Philanthropy Central

Sitting on a ramshackle assortment of wooden benches under the shade of a mango tree, we listen to the story of the widow Mary Gargar.

“Women are part of the development agenda for the first time—and we are making use of our time. Traditional culture has made us reticent. But no more.

“Liberia is not a poor country. It is a country that has been managed poorly,” according Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s president and Africa’s first female head of state.

After graduating from the Kennedy School in 2001, Kristin Ehrgood moved to Puerto Rico with her (now) husband, Vadim Nikitine, with the ambi