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Saran Kaba Jones
Founder/
Executive Director
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Saran always believed that the most effective way to bring
about positive change in Africa was to invest in the
education of its young children. In 2005, she began sending
funds back to her native Liberia to help a young family
friend with his school fees. After two years, he went on to
complete high school and enrolled at the University of
Liberia where he is currently a student.
When she realized just how impactful her rather small
support was, Saran decided to scale up her efforts and
dedicated herself to giving others the opportunity to live
out their dreams.
In early 2008, she launched FACE Africa to extend her work
towards educating children in Liberia.
During
her first visit to Liberia in nearly 20 years (she left
Liberia when she was only eight years old), Saran was
faced with the |
harsh realities of a
post-conflict Liberia and the enormous challenges facing the
country. The long and devastating civil war had left Liberia’s
infrastructures in ruins - roads, buildings, health clinics,
communications networks, schools, farms and factories were almost
totally destroyed. With one of the highest unemployment rates in the
world, extreme poverty with average earnings of $1 a day, no
electricity, no running water or sewage system, and an inadequate
education system, the country had enormous needs.
Armed with a new-found understanding of the needs in Liberia, FACE
Africa’s focus was expanded to include health, water and sanitation,
and economic opportunities for women. The organization now connects
with other individuals and organizations doing life-changing work
around the world and collaborates with them to raise awareness and
help transform impoverished communities in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
In 2009,
with a $10,000 grant from the Davis Project for Peace, FACE Africa
began implementing its first clean water project in Barnesville,
Liberia in partnership with Clean Water for Kids. The project involved the installation of a water
purification system capable of producing up to 20,000 liters of
drinking water per day and currently supplies over 600 residents
with clean drinking water.
Saran currently works for the Singapore Government's Economic
Development Board as an Investment Project Manager and prior to
that, served as Fellowship Program Coordinator at the W.E.B. Du Bois
Institute at Harvard University. In 2000, she was the youngest
member of the Massachusetts Delegation to the National Summit on
Africa. She has also served on the Board of the Boston Pan African
Forum and currently serves on the Board of the Coalition for a
Strong United Nations (CSUN).
She has traveled extensively over the world as a result of her
father’s diplomatic postings in the Middle East and Europe and spent
the bulk of her formative years living in the Ivory Coast, France,
Egypt, and Cyprus, before settling in Boston, Massachusetts where
she now lives.
Saran did her undergraduate studies at Lesley College and Harvard
University, both in Cambridge, MA.
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