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In the remote northeastern region of Liberia, thousands of women are struggling to move forward after 14 years of brutal civil war. They spend their days doing backbreaking work in the fields to feed their children and care for the sick. And they carry the memories of a conflict that left 300,000 people dead.

Few Liberians were able to attend school during the war. Today, nearly 60 percent of the women in the country are illiterate and unable to find jobs.

Sao was 15 years old when she dropped out of school. Her father left her mother and six siblings as the conflict moved closer to her home.

“I wanted to learn,” she said. “I really wanted to go to school. The war came, and it just spoiled everything.”

Sao spent the next 20 years trying to survive and provide for her family. Since the conflict ended, she and her husband have been caring for 30 orphans at an abandoned mission.

When we launched the Church Livelihood Program for Rural Women in her village last year, Sao was the first to sign up. The two-year program, conducted in churches constructed by Samaritan’s Purse, teaches women basic reading, writing, and business skills.

Each woman receives livestock at the end of the course. The women pay the program back with offspring, which are used for the following year’s classes.

The classes include Bible study, and many of the women are becoming active members of the church.

“Some of them lead devotions,” said a church leader. “They are having a great impact and making a contribution to the church.”

Sao is excited that she is learning to read and write. She believes she will be a positive role model to the young orphans in her care.

“My dream is that they learn and be somebody,” she said. “I thank God for this program. He answered my prayers.