LSA Calendar of Events for 2020, and 2019 under review

The Liberian Swedish Association, LSA calendar of events for 2020:

1. LSA Malmö Unification and Afro-beat Event - (Malmö) - More info to be announce soon

2. LSA Norrland Inauguration and Afro-beat event - April 4th, 2020 (Umeå)

3. LSA Kids Easter Day Event - April 11, 2020 (Stockholm) 4. LSA Mother's Day Event - May 30th, 2020 (Stockholm) 5. Liberia Independence Day Celebration in Sweden - August 8th, 2020 (Stockholm)

6. Liberia’s Flag Day Event in Sweden - August 22 or 29, 2020 (Stockholm or Göteberg) 7. Miss LSA (Liberia) pageant Sweden - More info to be announce soon

8. LSA Norrland Branch - End of the year event - October 31, 2020 (Sundsvall) 8. LSA Annual Black & Red Event - (Stockholm) November 28, 2020

In addition to the above mentioned, LSA leadership planned to undertake two key aspects of its leadership agenda in 2020, such as:

#1. Initiate a Proposal to Establish a Liberian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden for Liberians living in the Scandinavia.

LSA leadership agenda in 2020 is to continue to engage the necessary Liberian Authorities that are responsible for establishing a Liberian embassy or consulate overseas. After witnessing and listening to growing concerns from LSA members and Liberians in the other parts of Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark, and Finland) of the difficulties they undergo in obtaining services (visa, renewing or obtaining Liberian passports, etc.) from the Government of Liberia (GOL) in Scandinavia, LSA leadership planned to intensify efforts to work closely with other Liberian Associations in Scandinavia to initiate a proposal to the Government of Liberia for the establishment of a full representation in Stockholm for Liberians in Scandinavia.

#2. Launch a humanitarian program to help underprivileged children in Liberia.

Another key administrative goal in 2020 is to make contribution in Liberia to help to reduce the suffering of some underprivileged children in Liberia.

Due to the dire needs of many children in Liberia, beca of the economic downturn, where many parents are without jobs and find it difficult to provide for their children, LSA leadership intend to launch a campaign called “Let Liberians living in Sweden help underprivileged children in Liberia’’. This initiative is to help improve the lives of some children living in underprivileged conditions in Liberia.

To make this possible, LSA leadership intend to take inspirations from other organizations, and to utilize the increased buzz that have been created about LSA in 2019 to lobby for funds, partner with donor organizations, create fundraising events, and appeal to LSA members and supporters to support this initiative.

LSA leadership was able to take on the below initiatives in 2019:

#1. United and strengthen the bond between Liberians living in Sweden

LSA leadership upon taking over in December 2018, was set to unite Liberians in Sweden under one LSA, with the sole purpose of bridging the gap between generations of Liberians in Sweden, and to improve and strengthen the unification that Liberians have once enjoyed in the past (or not) in Sweden. The leadership strived to promote the acts of belongingness, inclusiveness and the participation of all Liberians under one LSA regardless of age and ethnical background.

To achieve these, the leadership set up a decentralised leadership structure consisting of Liberians from different communities in Sweden. These leaders worked tirelessly and ingeniously to establish close connections with most Liberians through LSA various sub-chapters of Stockholm, Goteborg, Malmö, and the LSA Norrland chapter, which was also established to serve as extension of LSA - for Liberians living in the north of Sweden - from Sundsvall to cities further north of Swede.

Moreover, the leadership was also able to established close contacts with several Liberians in areas outside of  LSA sub-chapters. In addition, they also established contacts with several Liberians students who moved to Sweden to study at various Sweden Universities. Accordingly, in 2019 the leadership managed to minimize the notion that LSA and/or its leadership is made up of one group of people from the same community in Sweden. 

#2. Promoted Awareness About LSA

Another key aspect of LSA Leadership agenda in 2019 was to promote awareness and or rebrand LSA to LSA members, supporters (Liberians living in Sweden) and the general public. To achieve this, the leadership implemented several important strategies to keep majority of Liberians in Sweden inform about ongoing and unfolding happenings surrounding LSA and events in the LSA communities. To name a few, an LSA blog (www.libinsweden.com) was created and launched upon taking over in December 2018. The blog is use continuously as one of the mean of dispensing necessary information on weekly and/or monthly information about ongoing and unfolding happenings in the LSA community to members, supporters and other communities in Sweden and abroad. In addition, LSA official Facebook account and page (Lsa Sweden) was created, which is used alongside LSA previous Facebook page (liberians living in Sweden). An LSA logo was created and launched to the public to create the possibility for people to easily identify and associate LSA with a unique symbol.

In addition, the leadership also revamped LSA website (www.liberiansinsweden.com) to make it contemporary, and to meet the informational needs of LSA members and supporters both in Sweden and abroad, and for newcomer Liberians to Sweden to easily contact their fellow Liberians in Sweden. The LSA media team has been very instrumental in these areas - making sure that relevant contents are constantly created and put on these various platforms. Likewise, during our first-year as leaders, we were able to partner and worked with the chief editor of www.nanews.net and some local Liberia based newspapers to create awareness about events and LSA.  

#3. Worked with other organizations:

LSA leadership was also able to work with other Associations both in Sweden and abroad. The leadership can proudly say that they worked meticulously and effectively with the European Federation of Liberian Associations (EFLA). Furthermore, the leadership connected LSA with some Liberian Associations in Europe, and worked closely with other African and Swedish organizations both in Sweden and abroad to foster unification, meet common goals, and to divulge the importance of being united as Liberians in Europe.

Nevertheless, LSA leadership achievements in 2019 came with few challenges. Upon taking over, the leadership had to deal with some issues of resistance and unwavering loyalty from some members, and the issue of different of opinions about how LSA should be governed.

Notwithstanding, through the leadership determinations and the instrumentations of some key stakeholders, these issues were resolved and the LSA community moved forward.  Secondly, the leadership had to resolve and reconcile internal conflict between members in LSA Malmö chapter. With the help and participation of some important stakeholders in Malmö, the leadership was able to craft solutions to resolve the conflict, and today LSA Malmö chapter is back on track with an Interim leadership in place, working vigorously to bring more Liberians onboard, and to take the chapter to election. 

Finally, LSA Goteborg chapters is currently inactive and not in synch with the rest of LSA chapters. So, in 2020, LSA leadership plan to work closely with the leadership of LSA Göteberg chapter to resolve any possible obstacle to bring the chapter onboard in order to strengthen the unification that all Liberians in Sweden should enjoy collectively.