Thanks, Virginia

Kim Pearson — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 17:25:51 -0600

Inspiring is definitely the word for them, isn't it? I really hope that their work attracts the attention and support it deserves.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Inspiring women

Virginia DeBolt — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:23:30 -0600

Thanks for this great post about these inspiring women. I'm off to check the links to their blogs.

http://www.webteacher.ws/
http://first50.wordpress.com/

Letting Them Know it's Christmas in Liberia

Kim Pearson — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:05:14 -0600

This is a story about an extraordinary young woman -- really, three extraordinary young women -- who will make you believe in angels all over again. At its center is MacDella Cooper, who literally walked out of the Liberian civil war at the age of 13 to triumph in the fashion world and create an eponymous foundation that brings the treasures of home and love to so many of the children she left behind. At her side are Tammy Tibbetts and Genevieve Faust, who are transforming a one-time class project into an enduring spotlight on Cooper's work and the critical needs of Liberia's children. This Christmas, the trio will be in Liberia, and by way of their blogs and websites, they've invited you to come along.

For me, the story begins in the 1990s, when I first met MacDella. She was a student at The College of New Jersey, where I teach. My friend and colleague Gloria Dickinson, told me about an amazing tale about MacDella's escape from the civil war and her 700-mile trek from Monrovia to Abidjan, Ivory Coast. There she met an American woman who, along with her sorority sisters, helped her get to the US, where her mother had been visiting when the war broke out in 1989. In the course of that journey, her stepfather disappeared. MacDella and her two brothers came close to being raped or murdered time and time again. It would take three years before she was reunited with her mother, only to face a new set of hardships in the hostile projects of Newark, New Jersey and at violence-riddled Barringer High.

It was not the first time I had heard such a story -- in 1995, I had the privilege of getting to know and teach two young black South African men who had been similarly assisted by another colleague, Brenda Leake, in coming to the US to attend college. I was awed by the students, and proud of the difference my colleagues made.

As a TCNJ student, Cooper was a popular figure. Even when she appeared in a photo spread in Glamour magazine her junior year, she was remarkably unaffected. Despite the horrors she'd endured, she lit up a room with her smile. One day, on the spur of the moment, I asked her to come to my magazine writing class and talk about her life. I'd hoped someone would be inspired to write about her, and that generally, the students would be motivated to dig out the extraordinary stories all around them. While my students produced great work, none of them picked up MacDella's story.

Mac Della graduated in 2001, parlaying her communications degree and modeling portfolio into a successful career doing public relations for major design houses. In 2004, she called me and several other old friends to let us know that she was forming a foundation to provide relief supplies for other war survivors. The MacDella Cooper Foundation is an outgrowth of what she and her mother had been doing for years: collecting clothes, toiletries and other non-perishables and shipping them to Liberia. Today, MCF ships whole container ships of relief supplies, supports a half-dozen day care centers and more.

The only thing that MacDella's work didn't have was major media attention. Then, last Spring, Tammy Tibbetts decided to make MacDella the focus of her project for my Interactive Journalism class.

Tammy is her own story -- gifted, enterprising, and a living testament to the power of being nice. As a student, she racked up a slew of top-notch internships and freelance clips, started a magazine club for her fellow aspiring journalists, and established a mentoring network for journalism students and alumni that has jump-started or re-invigorated several careers.Tammy went on to graduate last May and went straight to work for Hearst Digital Media, for whom she launched MisQuinceMag.com, an interactive site for young Latinas and their families who are planning their quinceňeara.

Another classmate, Genevieve Faust, signed on to work with Tammy. Gen is a quiet sort, but no less accomplished. A talented flash designer and budding filmmaker, she proved to be an ideal partner for the project.

Together, they produced "Liberia's Angel: The Story of MacDella Cooper," an interactive multimedia website that tells MacDella's story in words, images, sound and interactive graphics. On the site, you can hear Mac Della recount the incident that led her to tell her brothers, "I'm getting out of here!" gather a few cherished possessions, and set out on her perilous trek to freedom. An interactive map allows you to retrace the journey across West Africa. I feel somewhat guilty telling you how wonderful the site is, because it's being moved at the moment, but I'm told that you'll soon be able to access it through the foundation's website.

Needless to say that I was thrilled as their teacher -- and even more thrilled when the site won the John Blassingame Prize for student-produced digital media from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

It turned out, however, that more was in store. Genevieve decided to make a documentary about MacDella. MacDella invited Tammy and Gen to come to Liberia with her for the Foundation's annual Christmas party. They leave this week, and each woman has established a blog about the trip. Tammy's blog, Do They Know it's Christmas? is,

"independent of the MacDella Cooper Foundation but supportive of its efforts, as well as the efforts of other organizations and individuals — both celebrities and ordinary civilians — who introduce African issues into American culture and champion a better world."

On her blog, Christmas in Liberia, Gen explains that the idea for the documentary took shape while she and Tammy were working on Liberia's Angel:

"While we were working on our project, MacDella took a trip to Liberia and was away for a few weeks. Tammy and I talked about what our project would be like if we could follow MacDella to Liberia with a video camera. We were just being wishful thinkers at the time, but then the idea of a documentary popped into our heads. We knew that MacDella took volunteers and held a Christmas party for 600+ orphans in Liberia every year. Why couldn't we be those volunteers and take a camera with us?"

So in a few days, they are off on the adventure of a lifetime -- cameras and laptops in tow. But as Tammy explains, they don't just intend to tell a story -- they mean to make the world finally take notice:

"The media hasn’t discovered MacDella…yet. That’s what I’m here to change, because MacDella’s one voice captures those of millions of Liberian children and women."

By the way, if you are in a giving mood, you can support the MacDella Cooper Foundation through the online donation link at the bottom of their index page.

More
TCNJ Magazine: Liberated from the Horrors of Her Past
:
Liberian Pageants Photos from the United Nations Fashion Show

Queen to Be Life Update

cross-posted at Professor Kim's News Notes

Media credits:
Photo of Mac Della with children courtesy of the MacDella Cooper Foundation
Photo of Tammy Tibbetts, and Tammy, MacDella and Iman courtesy of Tammy Tibbetts
Photo of Genevieve Faust and screen shot of Liberia's Angel courtesy of Genevieve Faust

BlogHer - Letting Them Know it's Christmas in Liberia - Comments

Thanks, Virginia

Inspiring women

Letting Them Know it's Christmas in Liberia