St. Pauls Willimantic

After the organizational meeting, fund raising began and work continued on developing organizational structure. Meanwhile, things started happening in the real world. With the help of a significant contribution from St. Paul's, enough money was raised to start construction before the '07 spring rainy season began. The land for the orphanage was donated by Mrs. Lucy C. Stewart on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. John H.B. Stewart, Sr.

Construction in Liberia is very labor intensive: excavation is by hand and concrete blocks are hand made, on site. Backfill is by hand and the rainy season does the compaction. Unemployment is high and prevailing wages are low so that labor costs are modest.

At this point, the foundation is in and backfilled, and enough blocks have been made to start building the walls. An impressive amount can be accomplished with hand labor - 18,300 blocks are ready for wall building! Laying the block for the walls will start this month

On this side of the Atlantic the organizational/financial end also has made significant progress. Fund raising continues and an endowment fund has been established.

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