By Lincoln D. Ninneh (YES 2013-2014, hosted by AFS in Nolensville, TN)

TEACH FOR HEALTHY LIVES (T4HL) is a health education initiative established on February 2, 2018 with the primary mission of addressing the knowledge deficit as it relates to diabetes in Liberia. At T4HL, we are strong believers of the sayings "knowledge is power" and "for the lack of knowledge my people perish." After we started T4HL, we applied for and received a YES Alumni Grant that helps support our continued efforts to help educate people about diabetes. 

Our motto is “Achieving Wellness Through Awareness” and every young person at T4HL strives to achieve this goal through their commitment to our activities. Other slogans like "Building a Healthier Society” and "Health is our Concern" are inspirations that keep us going.

We are concerned primarily with health awareness and promotion, health advocacy, capacity building in health, and establishing rapport between the healthcare system and the public. More specifically, we aim to bridge the knowledge gap between diseases and health related issues in Liberia, encourage and promote health related programs, reduce discrimination in the healthcare delivery system, and help build the capacity of future healthcare providers. We envision a reduced occurrence of diabetes in Liberia and healthcare providers who are competent and efficient in legal healthcare delivery. 

In order to achieve our vision we regularly hold educational programs about diabetes and health related issues essential to the well-being of the general public. We also created a stress and coping program that provides a platform where people can freely discuss issues affecting their health and advocate for fair play in healthcare delivery. 

Our chief motive is health promotion and our utmost vision is to contribute to building a Liberian community that is well informed and actively involved into their own well-being.

The diabetes education program, which prompted our establishment was started late January 2018, first as an occasional radio program and later to as workshops and outreach programs. The diabetes education campaign has benefited about 500 individuals, all of whom were participants of either one of our four seminars or an outreach activity. Our message gets to an even larger audience on a daily basis through the sharing of our print out materials as well as our occasional radio programs.

As a youth and student-centered initiative, we started the regular stress and coping seminar to help provide first hand counseling as well as help students find personal role models. We initiated the program in February 2018 and had our second and most recent seminar on October 13. These two sessions have benefited a total of 81 youth in Ganta.