About Us

Who Are We

Helping Our People Excel (HOPE), Inc. is a women-led, rights-based, non-for-profit organization incorporated in 2010. HOPE is managed by independent non-partisan professionals with the requisite educational background and practical experience in various fields including education, advocacy, gender mainstreaming, capacity development, amongst others.

Our Mission

To promote Women and Children’s social, economic and educational empowerment through personal development opportunities, building strong community partnerships, policy review and advocacy. HOPE emphasizes ownership and empowerment by bringing the people we serve and key institutions together to find sustainable solutions to social issues.

Our Vision

To ensure the social, educational and economic empowerment of women and children in Liberia.

HOPE works in two thematic areas:

Sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and girls; and
Education and leadership development opportunities for children and youth

Dr. Katurah York Cooper

Founder

How we Started?

HOPE was established by Dr. Katurah York Cooper. In 2001, she returned to Liberia and saw the extent of the devastation of the ongoing civil war. The lives of young people were completely disrupted. The breakdown of family and community structures resulted in children out of school, selling petty items on the streets and vulnerable to abuse. Women were the biggest casualties of the war. They witnessed the murder of their husbands, the abduction of their children, even as many were subjected to rape, violence and sexual abuse. The suffering was at all levels: emotionally, physically, educationally and socially. What gets taken from people when they go through such a devastating experience is hope and something had to be done!

Dr. Cooper’s response was the establishment of Helping Our People Excel (H.O.P.E.) Inc.

Our Core Value

HOPE employs a gender and human rights-based approach. This approach is applied throughout our work, with a focus on the principles of non-discrimination and equal access, participation and ownership, accountability and transparency, and the rule of law. HOPE’s gender perspective focuses the attributes associated with being male and female and their relationships with each other and how we share resources and opportunities. We understand that these attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes. They are context specific and changeable. Therefore, we are intentional in engaging boys and young men in discussions and actions that address the effects of power asymmetries, inequity, social and gender norms on the health and rights of women and girls.

To this end, HOPE continues to be a leading non-for-profit local entity championing the cause of women and children in Liberia.

Factors Preventing Woman and Children from Achieving Their Full Potential

Poor implementation of laws and policies and inadequate legal response.
Patriarchy, gender and social norms and structural inequalities that encourages exclusion, poverty, toxic masculinity and sexual and gender-based violence.
Very few gender actors in the most parts of Liberia. Even in urban areas where gender actors are present, proper coordination is a challenge in adequately addressing the issues.
Communities are not adequately challenged to protect the rights of women and children.
Women and girls are not empowered to strategically lead and participate in decision-making arenas. As such, the voices of women and girls are not considered when decisions are made on the issues that impact their lives.

Policy Matters

Achieving gender equity requires more than just changes to laws. The laws need to be meaningfully implemented – and this requires sustained political will, and leadership from women and men across societies.

As we provide personal/leadership development opportunities, we must also provide the networks, tools and resources needed to impact the policies that validates how we protect and empower women and children.

To get involved:

Please give us a call, email, or follow our social media platforms.