EMMANUEL | Liberia
Throughout his childhood, Emmanuel faced unimaginable heartache. His father was incarcerated when he was a baby and in 2020, when he was just three years old, he received the news that his father had died in prison. His mother was unable to send him to school, so he spent his days in the bush setting traps for animals. She shared, “Many days I sat home and cried because my son was not in school and has become a bush man at this age. I feed, clothe and cater to his medication needs, but school was not possible.” One moment that broke her heart was looking out of her window to see her son clapping for his friends who were on their way to school to celebrate them, knowing that he could not go with them.
To attend school in Liberia, families must be able to pay for uniforms, bookbags, books, supplies and general schooling fees, an impossible feat for many struggling families. When Emmanuel was enrolled in PromisePath, at the age of seven, he had never attended school. They quickly helped him get his first backpack, uniforms and books. Beaming, his mother said, “But here we are today, my son is in school because of Prison Fellowship [International]’s PromisePath program.”