. Still he is confident that the hotel management can help impart the simple lesson that if one works hard, there are gains.
Stilting added that nothing good happens automatically—that coaching and support are constantly needed. He credits ACDI/VOCA with serving as an effective go-between, saying recently, “I can remember the exact moment I realized, with some surprise, that ACDI/VOCA keeps its promises!”
Rather than resent the intrusion of the resort, the community and its crucial young people are drawn to it and recognize its contributions as a good neighbor. When asked what the advantages are, one student said, “It brings development and encourages youth.”
To learn more about our work in Liberia, click here.
