About the Blogger: Lilian Conteh-Haffner

About the Blogger, Lilian Conteh-Haffner PhD.,was born in Freetown Sierra Leone, WA, on March 14, 1954.
She is an educator, a mother, a sister, and a daughter, who has been blessed with two handsome and talented boys, Julian and Jamaal. Julian is an Attorney, a Business and Entertainment Attorney, and Jamaal is Trainer and a Poet. Additionally Dr. Haffner has been blessed with two adorable grandchildren, Samara, and Jonah.

The topic of her dissertation was Education and the Economy in 3rd world countries, and the country of research was Sierra Leone. Yep you guessed it, She chose Sierra Leone because she was born and raised in Sierra Leone.

Her father was the Hon. Francis S. Conteh, who was a politician and served his country for many years in various capacities, including as a Minister of Lands and Mines,a Parliamentarian and a Judge. Her father passed away in 2005, from complications of diabetes, and her mother is alive and well in Hollywood Ca. Dr Haffner is eternally grateful and thankful to her parents and grand parents, friends and acquaintances. She is especially honored to have met and so many people from all works of life and who have all played vital roles in her life.

During her travel to Sierra Leone for the burial of her father in 2005, she could not help but notice how extensive the destruction had been as a result of the civil war in Sierra Leone.
One of her biggest concerns was the state of the educational system in a country where she had the best secondary education.
As she visited popular locales like the marketplace and the popular Lumley Beach, she realized that young Sierra Leoneans male and female were in jeopardy of being uneducated, and consequently economically handicapped.
Sierra Leone’s economy was on the decline, because schooling for the younger generation was inadequate, and those who have completed some form of higher education could not get jobs to sustain themselves.
There were young teen girls along the beach working as prostitutes in the capital city Freetown. Isn’t it reasonable to assume that the country will benefit significantly from an economic standpoint, if these young ladies were given an opportunity to education?

Young girls, as young as five or six years old, can be found in the market place, with wares on their heads, selling whatever they can, to assist their families in providing for food and other necessities

Young males can be seen along the polluted streets of the capital city, wasting their lives away, engaging in any and everything that will provide a living for them. They have no jobs, or the prospects of any, because they are uneducated; even the educated ones could not find jobs.

She concluded that All in Society are at risk if any in a Society are denied education.This was her motivation for her doctoral thesis.