APRIL 28, 2022

After Devastating Liberian Civil War, Volunteer Pays Blessings Forward

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Harry Kpoh. Harry Kpoh witnessed the ravages of civil war while living in Liberia, and when he was able to immigrate to the United States as a young man, those memories of suffering stayed with him. “I visited Liberia several years later,” says Harry, “and one man said he’d lost his wife and unborn baby because the nine-months-pregnant woman was taken on motorbike through trenches to get to the clinic, as there are no vehicles that travel in the area because of bad road conditions. She’d passed before she got help, and there was no medicine to provide treatment.”

Harry returned to his residence in Louisville, Kentucky, and started what is now the Trembo National Association of the Americas, Inc. (TRENAA), an organization dedicated to addressing Liberia’s critical need for life-saving medicine, medical equipment and food. After years of civil war, Harry describes a country ruined, its residents making do with the very little they have. “If you imagine going a day without food, 80% of the country is unemployed, and one of the places that I visited, people still drink from river creeks. It was January 2022, and the village got their drinking water at the upper part of the creek and washed their clothes at the bottom of the creek — in this modern age. It’s sad. People are struggling, but interestingly, they are resilient. They are managing and making the maximum use of the little resources they have, just to survive.”

As founder and CEO of TRENAA, Harry is doing everything he can to provide help for Liberians. Packing shipping containers full of supplies and food, Harry travels on every container that goes to Liberia. Harry has also established key partnerships with organizations like Supplies Overseas (SOS), Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and Love The Hungry to support his efforts. He has even formed a strategic partnership with the Liberian Ministry of Health to facilitate logistics and transportation to help get supplies to rural areas. Teams of volunteers, both in the U.S. and Liberia, help with operations and distributions. The organization relies on donations to help provide assistance. “Most of the time, it’s a three-day drive from the arrival city to the rural destination,” said Harry. “Sometimes you go without food to ensure our people get the benefits of help that our partners are providing. It’s a difficult journey. Big picture, we are providing medicine, but it doesn’t help if people are still drinking from the river and getting airborne diseases. We are addressing the issues that are sickening people. Trembo sponsors 350 students with free education and food in two different locations. It has just broken ground for a school building to bring all the students to one location. In the rural areas, where distribution is done, some walk five or ten miles barefoot to get food, so we provided 4,000 sneakers. We are currently working on a project to provide hand pumps in villages that rely on the creek for their drinking water.”

Harry says his dedication to supporting his fellow Liberians is based in the understanding of how desperate their situation is and how appreciative they are for any help. “It’s the genuine gratitude that is shown by Liberians when you provide help. That’s the biggest motivation. People are hopeless. [In the U.S.,] you get sick and go to the hospital, knowing that you’ll be provided with medicine, but (in Liberia) you get to hospital and there’s no medicine. People become hopeless and don’t bother going to the hospital. We provide medicine, and you’ll receive a call at 3 a.m. on your home phone from Liberia, [the person on the other end] is expressing how much hope the service you provided has given to them. Those are the fighters who motivate me on a daily basis to do what I’m doing.”

Harry says in the rural areas where distribution is done, some walk 5 or 10 miles barefoot to get food, so TRENAA donated about 4,000 pairs of shoes to the needy including women, children and the elderly.

Harry’s service is saving lives, says Solomon Qualah, a native Liberian himself who has volunteered with TRENAA and was involved in helping Harry’s family to resettle when they arrived in Louisville, Ky. According to Solomon, Harry’s determination to help others living the same struggle he once faced himself is going a long way. “The conditions over there are overwhelming, especially in the medical area, but everything,” says Solomon. “He’s saving lives. The hospitals over there are missing certain things. To be able to fill in those goes a long, long, long way. Healthcare conditions in Liberia are deplorable, especially outside the city. [Harry] identifies clinics, fills their needs and saves many, many lives including pregnant women and little kids.”

Paying his blessings back is something Harry says he does joyfully, offering transformation for others. “Volunteering is an incredible feeling to ensure that people can live their best,” he said. “They can tap into their potential if you provide help because we all do have potential in us, but we are limited because of the lack of the assistance that we need. You can see the transformation of somebody’s life if you provide that help for today. My immigration to the U.S. to have all the opportunities means I have a great platform to use resources to give back. Giving back through service is the best gift you can give the world.”

