Move to rescue disabled woman’s dying crops in Liberia. Publisher’s daughter in U.S. is first to respond in kind

By Global Ekklesia Staff Writer in Liberia
Barely 24 hours had passed after Global Ekklesia publisher made an SOS plead for public assistance with either cash or a water-pumping-machine in order to prevent Catherine Joe’s crops from dying in Grand Bassa’s coastal village called Behneewein, when someone responded in kind; it was publisher’s own daughter; she donated US $50.00 toward the purchase of the water machine. 

Ms. Yongor Kokulo Fasuekoi, a current resident of Maplewood, Minn., in a voice message to her father, Journalist James Kokulo Fasuekoi, now in Liberia, said she was touched by Catherine Joe’s story carried live by Global Ekklesia, Tuesday, and therefore decided to send a small purse to Catherine, an amputee and pretty much a widow catering to six biological children.   

“Hello, Dad…I was driving and the LORD put on my heart to bless you, and the lady in the video you were talking about earlier and her six children,” Yongor stated in a whatsapp message Tuesday, Dec. 24, and instructed her father to give US $50.00 to Catherine as a Christmas gift from her.

“Please, let us come together in this season to bless a family who is in need; any amount you have will make a difference,” Yongor, a beautician and very passionate about helping young people including Liberian women, high school and college students, wrote and posted to her Facebook page.

Yongor’s dad, a former AP West Africa war correspondent now a Christian journalist, is presently in Liberia where he’s joined efforts to help run President Joseph Nyuma Boakai Foundation. When he’s not working on weekends, he joins a local humanitarian worker, Love Gibson of Samaritan Purse, together both fund their own travel cross country, helping needy people.

Mr. Fasuekoi is the Editor-Publisher of GlobalEkklesia.Com, a Christian news magazine based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and did feature Catherine Joe during the magazine’s 3rd anniversary celebration last October 25th, at the JNB Foundation Headquarters in Rehab, Paynesville. He’s presently working on a digital documentary that features Catherine’s story, one he says has touched him so deeply, coming from a family of rural farmers. 

Driving through Behneewein Tuesday evening from the coastal city of Buchanan, he said he decided to stop and check with the disabled woman, after hearing that widow’s crops which covered large acres of dried land were decaying by the hour in the present Liberia Summer heat. Farming is her major source of income, and the latest sad situation prompted Fasuekoi, a former war photographer, to do a live commentary from there, making a public appeal for help.   

Catherine Joe, 44, is a single mom with six biological children with most presently in public schools in the township. A rare sickness left her left leg amputated many years ago when both doctors and herbalists couldn’t tell exactly the cause of her bloated leg. She attributes the incident to bewitchment otherwise “African signs” and recalled how it started through a mere mosquito bite, getting out of hand overnight.   

Her husband of many years, she told this magazine, abandoned she and their little kids, as a result of the illness, disappearing apparently forever some eight years ago: that’s after they had visited many places in Bassa Land and Western Liberia, seeking help from medical both doctors as well as traditional herbalists with no changes to her condition at the time.

Yet, after her terrifying experience coupled with her present pitiful situation, today, Catherine is credited as owning the largest farm in her village inhabited mainly by people of her ethnic Bassa. 

Her fellow villager who had let her use his water machine for weeks, while still hospitalized awaiting surgery, on Tuesday sent in two boys to Catherine Joe’s farm during our visit there and instructed them to pick up his machine and take it to his own farm nearby, prior to his arrival in the village (See above picture).

A Christain ever since she was young, she got baptized in 1997. Prior to her misfortune she said, she served as choir director in her United Methodist Church in the Behneewein area. 

Thursday night, Messrs. Love Gibson and Fasuekoi rushed Yongor’s gift of $50.00 to Catherine but she instead suggested the two men open an account in a store that sells water-pumping machine while they help her raise the remainder of US $165.00 to finish payment now that the equipment is being sold at a Christmas discounted price of US $215.00, from previous $250.00 each.

Meanwhile, the referenced amount of $50.00 was on Friday paid toward the machine at a store near the Kendeja Junction at Rehab, in the hope that readers and kindhearted individuals, including prominent artists, journalists, media houses, the Agriculture Ministry, and Forestry (FDA), would all jump in and assist and raised the remainder so Catherine Joe can be happy once more.

Since she arrived in the U.S. Yongor’s father has taught her the act of showing generosity to people including strangers who stand in need of help. Through their dad, Yongor and her siblings have also learned to engage in community services, values she now hopes to join like-minded folks to extend across in Africa, particularly in her native Liberia. 

Editor’s Note: Both financial and material assistance donated to this cause will be published here except we are advised by donor(s) to keep gesture private.

Banner photograph: Catherine Joe sitting on emptied gallon and working at her farm in Behneewein recently. ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES KOKULO FASUEKOI