CNN iReport

           I am writing you from my position on the Board of Directors of African Children’s Libraries. Our organization sent a container to Liberia earlier this year. Since June 2009 the container has been held in the Port of Monrovia.

           The container carries books that will be distributed to the libraries our non-profit group has established throughout Liberia.

           In addition to books, the container has boxes of clothes for Jahzjet Children’s Outreach Mission. These boxes are very clearly identified on the outside of each box. The clothes were collected with the help of a local Girl Scout Troop for the children I met at this orphanage in Paynesville, Liberia when I was in Liberia as part of a humanitarian medical mission with Medical Teams International in 2004 and 2005.

           The inclusion of these boxes in the container of mostly books is one reason the Port held up the container’s release. Presently all the cargo has been cleared by the Port as legitimately for non-profit use. Now the Port wants to charge us $8000 for storing the container while they took the four months to decide that the clothes were really going to orphans.  These charges seem unreasonable as the boxes are clearly identified on the outside of each box and the orphanage is an established charity that has been operating in Paynesville for many years. African Children’s Libraries has previously sent containers of books for the libraries along with clothes for this orphanage and the containers were not delayed at the Port.

           The container also carries two donated mammogram machines: One for the Monrovia area through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the other is going to Phebe Hospital. I don't believe there are any other mammogram machines in the country. The doctors plan to send an x-ray technician to Ghana for training once they have the machines and the manuals. The machines are analog not digital, which is why they became available.

           Every week one or two people ask me “What’s happening with the books,” or “Have the children at the orphanage gotten the clothes yet?” It was a community effort to send the container to Liberia. It was a way for local Portland children and their parents to learn about Liberia.

           I humbly ask the international community to write to the Port of Monrovia, Liberia and to President Ellen Sirleaf and request the release of the African Children’s Library container without further delay and without further charges.