SEPTEMBER 7, 2020

Critical Medical Donations Support Healthcare in Liberia

Story By: CMMB

In February of 2020, CMMB’s Medical Donations Program joined forces with Trembo National Association and Supplies Overseas Health and Hope (SOS) to ship medical donations to the West African nation of Liberia. The piece below explores our partnership.

Liberia has faced decades of challenges recovering from two consecutive civil wars that tore the country apart from the 1980s until 2003. On the Human Development Index, it ranks 181 out of 189 with 94% of the population living on less than $2 per day. The average life expectancy stands at 62 years for men and 64 years for women.

Responding to an immediate need

The 2014 Ebola crisis that hit Liberia, as well as neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea, was yet another reckoning for the under-resourced nation. By the time the World Health Organization lifted the emergency status for the region in 2016, nearly 5,000 Liberians had died from the disease. It is estimated that even more perished from chronic disease or non-Ebola illness due to the massive halt the outbreak brought to an already inadequate national health system.

In 2014, Harry Kpoh, a Liberian living in Kentucky was tracking the Ebola outbreak with dismay. Rather than just watch, he determined that he needed to act, and began to organize the Liberian community in Kentucky and Southern Indiana to plan a response. They worked to collect enough medical equipment and supplies to fill a 40-foot container which they shipped to Liberia for distribution to facilities impacted by the Ebola outbreak. This was the begining of the Trembo National Association.

Joining forces

Five years later, Trembo National Association began to work within the community to put together a follow up donation. The group applied to Supplies Overseas Health and Hope (SOS) for a donation of medical equipment and supplies from US hospitals that had upgraded their facilities. Once the SOS donation was staged for overseas shipment, additional space remained. Trembo National Association conferred with their partner facilities in Liberia to understand what other needs they had, and all of them communicated an ongoing shortage of medicines. Trembo National Association then reached out to CMMB to place a request for a donation of the medicines identified by their partners.

After two calls between the three groups, CMMB approved the request and shipped a pallet of products including first aid kits, diabetes medication, hypertension medicine, WASH items, and analgesics which set sail for Liberia with the SOS items on February 13th. These products were donated by Johnson & Johnson, Breckenridge, and Cintex.

Arriving just in time

The container arrived in late March just as the world was tracking the spread of COVID-19. Harry travelled to the country in order to oversee the receipt and handoff of the shipment. He spoke with local health authorities and agreed to allocate a portion of the donation to Ministry of Health hospitals in order to help with their preparations for COVID-19. The receipt and handoff was covered in a news story for Front Page Africa.

Teta K. Morris, the officer-in-charge for the Behwan Health Center where a portion of the products were allocated, said she was impressed. She had previously filled out numerous request forms for gift-in-kind assistance to support their operations, but the donations never came. She said she was very happy to see that the equipment and medicines actually arrive. She believed it would greatly assist her and her staff in the fight against COVID-19.

These continue to be challenging months for the world. However, by mobilizing networks to support those most at risk, we can all help to protect lives, and support the strength of communities.

NOVEMBER 29, 2021

SOS Partner Wins UPS Coveted Jim Casey Award For His Humanitarian Service

Story By: SOS

Harry Koph is dedicated to improving quality of life in his original homeland of Liberia. Harry first came to SOS several years ago when Ebola was at a crisis level in Liberia and our team quickly pulled together a large shipment of medical supplies to aid the country in its battle. In 2020, we partnered with Harry for a second shipment that would help build more sustainable healthcare delivery. In all of the shipments sent, SOS organized to have other NGO resources added – from food to water to medications – to truly help improve health in the communities. Harry is a dedicated humanitarian and we are honored to have him as a partner.

APRIL 28, 2022

After Devastating Liberian Civil War, Volunteer Pays Blessings Forward

Story By: Diane Quest

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Harry Kpoh. Harry Kpoh witnessed the ravages of civil war while living in Liberia, and when he was able to immigrate to the United States as a young man, those memories of suffering stayed with him. “I visited Liberia several years later,” says Harry, “and one man said he’d lost his wife and unborn baby because the nine-months-pregnant woman was taken on motorbike through trenches to get to the clinic, as there are no vehicles that travel in the area because of bad road conditions. She’d passed before she got help, and there was no medicine to provide treatment.”

