Monita Vondeh is a 16-year-old from Sand Town community, Montserrado County. Her life took a drastic turn when she had to drop out of school due to teenage pregnancy.
Monita had to take care of her baby daughter all by herself without any support from her family. In order to fend for herself and her baby, she started working as a house-help for other people in her community to earn money. This was not easy for her since oftentimes she could not find clients to work for and hence, could not afford food. Her child would fall ill often but she could not afford to take her to the hospital either.
In 2016, BRAC Liberia went to her community to choose adolescents for training on life skills that could enable them to become socially and economically empowered. Being identified as a vulnerable adolescent, she became a part of the Empowerment and Livelihoods for Adolescents (ELA) project under the Youth Empowerment programme. Amongst all the skills training available in the ELA project, she chose to learn “pastry”.
After 3 years of intensive training, she graduated in February 2019 and started baking different kinds of breads and cakes with the help of a starter package provided by ELA. This helped her set up a small table shop to bake and sell bread and fend for herself.
“I am very grateful to BRAC Liberia for providing me this opportunity to transform my life,” she shared.
“I am now in school, trying to get a high-school diploma and get into a college in the future. I plan to establish my own bakery business. BRAC has helped me realise my potential and I know if I need help, girls in the ELA club are there to support me.”
