YOWLI 2010 International Conference Key Note Speaker

Saran Kaba Jones 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 water and sanitation as well women and girls empowerment programs. In 2009, with a $10,000 grant from the Davis Project for Peace, FACE Africa implemented its first clean water project in Barnersville, Liberia in partnership with Clean Water for Kids. The project involved the installation of a water purification system (Skyhydrant) capable of producing up to 20,000 liters of drinking water per day and currently supplies over 600 residents with clean and safe drinking water. - Until recently, Saran worked for the Singapore Government’s Economic Development Board in private equity investments 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.