Harry returned to his residence in Louisville, Kentucky, and started what is now the Trembo National Association of the Americas, Inc. (TRENAA), an organization dedicated to addressing Liberia’s critical need for life-saving medicine, medical equipment and food. After years of civil war, Harry describes a country ruined, its residents making do with the very little they have. “If you imagine going a day without food, 80% of the country is unemployed, and one of the places that I visited, people still drink from river creeks. It was January 2022, and the village got their drinking water at the upper part of the creek and washed their clothes at the bottom of the creek — in this modern age. It’s sad. People are struggling, but interestingly, they are resilient. They are managing and making the maximum use of the little resources they have, just to survive.”

As founder and CEO of TRENAA, Harry is doing everything he can to provide help for Liberians. Packing shipping containers full of supplies and food, Harry travels on every container that goes to Liberia. Harry has also established key partnerships with organizations like Supplies Overseas (SOS), Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and Love The Hungry to support his efforts. He has even formed a strategic partnership with the Liberian Ministry of Health to facilitate logistics and transportation to help get supplies to rural areas. Teams of volunteers, both in the U.S. and Liberia, help with operations and distributions. The organization relies on donations to help provide assistance. “Most of the time, it’s a three-day drive from the arrival city to the rural destination,” said Harry. “Sometimes you go without food to ensure our people get the benefits of help that our partners are providing. It’s a difficult journey. Big picture, we are providing medicine, but it doesn’t help if people are still drinking from the river and getting airborne diseases. We are addressing the issues that are sickening people. Trembo sponsors 350 students with free education and food in two different locations. It has just broken ground for a school building to bring all the students to one location. In the rural areas, where distribution is done, some walk five or ten miles barefoot to get food, so we provided 4,000 sneakers. We are currently working on a project to provide hand pumps in villages that rely on the creek for their drinking water.”

Harry says his dedication to supporting his fellow Liberians is based in the understanding of how desperate their situation is and how appreciative they are for any help. “It’s the genuine gratitude that is shown by Liberians when you provide help. That’s the biggest motivation. People are hopeless. [In the U.S.,] you get sick and go to the hospital, knowing that you’ll be provided with medicine, but (in Liberia) you get to hospital and there’s no medicine. People become hopeless and don’t bother going to the hospital. We provide medicine, and you’ll receive a call at 3 a.m. on your home phone from Liberia, [the person on the other end] is expressing how much hope the service you provided has given to them. Those are the fighters who motivate me on a daily basis to do what I’m doing.”

Harry says in the rural areas where distribution is done, some walk 5 or 10 miles barefoot to get food, so TRENAA donated about 4,000 pairs of shoes to the needy including women, children and the elderly.

Harry’s service is saving lives, says Solomon Qualah, a native Liberian himself who has volunteered with TRENAA and was involved in helping Harry’s family to resettle when they arrived in Louisville, Ky. According to Solomon, Harry’s determination to help others living the same struggle he once faced himself is going a long way. “The conditions over there are overwhelming, especially in the medical area, but everything,” says Solomon. “He’s saving lives. The hospitals over there are missing certain things. To be able to fill in those goes a long, long, long way. Healthcare conditions in Liberia are deplorable, especially outside the city. [Harry] identifies clinics, fills their needs and saves many, many lives including pregnant women and little kids.”

Paying his blessings back is something Harry says he does joyfully, offering transformation for others. “Volunteering is an incredible feeling to ensure that people can live their best,” he said. “They can tap into their potential if you provide help because we all do have potential in us, but we are limited because of the lack of the assistance that we need. You can see the transformation of somebody’s life if you provide that help for today. My immigration to the U.S. to have all the opportunities means I have a great platform to use resources to give back. Giving back through service is the best gift you can give the world.”

