Leading Palma lawyer Alejandro Bellapart will next month see his dream come true when, after seven years - a lifetime in fact, of hard work - his newly created Fundación Action Group Children for Liberia opens a new orphanage and school in Kingsville, a few hours from the capital Monrovia where he first met Mother Victoria, who had been running an orphanage for some 30 years, in 2018. In just three weeks time, Father Sandro, as Alejandro is known in Liberia, will be attending the opening of the new complex with his two children, Carlos and Mariá, who are also deeply committed to and involved in the foundation and will eventually continue their father’s legacy in Liberia.
“My mission in Liberia is of a deeply personal nature. Since my childhood I have abhorred injustice and am saddened to see the lack of opportunity for children,” he said. He resents the indifference of those who have squandered their blessings in life only to complain when they find themselves in difficulty. Mother Victoria is not religious, she is known as ‘mother’ because of all of the orphans she has cared for and educated over the years, hence why I’m known as Father Sandro. Sandro is easier for them to pronounce than Alejandro,” he said.
“One has to remember none of the children have any family members, hence the parental reference,” he added. So when did Alejandro first embark on this journey? “I finished my law degree when I was 25 and I started to work at my father’s law firm in Palma.
I had to do something
“But then I decided that I had to do something before really starting to work. So I went to India to the Vicente Ferrer Foundation and I stayed there for two months - working, helping and learning a lot. Then I decided to go to Africa backpacking, and I stayed six months travelling around most of the black African countries until I realised that I was not a missionary or a backpacker and decided to return home to Mallorca aged 26. I had my family, my friends, my work, but I came back to Palma with the idea that once I had grown up, had economic stability and the family, then I would do something for kids in Africa,” Alejandro explained.
“So, eight years ago when I was 45, I decided to go back to Africa to find the project to realise my dream, my passion. I went to different countries visiting orphans, giving them clothes that I took with me from Mallorca and also bought them necessary provisions once on the ground from local supermarkets. I spent three years investigating and travelling back and forth - three to four times a year - until I ended up in Liberia in an orphanage run by Mother Victoria, an incredible woman, a widow.
“When her husband was killed during one of the civil wars, she started to take in and look after kids whose parents had also been killed so they were no longer lonely. And with the help of neighbours and the church, she has been doing this for the past 30 years but in challenging and very poor conditions because the country is extremely poor. It is the only African country never to have been colonised because it has nothing to offer, no minerals or anything of value. The orphanage was in the centre of Monrovia, the capital. Then, five years ago, just before Covid, travelling with my two kids who were 12 and 14 at the time, we decided to help Mother Victoria.
“This was a family project and two years later Mother Victoria showed me another orphanage that she had in the middle of the jungle, two hours from the capital; it was totally abandoned. But we all fell in love with the place. We decided that by carrying out the necessary renovations, the kids would be in a much healthier place where they could go to school, have agriculture and livestock, not only to learn but also to be as self sufficient as possible,” he said.
“The new orphanage now opens next month and I’ll be going with my kids after a total of two-and-a half years of work. This has been 95% personally funded by me but now that the foundation has been formally ratified, is totally active, the idea is to be able to get funds from donors and members with which we will be able to pay for the food for 55 orphans, pay 15 teachers at the school, which is also on site for the orphans, plus some 110 other children aged three to 17 from the nearby village who will also attend the school.
“So, we renewed both the orphanage and the school,” he said. “There is a public school in the village but they have to pay 20 dollars per year and they can’t afford it. So we’re providing the education for free,” he added. “My philosophy is to empower and encourage children to fight for their dreams - just like I have with this project - earn a salary and not live on charity. That will give them more freedom and satisfaction,” Alejandro made clear.
He was also keen to stress that all donations go entirely to the orphanage.
To help: fundacionagchildren.org, Instagram @agchildren or email: liberia@fundacionagchildren.org