Have a Heart for Liberia

Hi Everyone!

I'm Cara, and this is my very FIRST Jubilee Oregon blog post. Nancy Yuill, Pat Rumer, Lynne Lopez, Dustin Pattison, and I are travelling later this week to Nairobi, Kenya as part of a Jubilee delegation for the World Social Forum. We plan to do a lot of blogging about our experiences there, so thought I'd get an early start.



Last night, we had our monthly Jubilee meeting. We spent part of our time cutting paper hearts for Liberia. (Nancy Yuill is pictured.)

Why Liberia, you ask?

(I'm borrowing the text below from the National Jubilee site:)

Led by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa’s first democratically elected female president, Liberia is working to overcome the devastation caused by two decades of dictatorship and a civil war.

Much of Liberia's debts were incurred by the undemocratic regimes of dictators Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor between 1980 and 2003.

Currently, Liberia’s debt totals around $3.5 billion. Liberia's annual budget is less than one fortieth of that amount, and interest continues to accumulate.

President George W. Bush and the international community have repeatedly pledged their support and aid to help the country rebuild, but so far they have stopped short of cancelling Liberia's unjust and un-payable debt.

Rich country creditors are currently insisting that Liberia make $1.5 billion in back payments and accumulated interest or “arrears” before it can become eligible for any debt relief or cancellation.

At the current payment rate, this would take literally over a thousand years!

For the first action of the Sabbath Year: we will be collecting Valentine hearts addressed to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, asking him to “Have a Heart and Cancel Liberia's Debt!”

We hope to collect thousands of Valentine wishes for Secretary Paulson and deliver them to him on February 6, one week before the February 13-14 Liberia donors conference in Washington, D.C.

To ensure that the Valentine arrive in time, please be sure to mail them no later than January 31! Send your hearts to:

Saif Rahman
Institute for Policy Studies
Liberia Valentines
1112 16th St. N.W.
Suite 600
Washington, D.C. 20036

We’ll personally deliver the Valentines to U.S. Treasury on February 6, to send a message prior to the February 13-14 Liberia donors conference in Washington. We will also hold a call-in day to U.S. Treasury on February 6 to reinforce our message. Stay tuned for more details about the February 6 Call-In Day.

If you have any questions, please contact Jubilee's Congregations Fellow Nate Fishman at 202.546.4470 or nathan@jubileeusa.org.