Do What You Can! - Help Lydia Finish Her Journey
- Karen Ecklund
- Sep 13
- 2 min read
Today we continue our “Do What You Can!” campaign, aimed at raising $120,000 by October 10th allowing 127 students to attend school. Thank you to those who have already participated!
Lydia’s Story
At just 10 years old, Lydia watched her father walk out and abandon her mother to raise the family alone. With no stable income and barely enough to eat, Lydia and her siblings often went to bed hungry. Even clean water was scarce. Hope was scarcer.
Young women, usually just teens, are often peer pressured into prostitution as their last resort for survival. Tragically, sexual exploitation of Liberian children is significant with rape, human trafficking, forced child marriage and female genital mutilation - all factors exacerbated by poverty.
Lydia’s friends suggested prostitution would be her only means of survival. Too many underage girls face the brutal choice between dignity and a meal. Despite her hunger and fear, Lydia resisted!
Lydia Needs our Help.
Lydia found a way to survive by helping her mother sell charcoal to earn a meal each day. She held on to a dream many around her thought was impossible: to become a medical professional—a woman in a white coat, saving lives and giving hope to others who had none.
Thanks to a Keyara’s Gift sponsorship, Lydia was given a chance to pursue her dream. With her school fees covered and her basic needs supported, she is now entering her 3rd year as a nursing student at Smythe University in Monrovia.
“Without Keyara’s Gift, I wouldn’t have made it this far. You helped remove the shame from the faces of my family members. Now I’m so close to making my dream come true.”
Lydia’s journey is far from over. Getting to class and affording daily meals is a challenge in itself, and her education is more expensive than most. While a typical Keyara’s Gift student needs about $700 a year, Lydia’s nursing program costs $1,200 because students must purchase the very supplies they practice with—Foley catheters, needles, syringes, gauze and even alcohol swabs.
Today, Lydia is asking for one thing: that you do what you can.
🎓 $50 can help with transportation and meals.
📘 $100 can buy nursing study materials.
🏥 $700 covers part of her tuition.
💖 Any amount brings Lydia closer to graduation—and to changing lives.
In our first email, we shared that every gift would be matched up to $30,000. We’re thrilled to announce that generous donors have now extended that matching grant to $60,000! That means every donation given today will go twice as far — allowing us to reach our goal!
👉 Click here to donate what you can today.
Every donation tells Lydia—and students like her—“You are not alone.” You are part of her story, her journey, and her victory.
Thank you for standing with her.
Warmly,
The Keyara's Gift Team
For Other ways to donate, visit: www.keyarasgift.org/donate
Comments