APRIL 28, 2022

After Devastating Liberian Civil War, Volunteer Pays Blessings Forward

Story By: Diane Quest

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Harry Kpoh. Harry Kpoh witnessed the ravages of civil war while living in Liberia, and when he was able to immigrate to the United States as a young man, those memories of suffering stayed with him. “I visited Liberia several years later,” says Harry, “and one man said he’d lost his wife and unborn baby because the nine-months-pregnant woman was taken on motorbike through trenches to get to the clinic, as there are no vehicles that travel in the area because of bad road conditions. She’d passed before she got help, and there was no medicine to provide treatment.”

Harry returned to his residence in Louisville, Kentucky, and started what is now the Trembo National Association of the Americas, Inc. (TRENAA), an organization dedicated to addressing Liberia’s critical need for life-saving medicine, medical equipment and food. After years of civil war, Harry describes a country ruined, its residents making do with the very little they have. “If you imagine going a day without food, 80% of the country is unemployed, and one of the places that I visited, people still drink from river creeks. It was January 2022, and the village got their drinking water at the upper part of the creek and washed their clothes at the bottom of the creek — in this modern age. It’s sad. People are struggling, but interestingly, they are resilient. They are managing and making the maximum use of the little resources they have, just to survive.”

As founder and CEO of TRENAA, Harry is doing everything he can to provide help for Liberians. Packing shipping containers full of supplies and food, Harry travels on every container that goes to Liberia. Harry has also established key partnerships with organizations like Supplies Overseas (SOS), Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and Love The Hungry to support his efforts. He has even formed a strategic partnership with the Liberian Ministry of Health to facilitate logistics and transportation to help get supplies to rural areas. Teams of volunteers, both in the U.S. and Liberia, help with operations and distributions. The organization relies on donations to help provide assistance. “Most of the time, it’s a three-day drive from the arrival city to the rural destination,” said Harry. “Sometimes you go without food to ensure our people get the benefits of help that our partners are providing. It’s a difficult journey. Big picture, we are providing medicine, but it doesn’t help if people are still drinking from the river and getting airborne diseases. We are addressing the issues that are sickening people. Trembo sponsors 350 students with free education and food in two different locations. It has just broken ground for a school building to bring all the students to one location. In the rural areas, where distribution is done, some walk five or ten miles barefoot to get food, so we provided 4,000 sneakers. We are currently working on a project to provide hand pumps in villages that rely on the creek for their drinking water.”

Harry says his dedication to supporting his fellow Liberians is based in the understanding of how desperate their situation is and how appreciative they are for any help. “It’s the genuine gratitude that is shown by Liberians when you provide help. That’s the biggest motivation. People are hopeless. [In the U.S.,] you get sick and go to the hospital, knowing that you’ll be provided with medicine, but (in Liberia) you get to hospital and there’s no medicine. People become hopeless and don’t bother going to the hospital. We provide medicine, and you’ll receive a call at 3 a.m. on your home phone from Liberia, [the person on the other end] is expressing how much hope the service you provided has given to them. Those are the fighters who motivate me on a daily basis to do what I’m doing.”

Harry says in the rural areas where distribution is done, some walk 5 or 10 miles barefoot to get food, so TRENAA donated about 4,000 pairs of shoes to the needy including women, children and the elderly.

Harry’s service is saving lives, says Solomon Qualah, a native Liberian himself who has volunteered with TRENAA and was involved in helping Harry’s family to resettle when they arrived in Louisville, Ky. According to Solomon, Harry’s determination to help others living the same struggle he once faced himself is going a long way. “The conditions over there are overwhelming, especially in the medical area, but everything,” says Solomon. “He’s saving lives. The hospitals over there are missing certain things. To be able to fill in those goes a long, long, long way. Healthcare conditions in Liberia are deplorable, especially outside the city. [Harry] identifies clinics, fills their needs and saves many, many lives including pregnant women and little kids.”

Paying his blessings back is something Harry says he does joyfully, offering transformation for others. “Volunteering is an incredible feeling to ensure that people can live their best,” he said. “They can tap into their potential if you provide help because we all do have potential in us, but we are limited because of the lack of the assistance that we need. You can see the transformation of somebody’s life if you provide that help for today. My immigration to the U.S. to have all the opportunities means I have a great platform to use resources to give back. Giving back through service is the best gift you can give the world.”

