Projects

Liberia has a population of 4.94 million of which the youth constitute 65%. Monrovia alone has a population of 1,467,000 of the total population as of 2019. Many of the country’s young people missed out on school, particularly vocational skills necessary for gainful employment amidst the harsh economic realities. Most of the young people, some as young as 13 years, are self-supporting and cannot afford the high cost of acquiring quality vocational skills training. Also because of Liberia’s low agricultural production and poor household incomes, the country continues to suffer chronic food insecurity since the civil war. It is one of the poorest countries in the world with about 64% of its population living on less than a dollar a day.

It is in an attempt to mitigate the suffering of young people particularly in Monrovia, by providing them access to affordable marketable skills, that the SHIFSD Institute was established in 2016 to offer Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programs thus leading to earning the graduate a decent living.

Following few months of seeking for funding for the TVET program, the Turing Foundation in The Netherlands in collaboration with ZOA International-Liberia provided a grant in support of the SHIFSD’s TVET and Literacy program for 2016 and 2017 respectively. That two year grant agreement benefited a little over 400 beneficiaries, particularly young people.

Advance Certificate level training courses offered at the SHIFSD Institute for Enterprise & Job Training (The BRIDGE) include but not limited to:

• General Construction (i.e. carpentry, masonry, electricity, architecture drafting and plumbing)
• Two Stroke Mechanics (i.e. generators and motorbikes repairs)
• Tailoring interspersed with literacy & small business skills
• Computer Literacy / Information Technology
• Primary Teacher Training integrated with personal development studies
• Agriculture, etc.

In 2015, a four member Sticthing INITIAT Delegation headed by INITIAT Board Member, Judith Kinds, visited Liberia to see and evaluate the INITIAT’s funded construction of the SHIFSD Multipurpose Youth Training Center commonly known as the SHIFSD Institute, and discuss the next steps relative to our existing strategic partnership. The INITIAT delegation again visited in November 2019 and expressed satisfaction over what their relationship with SHIFSD has been able to achieve over the last 10 years.  

African Outreach based in the UK is another small charity that has firmly committed to helping SHIFSD, as a partner, source funding to deliver quality technical, vocational education and training to poor and vulnerable youths in Liberia, and has recently highlighted SHIFSD in its 2020-2023 Strategic Plan with the intend to grow the burgeoning Liberian partnership