Members of the Street Vendors for Better Liberia (SVBL) will on Saturday, August 5, 2023 assemble at the intersection of Center and Carey Streets to raise funds for their organization. The objective of the organization is to help defend the rights of petti traders, not only in Monrovia, but also in the 15 political subdivision of Liberia .
The SVBL organization was established on January 5, 2022 through the ingenuity of its Founder and current President, Joseh Tamba Korfeh, and he highlighted that he decided to joint with other street vendors to establish the SVBL after carefully observing that they as street vendors have continued to be harassed by police officers, which has caused a serious blow on their business.
He voiced that after engaging their fellow street vendors in Monrovia and in every major business center in the country, beyond all reasonable doubt they are all ready to continue working for the growth of their organization to help move them forward.
Korfeh said, “This organization has been founded to help petit traders, and our Saturday, August 5, 2023 fund raising program is to help solve some of the problems we are currently faced with, because there are so many problems that we undergo while carrying out our business functions when it comes to security harassment against us on a daily basis by members of the security forces. Because such harassment is a serious blow to our businesses, we have established this organization to help stop the continued harassment of our members not just in the 15 political sub-divisions but in Liberia.”
He explained that one of the main causes of them, street vendors, continuing to sell in the streets without taking their business to the store level is that they were not together as an organization, and because they were not together as an organization the majority of them have failed to get loan from major banks in the country because the banks do not have trust in street vendors. He underscored that, through his organization, they will now to get in contact with some of the leading banks in the country for leans.
“After our fundraising program, we will soon inform our colleagues about our plan for the common growth of our organization. One of our key plans is to contact some of the major banks in the country for loans, which I belief could help us all to move forward in our individual businesses while we continue to abide by all of the guidelines of the organization. We are hoping that our organization objective would be met,” Korfeh explained.