about
TOUCHING HUMANITY IN NEED OF KINDNESS
BRIEF HISTORY
Touching Humanity In Need of Kindness (THINK Inc.) is a faith based, national, non-governmental organization established April 4, 2003 as a humanitarian NGO to get involved with the peace process in Liberia. Through human resource development using advocacy and activism, THINK focuses on the rights and well being of women and children, particularly the female child.
The civil war was still raging; within two months after our accreditation, the hostilities escalated and we were compelled to move to the SKD Sports Complex to respond to the situation at the stadium that provided refuge for approximately 58,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDP.) They had run there from the western suburbs of Monrovia where their displaced people’s camps had been up-rooted by the fighting between LURD and Government Forces.
THINK provided play therapy, one hot meal a day and family tracing for 350 children in that camp. While there we noticed young women who were either deserters from the government forces militias or used as “war wives” of the fighting forces.
THINK met Samaritan’s Purse International Relief and got funding to open a Rehabilitation Home for girls and young women associated with the fighting forces in October, 2003. The THINK Rehabilitation Home now caters to war affected adolescent girls and young women with various social problems such as victims of trafficking, survivors of gender based violence, commercial sex workers and girls separated from their families because of war. The home provides shelter, protection, medical care, psychosocial support and counseling, academic classes using the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) curriculum, vocational skills training (Pastry making, food preservation and catering, Tailoring, and Cosmetology), life skills training including Reproductive Health, awareness about HIV/AIDS, prevention and response to GBV, peace building, parenting and child care for under-five children of 10 of the girls. The home accommodates 25 girls and 10 of their under-five children.
Each cycle of girls stays in the home for nine months. While the girls are occupied with the program, we do family tracing so that upon graduation, the girls, especially those below 18 years, can be reunified with their parents. At times there is a need to do reconciliation and conflict resolution between the girls and their families and /or communities. The girls are taken on two field trips during their nine months cycle. They participate in sports and community service. The holistic approach provides an enabling environment where girls can choose what will best fit their needs and be regular in attendance because they live there and are not troubled with transportation costs.
In May 2010, we completed the seventh cycle of the THINK Rehabilitation program. We are grateful to donors from Samaritan’s Purse Germany, Canada and USA for supporting us with funding and gifts in kind.
MISSION
THINK exists to demonstrate God’s love to the poor especially women and children by empowering them to transform their lives and communities.
VISION
THINK envisions a nation with transformed communities where the marginalized and poor, especially women children are protected, healthy, educated and self-sufficient
For the past six years, THINK has been catering to the needs of women and children by providing services through the operation of the following:
- Rehabilitation Homes where twenty-five (25) young women and ten (10) under fives are cared for, trained in various skills, counseled, etc. for a period of nine (9) months in Paynesville, Montserrado and Buchanan Grand Bassa Counties respectively.
- Safe Homes where survivors/ victims of sexual violence and abuse are protected, given psychosocial support and referred for medical management and access legal aid, - Juvenile Transit Center for girls who come in conflict or contact with the law.
- Learning Enrichment Program where children with deficiency in various subjects are tutored to enhance their learning skills, and those who are out of school taught and encouraged to go to school.
- A Participatory Action Research that is geared towards finding out how girl mothers define reintegration.
THINK, Inc. is classified as an NGO (non-government organization) operating humanitarian relief in third world countries. Some good examples of other NGO’s would be Samaritan’s Purse, Water For Life, Human Relief Organization, and World Vision. These groups are typically nonpolitical, non-profit, and non-denominational entities which arrange international relief and a variety of support for the needy of the world. Historically, NGOs have a responsibility to be accountable to the communities in which they work. In order to be effective, THINK strives to adhere to recommendations from Aid Watch:
- Empower people and strengthen community processes
- Be based on respect, dialogue and long-term partnership
- Be poverty-focused
- Be sustainable
- Work in solidarity with local communities for social justice
- Be mutually transparent and accountable
- Actively seek to address unequal power between international and local staff and the organization and the communities they work with.
Our partners have included the following:
- Samaritan’s Purse International Relief - THINK I and THINK II Rehabilitation Homes, 2003 to present
- UNICEF - Safe Homes and Juvenile Transit Center for Girls, 2005 to present
- Wyoming State University College of Women Studies - Girl Mothers Participatory Action Research, 2007-2009
- Creative Associates International - Learning Enrichment Program, 2007-2009
- Save the Children UK - Rehabilitation and Reintegration of CAFF, 2005-2007, and Rewrite the Future project, 2008 to present
- Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia - Provides legal aid to survivors of sexual (AFRLL) Violence who seek legal redress and the Education Endowment Fund for survivors, 2007 - 2009
- UNFPA SGBV Clinical Management Clinic, Duport Road Clinic, 2007 - Present
- Ministry of Health & Social Welfare Quarterly Subsidies as a Welfare Institution, 2008 - Present
- Global Giving and the Philanthropist Secretariat of the Ministry of State, February 2010 - Present
- Population Council Sexual Reproductive Health for Adolescent girls in King Grey Town, April 2010 to present
- Cornerstone Community Church, 2003 to present
- Artie Davis, senior pastor of CCC, founder of PRAY2k and Comb Network, 2003 to present
- Georgie Hungerpiller Davis, brand planning and design work, 2009 to present
- Violet Bliss Dietz at TeboZandt Consulting, website development and hosting, 2010
- Individual Donors, 2003 to present