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More Than Me Foundation

The More Than Me Foundation (MTM) is a 501(c)(3)nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. (USA). MTM was founded in 2009 by Katie Meyler. MTM has two goals: to provide education and to empower women in Liberia. As such the foundation works to bring girls who were often former prostitutes out of poverty and into schools.

History of More Than Me

Developing countries face multiple challenges: difficulty accessing clean water and electricity, transportation needs, governmental and environmental issues, little access to health care, gender inequalities, and lack of education. All of these issues are interconnected, but the two that help make the others possible are universal education and the empowerment of women. Raising these two issues in Liberia are the focus of MTM. The foundation has worked to raise awareness both in Liberia itself, working closely with the government, and across the globe.

MTM is a completely volunteer run organization. All money raised by the foundation goes directly toward providing school resources and getting more students into school in Liberia. Volunteers are based out of Washington, DC, but many volunteer members reside in other nations, including Australia, Switzerland, and Germany.

The schools supported by MTM provide the students not only with a basic education, but also offers children a safe environment, filled with support, supervision and socialization. The schools are designed to teach life skills that can help them prevent diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria. At school they also receive life-saving vaccines, fresh water, and nutrient supplementation.

Founder

Katie Meyler grew up in New Jersey and started working the impoverished populations in the US. Eventually she went to Bolivia where, she says "I had an internship, teaching in a little town outside of Santa Cruz. I met a 4-year-old boy who was crawling on his stomach in the dirt, playing with a broken glass bottle. We quickly became friends. Little did I know the impact that a child who slept under a car at night to keep warm would have on my life. I have never stopped thinking about Carlito. I knew that I would spend my life working on behalf of him and others like him. But honestly I didn't always think about these worlds that seemed so far away. When I was growing up, I probably didn't care."

After her time in Bolivia, Meyler swas sent me to a West African village, Koryah, in post-war Liberia. In Liberia, she lived in an orphanage with 86 children whose parents had all been killed in the war. Her job was to run a literacy program for 80 adults, who were learning how to read and write for the first time. After her seven month contracted expired in Koryah , she moved to the capital city, Monrovia. Here she continued her work with returning refugee children find school scholarships. Working with these children served as the foundation that caused Meyler to start MTM.

After returning to the US, Meyler began to grow her foundation from her mother's home in New Jersey, and spent time going to local schools speaking about the importance of working to help the poor and particularly the girls in Liberia. The foundation soon took root in Washington, DC where it continues today.

Programs

In 2010, MTM sent 31 girls in school. In 2011, MTM has set a goal of doubling this number.

As a completely volunteer run organization, MTM relies on fundraisers and contests to help achieve their goals. In 2010, such projects included:

• Became an official project on the Global Giving website
• Won a video grant from Microsoft 7
• Were named Social Media Role Models by Harvard's Project Zero
• Had our first international fundraiser, in Switzerland