CHANGE AGENT NETWORK, INC
Breaking the cycle of poverty through education in Liberia
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
We want to address the following daunting problem of Liberia: Education, healthcare, unemployment, corruption, inequality, justice, and culture of dependency in Liberia through education, mentorship, sustainable development, and the hope of the Gospel of the next generation of young Liberian leaders.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Shipping Containers
Yesterday's Treasure, Tomorrow's Hope are things that Americans considered important and valuable yesterday but become trash when something newer, better, or perhaps a different color, shape or size came along.
In this program, we create awareness in America about the desperate plights of under-resourced Liberian children, communities and families that can't afford to meet even the baseline survival needs of life.
According to our Founder and Executive Director Mr. Eric Wowoh, we call this program "Yesterday’s Treasure, Tomorrow’s Hope” because, "When he just first arrived here in the US ten years ago as a refugee, he was very shocked to see how much stuff the American society threw-away every single hour of every day.”
We collect these materials that were cherished yesterday by the American people but are no longer exciting to them today. We ship everything donated to CAN in a container to bring hope to a dying and struggling people and communities in Liberia, West Africa.
By donating these things to CAN to ship to Africa, Americans have an opportunity to become better stewards of their abundant resources and can, in effect, build a waste free society.
This program is our chain of supply to meet some of our educational, infrastructure, and human resource development needs in Liberia.
Education
In this program, we only do capital fundraising in the US or other countries around the world to pay for the construction of a brand new school in an underserved / rural community in Liberia. This program also funds infrastructure improvement projects of any of our existing schools in the country to attract more students.
Health
This program focuses on fundraising in the US and with other global partners of Liberia to build, setup, operate and financially sustain locally a medical clinic attached to each of our school in Liberia encompassing from Pre-K through grade 12th. The purpose of the medical clinic is to meet the health needs of our school children and the people in the community in which we serve. The devastating Ebola Epidemic in the West African Sub Region of 2014 through 2016, and also Covid-19 caught us with our pants down. Liberia was the hardest-hit by the horrible health crisis of Ebola. From now going forward, we want to ensured that we are prepared to confront any future disease outbreak in Liberia.
Agriculture
This program will provide education, seeds and startup capital to small commercial farmers in rural Liberia to grow their own food and sell some for profit-making to pay for their children's education. This will certainly reduce hunger, dependency, food shortages and the high unemployment rate facing the Liberian people. CAN SMALL FARMERS BUSINESS INITIATIVE (CSFBI) will lead to less-privilege Liberian children and people having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
THIS PROGRAM WILL PROMOTE THE FOLLOWING VALUES IN OUR ORGANIZATION AND THOSE WE SERVE.
STRONG WORK ETHIC: To encourage and reward people living in poverty who are able and are willing to work very hard to break the back of poverty. We strongly believe that the medicine for poverty is hard work.
SELF- SUFFICIENCY: To ultimately use local resources or the local economy to sustained education for the underserved children and people of Liberia by providing and putting into place Agricultural businesses, goods and services to generate enough funds to cover reoccurring operating cost and maintenance of infrastructures.
EMPOWERMENT: Giving the struggling Liberian people the opportunity to solve their own problems, help others become useful and productive people. Each person to take initiatives and make decisions to improve services and performance, determine their own income, destiny and the future of their children and country.
KEY COMPONENT OF OUR SELF-SUFFICIENCY SCHOOL MODEL
Our schools are self-sustained through our daily low-cost school fees payment plan. This plan uses a system in which a card is issued to every student and parent to track semester educational cost broken down into daily cost based upon economic prospects of the school environment. The vast majority of parents and students live on a day-to-day basis, this gives them a simplified, easy and durable daily flat rate payment plan. The payment card creates 100% transparency and accountability between the school administration, parents, guardians and students.
"Using local resources to sustain education in Liberia”
At each of our school in Liberia, we enable parents and students who don’t have physical cash to pay school fees to do so by using local resources readily available to them i.e. Livestock and Cash Crops. (The New Educational Barter System for Liberia)
The items collected from parents and students are converted into cash and used for operating the school. We also sell some of these items to our employees on a salary deduction basis and the public as well as raise some of the livestock for business reproduction purposes.
