OUR HISTORY

MOPGEL's work is driven by our founder, Hisenburg Q. Togba, who had worked as a photojournalist in the Liberian Media for three years. During his travels around the country, he saw the grief-stricken conditions of women, girls, children, and those with challenges.

Reflecting on his late mother being one of the victims of traditional practices that forced young girls into early marriage, and her urge to him to get involved with a sustainable advocacy that will transform traditional practices, he decision to start a column in the New Democrat Newspaper styled, “Eye for the News”, to propagate the situation of women and girls as well as those living in extreme poverty. His goal was to raise awareness so that humanitarians or people of goodwill could step in to help the vulnerable escape the path out of poverty.

In March 2000, Hisenburg’s Eye for the News vision was transformed into the establishment of Movement for the Promotion of Gender Equality in Liberia (MOPGEL). In September 2000, our founder and colleagues from the New Democrat Newspaper, where he published the column “Eye for the News”, fled into exile in Accra, Ghana due to persecution. While in Accra, he and his colleagues received a Human Rights Award of ($2000) two thousand dollars each from the Human Rights Watch, an award given to writers whose writing led them into trouble. To continue his human rights work at a broader level, Hisenburg dedicated his award to MOPGEL and began projects within the Buduburam Refugee camp, hosting Liberian refugees who fled the 1990 civil crisis.

In Accra, Ghana, MOPGEL expanded its projects when Dr. Marshall Conley, President of Conley-International, based in Canada, joined the Movement as a volunteer fundraiser in 2004. As a volunteer fundraiser, Dr. Conley had provided over $60,000 in cash and equipment.

In the United States, Hisenburg met Ms. Sarah Nicole Jenkins, a nurse practitioner who worked with our founder, and registered MOPGEL in the USA as a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt nonprofit. Sarah previously volunteered in Accra, Ghana, during the operation of MOPGEL.