COPDA Sweden is a non-profit organization that aims to aid women and children in the West African country Liberia. Throughout the years COPDA Sweden has been sponsoring children’s school costs, supplying local villages with sanitary products and informing the population during the Ebola crisis.

My name is Ann. I lived in Liberia as a child for 13 years.
It was very special, and different, to grow up there. Exotic, one could say. I will always carry many beautiful memories from my childhood.

– Ann Huber, founder of COPDA Sweden


At COPDA Sweden, we aim to help where the help is mostly needed. Generally this means helping children go to school and sponsoring villages with tools for survival – water filters, sanitary products, and information about disease prevention.

I started out small scale, before this became an organization. By arranging charity lunches for the older generation of former LAMCO employees, I got an opportunity to connect with people who shared my love for Liberia. I showed them photos and videos from my most recent trip and served them the traditional Liberian dish peppersoup. Eventually I decided to turn it in to an official non-profit organization so I could do even more.

– Ann Huber, on the founding of COPDA Sweden


COPDA Sweden is a sister organization to COPDA Inc. which is a local organization in Liberia. We work very closely together in every project we manage.

Scholarship Students

In 2016 I decided to start a Scholarship Programme to help children in Liberia to go to school. I learnt that only 34% of the children had that chance. This due to being one of the five poorest countries in the world. Many parents don’t have jobs or earn very little and therefore can’t let the children go to school.
In Liberia the school fee is $100 per school year. The school year is 2 semesters with 5 months per semester. So only $10 per month. For us that is not a lot but for Liberian parents it is.
The first school year I had 8 donors. Eight children that could attend school.  What a joy for these children.
I decided to double that for the school year 2017/2018. Which I did.
So, I again decided to double that for the school year 2018/2019. Yeah, I did. So we had 37 children in our programme.
For the next school year 2019/2020, I hoped to reach 50 students. I reached 57.
I am really proud of everyone’s eager to help a child to education.
The children are all very various ages. We have at the moment one girl who’s 22 and in grade 5. She is not the only one.
This is because many children had to drop out of school due to the civil wars or their parents lost their jobs, etc.
This is a very worthy cause so please don’t hesitate sponsoring a childs school fee.
Who knows, you might have sponsored one of Liberias future leaders.
Since 2018, we have a retreat day for the children. This to emphasize how important school is. The importance of studying hard, to get an education, to get a job. On this day of retreat we serve everyone breakfast and lunch.
I have personally attended one, 2019 and it was amazing.
The children love it and are so grateful to their donors for giving them the possibility to go to school.

If you want to become a donor please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us. As a donor you will receive a photo of the child you are sponsoring. You will also receive a copy of their grades, both mid-term and end of schoolyear as well as a thank you letter.

Promoting Human Rights and Accountability in Mining Communities

Promoting Human Rights and Accountability is another programme we do. There are eight Communities in Nimba County that we work with.
Accountability in Mining Communities, intend to increase the voices of women and youth in addressing human rights issues affecting their lives. This is also intended to promote accountability in the governance of natural resources extraction within mining communities.
We train the leadership of 5 women led community based organisations under a network called Nimba Resources Rights and Advocacy Network (NIRRAN)
We organize and conduct workshops designed to build the networks capacity to understand the Mining Resettlement Framework within the context of Human Rights
We host Community Interactive Forums. Town Hall Meetings with duty bearers and the mining company to adress human rights issues surrounding the mining operations and the rights of communities.
In 2007 the Liberian Government and Arcelor Mittal,  a multinational mining cooperation, entered into a Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) for the mining of high grade iron ore in Nimba County. Under this MDA, the company is obligated to provide an annual payment of 1,5 million dollars to Nimba County through the Government of Liberia. This is an annual social contribution to help adress the needs of the county and it’s people through development projects and identifying social development priorities.  Unfortunately, despite all these payments which have been made,citizens have benefited nothing much. The rights of citizens to participate in decision making which should lead to changes in their lives have not been respected.  The annual development meetings which are held do not include leaders of communities affected by mining where the resources are extracted and sold. There are little or no opportunities for citizens, especially women, to voice out their concerns and opinions on the issues which affect their lives. The need for citizens to speak out and address the issues which affect their lives is a fundamental human right and is part of an employment need to be respected in full.  The Government has a responsibility to provide these rights under a conducive environment. The duty bearers have a responsibility to be open and accessible to citizens in order to help adress the needs of citizens in respect of those basic rights. At most times the duty bearers are not available to answer to the needs of local citizens.  However, if there are limited options and citizens face conditions of poverty in the midst of resources which should help improve their lives, the tendency of citizens to resort to violence and conflict is great.
Based on these developments, COPDA Sweden and COPDA Inc collaborate in the implementation of projects designed to give local citizens more voices to help them adress their human rights needs and engage their leaders. This involves awareness  raising, sensitisation and advocacy which will empower local leaders, including women leaders, to claim their rights and provide them their tools for constructive engagement with their duty bearers and other local authorities.  This will empower networks to engage their leaders on their rights and accountability issues affecting them. Help empower indigenous women to advocate for their rights within the communities. Protect the rights of marginalised women and girls who mainly constitute the youthful population to advocate for improved livelihoods.