Where we work
External reviews
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children who have access to education
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Context - describing the issue we work on
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of schools built
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of teachers who receive quarterly training
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of schools established in rural communities
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of Facebook followers
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of educators who have opportunities to attend programs offered by professional organizations
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of children who have a sense of their own feelings and an ability to express empathy for others
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of students per teacher during the reporting period
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Input - describing resources we use
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
To see a new generation of patriotic Liberians who will secure a New and Better Liberia, Free of Corruption, a Breeding Ground for Innovation, Creativity Entrepreneurship and Resounding Success for all.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To connect under-resourced Liberian Communities with global and local partners to launch locally sustainable schools to break the cycle of poverty in Liberia with the following three simple steps:
STEP 1
CAN provides the expertise in training the locals to build, operate and financially sustain their own school using local resources.
STEP 2
Global partners or friends of Liberia make a one-time high impact donation to purchase building materials and startup capital to launch the school.
STEP 3
The local community donates the school land, volunteer their time and services to build, oversee and locally sustain their own school.
OUR SELF-SUFFICIENCY SCHOOL MODEL
The school is self-sustained through our daily low cost school fees payment plan. This plan uses a system in which a card is issued to every student and parent to track semester educational cost broken down into daily cost based upon economic prospects of the school environment . The vast majority of parents and students live on a day-to-day basis, this gives them a simplified, easy and durable daily flat rate payment plan. The payment card creates 100% transparency and accountability between the school administration, parents, guardians and students.
"Using local resources to sustain education in Liberia"
At each of our school in Liberia, we enable parents and students who don't have physical cash to pay school fees to do so by using local resources readily available to them i.e. Livestock and Cash Crops. (The New Educational Barter System for Liberia)
The items collected from parents and students are converted into cash and used for operating the school. We also sell some of these items to our employees on a salary deduction basis and the public as well as raise some of the livestock for business reproduction purposes.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We have over 15 years of experience in building, running and sustaining schools in Liberia. We have professional and talented partners in America who are able and willing to partner with us in providing the expertise in training the locals to build, operate and financially sustain their own school using local resources. We have raised over a million dollars in donations in the last 11 years to fund our work in Liberia. Our organization was founded by a native Liberian Eric Wowoh. Our work is done locally with total involvement and engagement of the Liberian people themselves across the country in finding solutions to the pressing challenges and problems they face. Because of this unique model, we have the capabilities to meet our goals in Liberia as outlined as follow: 1. We already know the language and culture of the people we serve. 2. We know and understand the local economy. 3 We already are accustomed to the physical climate, environment, and political situation in the country. 4 Our standard of living is comparable to those we serve, often vastly different from that of other nonprofits, we can live and minister on a fraction of the resources. Since it doesn't take us years to learn the language and culture, we are more than able to do our work with minimal training and preparation. Finally, because we are working among our own family, friends, and neighbors, we are committed for the long-term work of education, healthcare, agribusiness, sustainable development and of course the Hope of the Gospel in Liberia.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We have successfully built 17 schools on 3 campuses and more campuses are currently under construction in 2 other Liberian counties. Educating more than 3,000 underserved children in Liberia across the country. 200 employees on payroll nationwide. Within the past 7 years, Change Agent Network has graduated more than 1,400 students, many of which have become meaningful contributors to society. One such student is Jerolimic Piah, the current Liberian Presidential Press Secretary.
Financials
Unlock nonprofit financial insights that will help you make more informed decisions. Try our monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights?
Learn more
about GuideStar Pro.
Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
CHANGE AGENT NETWORK, INC
Board of directorsas of 07/13/2022
Stefania Forte
E-Planet Kids
Term: 2021 - 2023
Hal Langford
University of Louisiana
Deborah Lindholm
Foundation for Women
Eric Wowoh
Change Agent Network, Inc.
Stefania Forte
E-Planet Kids
Bill Dendy
Rotary
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
-
Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? No -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? No -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? No -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? No -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? No
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data