Our friends over at the STOKE Benchmarked Kwepunha Retreat are combatting the ebola outbreak in their home of Robertsport, Liberia, and they need your help to keep this community strong and bounce back. Sean Brody and his team have spent the last couple years building this rustic surf hotel in a corner of the world that not many surfers have on their radar due to its war-torn past—even though the war ended over a decade ago. Kwepunha is now a glowing example of how sustainable surf tourism can benefit such a beautiful community as Robertsport. In order to continue their path of community development, Kwepunha is asking the surfing community to come together:
Donate here at Go Fund Me. Sean provides a little more backstory on Robertsport, the ebola crisis, and Kwepunha in his article on The Inertia. Please read below to see their funding goals and action plan:
“Helping is as easy as trading your next burrito for a homemade PB and J and donating the money you saved to help Liberia.” – Sean Brody, Co-Founder of Kwepunha Retreat.
Goal #1: Raise funds necessary to provide a minimum of 6 months salary for our 15 person team at Kwepunha.
(The World Health Organization estimates this epidemic to take at least 6 months to be contained)
This requires $1,200 per month x 6 months minimum totaling $7,200
Goal #2: Raise funds necessary to provide a 1 week of Ebola awareness programming in Robertsport via the Kriterion Monrovia Group. (20 University students training community leaders and going door to door to raise awareness and answer questions pertaining to ebola and everyday life.)
This requires $7,000 for transport, meals, daily student rate, printed materials, accommodations and all other necessary items.
Ancillary Goals:
We would also like to raise additional funding to continue our monthly beach/community cleanups, sanitation projects and education projects which will create additional jobs for dozens of deserving community.
This requires up to $1,500 per month and would employ up to 20 additional community members and help to support over 100.
Rise Above Ebola.
If you want to learn more about the ebola outbreak, VICE News has a documentary series developing as we speak. Here is Part 1: