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Catherine Joe, Liberian amputee with 6 children who makes farm to live gets water pump machine

James Fasuekoi

For many years now, Catherine Joe, a disabled Christian woman living in a village outside of the capital, Monrovia, has had to borrow her neighbors’ water-pump machine in order to water her vegetable gardens and farms. Now, she no longer needs to do that anymore; thanks in parts to a Global Ekklesia’s small campaign.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY GLOBAL EKKLESIA STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS

By Global Ekklesia Staff Writer

After being amputated about a decade now because of a strange illness Chaterine has refused to be a “Begger” and instead chose to turn to the soil. She sits on an old container to brush and hook her farms and gardens in the village.

It was last Christmas’ Eve when our publisher was returning from Buchanan and decided to make a brief stop and check on Catherine Joe. Catherine, a middle-aged woman, lives in Behneewein with her six children. Like her parents she’s a farmer and uses proceeds from gardening to send her children to school.

A gardener in the village told Global Ekklesia’s publisher that she was at her farm which isn’t far away. Then came a very sad news; it was about her crops dying in a huge amount daily from the Liberian Coastal summer heat.

Mrs. Karim-Creevey (left) presents a new water pump machine bought after people made donations.

Our publisher raced at once toward the farm to meet Catherine Joe. Ever since he arrived here in June 2024, Catherine’s life story has fascinated him so much so that he and his news crew had begun both Still & Motion Film documentaries on the amputee-woman’s life, work and religion. 

It was true. Catherine’s eggplant and butterball farm alone, sprawling across acres of farmland as far as the eye could see, had collapsed due to lack of rain and a water pump to water the crops. She was dejected and nearly teared up!

Dying crops at Catherine’s farm last year that prompted an SOS Call for help by Ekklesia’s publisher.

Ekklesia’s Publisher would later speak to a few people regarding Catherine Joe’s sad mood on that particular day. He said he went out of “words” after seeing the widow’s plight firsthand and wondered “What sort of consolation can one give her?”  

But before he left the single-mom’s farm our editor thought of doing something he knows how to do best; take a note and go down on his knees and film the tragic situation so he could publish it.

Feeling unpleasant he decided to live stream the situation via social media. He crowned it all with an urgent SOS call for help for the widow.

Within hours the first, but a positive response came in; it was from the publisher’s own daughter, Yongor Kokulo Fasuekoi, a resident of Minnesota. 

How Catherine’s dying pepper garden looked at the end of last year in December.

She said she had been moved by the disabled woman’s plight and decided to wire US $50.00 for Catherine. 

In a small way, Catherine Joe, despite her handicap condition, is doing just what Liberia’s President Joseph Nyuma Boakai wants his fellow countrymen and women to do-make their own farms or gardens to be able to feel themselves.

Catherine Joe is counted among those with the largest farm in her village. Her pepper and cassava farms extend as far as the naked eye can see.  

Yongor then quietly set up a “GO FUND ME” account and had some of her peers and friends donate money for the purchasing of a water pump for her and raised US $150.00 in the weeks that followed. At this time the machine’s discounted price stood at $215.00. 

A file photo of Yongor Kokulo Fasuekoi of Minnesota, USA.

Besides, additional money would be needed in the future to buy a long rubber tube for watering the farm, which the store owner at old Kendeja Junction said, is nearly the cost in price as the machine itself.   

When the story was published in our Dec. 30, edition and Amb. Linda Karim-Creevey read the pathetic story of Catherine; she quickly wired a contribution of US $50.00. 

On Saturday, May 3, 2025, people in the entire village of Behneewein gathered to witness the turning over of a brand-new water pump to the widow bought with proceeds of the campaign.  Global Ekklesia says many thanks first to God, all of our GO FUND ME donors, Yongor Fasuekoi, Amb. Linda Karim-Creevey and Rev. Love Gibson.

Hon. Jackson George Jr., the head of President Boakai’s charity in Liberia said he was shocked to see a disabled and single mom like Catherine make such a large farm. Here, George is standing in her pepper garden.

Hon. Jackson George Jr., the Executive Director for the JNB Foundation along with Amb. Linda Karim-Creevey put aside all of their other engagements and traveled to Behneewein and participated in the turn-over ceremony of the water-pump.   Mrs. Creevey performed the presentation, assisted by Hon. George.

She gave the village women’s group a purse of LD $20,000, and praised Liberian Women as being “the backbone of the nation.” Hon. George, on the other hand, informed this medium that his agency would help provide help with accessories including a tube that Catherine needs to operate the machine.

A team of visitors including Hon. Jackson K. George Jr. (front), and Amb. Linda Karim-Creevey on a tour at Catherine Joe’s farms May 3.

Earlier, the two diplomats, Creevey and George, toured the women’s village communal farm during which Mrs. Creevey promised she would give planting seeds to the women and arrange with local supermarkets to sell their farm produce to avoid damage. 

They ended their tour at Catherine’s farms in the north of the village. 

Watch out for our special on Catherine Joe coming out soon and titled: Catherine Joe On Camera!