Monrovia – Obaa’s Women Academic Outreach, a personal nonprofit establishment based by celebrated Liberian singer and social activist Miatta Fahnbulleh, was destroyed by hearth on Friday, November 4, 2025. The blaze erupted on the establishment’s Ashmun Road premises in central Monrovia.
By J.H. Webster Clayeh — [email protected]
In response to eyewitnesses, the hearth began within the night and quickly consumed the construction. The constructing, largely constructed of planks and picket flooring, housed each Obaa’s Women Academic Outreach and a printing press.
Whereas the precise explanation for the hearth stays unclear, a number of residents informed FrontPage Africa they first noticed heavy smoke coming from the portion of the constructing utilized by the varsity.
Eyewitness Wilmot Smith described the scene:
“We don’t know the place the hearth got here from. Instantly, we noticed big smoke coming from the constructing and have become involved. Once we appeared once more, we noticed the hearth blazing. We instantly began preventing the hearth earlier than the Fireplace Service arrived.”
Smith stated the neighborhood battled the flames for hours:
“We now have been working since 3 p.m. This hearth has been blazing and has not gone off. We’re nonetheless attempting to place it out as a result of that is one among our historic printing presses. We really feel very dangerous as a result of the constructing is burning. This constructing hosts a college and a printing press.”
The Liberia Fireplace Service arrived later, after the blaze overwhelmed neighborhood efforts. Personnel on the scene, nonetheless, declined to touch upon the incident.
About Obaa’s Women College
Obaa’s Women College is an academic initiative offering free or scholarship-based studying alternatives for underprivileged women. College students of the establishment are sometimes acknowledged by their distinctive tie-dyed purple skirts.
The college primarily serves women whose schooling has been disrupted by financial challenges, battle, or different social hardships. Its applications purpose to reintegrate them into the classroom and assist them by means of the completion of their education.
Founder and Mission
Based in 2005 by Miatta Fahnbulleh, a famend Liberian vocalist and long-time advocate for girls’s and kids’s rights, Obaa’s Women Academic Outreach seeks to empower deprived women by means of free schooling, scholarships, textbooks, uniforms, and different important studying supplies.
Over time, the establishment has offered quite a few scholarships and prizes. A 2007 report famous that at the very least 38 college students had benefited from this system.
Group leaders worry that the harm might disrupt the varsity’s operations and jeopardize the training course of for its beneficiaries. They’re calling for swift intervention to revive the varsity and rehabilitate the power.
