"Liberty and Justice" — and a Sustainable Path for Africa

Last Thursday afternoon I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by an organization called Liberty and Justice, a start-up company that manufactures men’s apparel in Liberia and Ghana for import into the U.S., under brands like Haggar.  The focus is on high quality, ensuring wonderful customer service and guaranteeing high rates of retention from these U.S. customers.  

90% of the company’s employees are women; most of the other 10% are young men who were formerly child-soldiers. 

Let’s look at what happens at a personal level for the employees and their families:

• 98% of employees’ children go to school, versus 40% of the general population.

• The health of these families skyrockets; malaria is still a nuisance, but it’s not a death sentence.  

• Many women get divorces from abusive marriages into which they were sold as children, establish their own identity, and often remarry out of love. 

• Bringing industry to rural regions requires electrification, which is a blend of diesel generators and renewable energy (solar and wind).  The presence of electrification further enhances education, bringing light for reading, as well as access to the Internet.  (Obviously, the higher the percentage of clean energy, the better.)

• The availability of well-paying jobs breaks the cycle of poverty; families are better nourished, better educated, stronger, and smaller, since educated women tend to have far fewer children.

As we look at the woes of our civilization and how they can be addressed, one thing is certain:  runaway population growth makes everything tougher.  Since education is the only path to population control, anything that encourages learning is good.  What Liberty and Justice is doing is wonderful, as I told the organization’s co-founder at the conclusion of his talk: “This is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful stories I’ve ever heard in my life.”