APRIL 28, 2022

After Devastating Liberian Civil War, Volunteer Pays Blessings Forward

Story By: Diane Quest

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Harry Kpoh. Harry Kpoh witnessed the ravages of civil war while living in Liberia, and when he was able to immigrate to the United States as a young man, those memories of suffering stayed with him. “I visited Liberia several years later,” says Harry, “and one man said he’d lost his wife and unborn baby because the nine-months-pregnant woman was taken on motorbike through trenches to get to the clinic, as there are no vehicles that travel in the area because of bad road conditions. She’d passed before she got help, and there was no medicine to provide treatment.”

Harry returned to his residence in Louisville, Kentucky, and started what is now the Trembo National Association of the Americas, Inc. (TRENAA), an organization dedicated to addressing Liberia’s critical need for life-saving medicine, medical equipment and food. After years of civil war, Harry describes a country ruined, its residents making do with the very little they have. “If you imagine going a day without food, 80% of the country is unemployed, and one of the places that I visited, people still drink from river creeks. It was January 2022, and the village got their drinking water at the upper part of the creek and washed their clothes at the bottom of the creek — in this modern age. It’s sad. People are struggling, but interestingly, they are resilient. They are managing and making the maximum use of the little resources they have, just to survive.”

As founder and CEO of TRENAA, Harry is doing everything he can to provide help for Liberians. Packing shipping containers full of supplies and food, Harry travels on every container that goes to Liberia. Harry has also established key partnerships with organizations like Supplies Overseas (SOS), Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and Love The Hungry to support his efforts. He has even formed a strategic partnership with the Liberian Ministry of Health to facilitate logistics and transportation to help get supplies to rural areas. Teams of volunteers, both in the U.S. and Liberia, help with operations and distributions. The organization relies on donations to help provide assistance. “Most of the time, it’s a three-day drive from the arrival city to the rural destination,” said Harry. “Sometimes you go without food to ensure our people get the benefits of help that our partners are providing. It’s a difficult journey. Big picture, we are providing medicine, but it doesn’t help if people are still drinking from the river and getting airborne diseases. We are addressing the issues that are sickening people. Trembo sponsors 350 students with free education and food in two different locations. It has just broken ground for a school building to bring all the students to one location. In the rural areas, where distribution is done, some walk five or ten miles barefoot to get food, so we provided 4,000 sneakers. We are currently working on a project to provide hand pumps in villages that rely on the creek for their drinking water.”

Harry says his dedication to supporting his fellow Liberians is based in the understanding of how desperate their situation is and how appreciative they are for any help. “It’s the genuine gratitude that is shown by Liberians when you provide help. That’s the biggest motivation. People are hopeless. [In the U.S.,] you get sick and go to the hospital, knowing that you’ll be provided with medicine, but (in Liberia) you get to hospital and there’s no medicine. People become hopeless and don’t bother going to the hospital. We provide medicine, and you’ll receive a call at 3 a.m. on your home phone from Liberia, [the person on the other end] is expressing how much hope the service you provided has given to them. Those are the fighters who motivate me on a daily basis to do what I’m doing.”

Harry says in the rural areas where distribution is done, some walk 5 or 10 miles barefoot to get food, so TRENAA donated about 4,000 pairs of shoes to the needy including women, children and the elderly.

Harry’s service is saving lives, says Solomon Qualah, a native Liberian himself who has volunteered with TRENAA and was involved in helping Harry’s family to resettle when they arrived in Louisville, Ky. According to Solomon, Harry’s determination to help others living the same struggle he once faced himself is going a long way. “The conditions over there are overwhelming, especially in the medical area, but everything,” says Solomon. “He’s saving lives. The hospitals over there are missing certain things. To be able to fill in those goes a long, long, long way. Healthcare conditions in Liberia are deplorable, especially outside the city. [Harry] identifies clinics, fills their needs and saves many, many lives including pregnant women and little kids.”

Paying his blessings back is something Harry says he does joyfully, offering transformation for others. “Volunteering is an incredible feeling to ensure that people can live their best,” he said. “They can tap into their potential if you provide help because we all do have potential in us, but we are limited because of the lack of the assistance that we need. You can see the transformation of somebody’s life if you provide that help for today. My immigration to the U.S. to have all the opportunities means I have a great platform to use resources to give back. Giving back through service is the best gift you can give the world.”