dig·ni·ty noun \ˈdig-nə-tē\

the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed.
Go to Liberia. Serve as a Dignity Advocate.
Your caring presence, your smile, or your hug can bring a kind of healing that medicine alone cannot. Women who have suffered with fistula are in desperate need of kind, authentic, human connection. Often outcast from family and community, part of the healing journey for these women includes regaining the self-esteem that comes from being valued by others.

As a Dignity Advocate™, you can offer these sacred gifts in-person. When you travel to Liberia, you’ll spend time in pre- and post-operative care units, getting to know women and hearing their stories. You’ll see some of the challenges faced daily by healthcare providers in this recovering nation. You’ll visit local orphanages and spend time giving love to children who will repay you with joy. Most of all, you'll be forever changed, knowing that you have played a small part in restoring what these women have lost: dignity.


Let Us Know if You're Interested

Please let us know if you are interested in serving as a Dignity Advocate* providing your contact information below. Thank you.

While costs can fluctuate, on average the cost involved in serving as a Dignity Advocate is approximately $3,200.00 (includes vaccinations, passport, visa, food, lodging, and air/ground transportation). Most trips are scheduled to last two weeks.

*Please note: A completed Dignity Advocate application, travel waiver, and attendance at an informational meeting are all required for consideration as a potential team member.

I want to know more about serving as a dignity advocate.

IF YOU CAN'T GO, GIVE.


Travel to Liberia is costly, both in time and money.  If you are unable to travel as a Dignity Advocate, consider helping someone else to go in your stead.  

ONE ADVOCATE'S STORY

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"I felt Liberia fill my heart...I decided I wanted to help Dignity:Liberia whenever and with whatever I could." Jenneh Clark
I did not have a clear reason to begin my advocacy in Liberia. Unlike some, I did not school there or do missionary work. I just knew someone who was doing work in a school and I wanted to help. About 6 trips later, and 6 months living there, I was hooked on the people whose smiles radiate, the food whose palm butter melts my heart and most importantly, the ways that the people wanted to learn. They wanted to work with others who had knowledge, to share with open hearts. When my trip ended in 2017, I thought that would be my last adventure in Liberia. But the world has other ways to tell you when you are done. So, when I saw Dignity:Liberia was working to build a maternity home and that they continually go back every 6 months to ensure the project is supported, my interest was piqued. I’d worked with many projects that went, did a “thing”, and then left but this was different. They were continuing to go and thus, I was propelled to contact them and asked if there was something I could do to help.

The key in Liberia is that there is always something you can do to help. Thus my 7th trip I was to help organize seminars for young people on how to make sustainable sanitary pads. Now, I do not know how to sew. Thus, I had no clue what I was going to be doing, but knew in the Liberian way, I would do something! A team of about 8 people came as well and I helped manage the large seminars, making sure everyone had their supplies and organizing everything happening the day of the seminars. As a teacher, that was something I could do. In those hot schools we worked as a team to teach over four hundred people how to make sanitary napkins. During the evenings, we made dinner together and readied for the next day. In between times, I helped clean out a container filled with items for the maternity home, made bags of baby blankets and supplies and went to meet with people like Dr. Mullbah who would be the Liberian liaison for the medical work soon to be happening. While there, I saw a baby be born and my life felt overwhelmingly joyful. We went to Todee (where the maternity home was being built) and met wonderful people who danced, ate, and chatted like old friends with us. Again, I felt Liberia fill my heart. Maybe in the heat my heart melted because it was then and there, I decided I wanted to help Dignity:Liberia whenever and with whatever I could.
 
Now, I’ve been twice with Dignity:Liberia, once on a more intimate scale to meet with the College of Medicine, Dr. Mullbah and other important helpers in their project for the maternity home and clinic. We looked at equipment, met with friends (Yes, I now feel like I have Liberian friends and family), and connected with so many who were working for the vision of Dignity:Liberia. It is a wonderful thing to be described as an advocate and I am thrilled I am. Through the muddy, pot-holed roads and torrential rains, the colorful quilts made by the Bracewells and the love that Dignity:Liberia has for the people of Liberia, will always feel like home now. It was my extreme pleasure to step through the hardships that a country like Liberia has and find the joy in the fact that it has taken a village to raise me. I am thankful.