L2SLiberia — Youth Led Mental Health · For Youth, By Youth
Youth Led · For Youth, By Youth

Mental health,
made personal.

L2SLiberia is a youth-led non-profit in Liberia — for youth, by youth — running a free, 24/7 toll-free hotline and a mobile clinic that carry mental health care into the communities Liberia's system has left behind — the poor, the isolated, the unheard.

☎ Toll-free, day or night — +231 771 440 009
Counsellors and community members in Liberia
"Every call is a life. Every life matters."
— Reuben Reeves, Founder
Rural community in Liberia
The problem we refuse to accept

A mental health emergency no one is talking about.

Liberia survived two civil wars and the world's deadliest Ebola outbreak. But resilience is not the same as healing. For millions, that trauma lives on — untreated — in the body, the mind, and the home.

Cost, distance, and stigma keep people from the care they need. We were built to remove all three.

Our solution

A system built for youth, by youth.

Not a single intervention — an integrated continuum of care, from the first call to lasting community change.

01
☎

The toll-free hotline

The front door. Free, 24/7, answered within three rings by trained Liberian counsellors who speak the caller's language.

02
🚐

The mobile clinic

Care that comes to you — into villages, markets, schools and faith communities, delivering assessment, counselling and survivor support.

03
◉

Referral networks

We make warm referrals to hospitals, safe houses and legal aid — and build the ecosystem where it does not yet exist.

Who we work with

Trusted partners across Liberia

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The framework

THRIVE — an evidence-based model for all of Liberia.

Six interlocking pillars that meet people where they are: in markets, schools, farms, barracks and homes.

Transform Heal Rise Include Voice Empower

A free call can save a life.
Your gift makes the call possible.

No Liberian is turned away because they cannot pay. We carry the cost so they don't have to — and we can't do it without you.
Who we are

We exist because access to care is a right — not a privilege.

L2SLiberia is a youth-led mental health non-profit in Liberia — for youth, by youth — operating a 24/7 toll-free crisis hotline and mobile clinic to reach those most left behind. We are not a charity waiting to be discovered. We are an organisation with a proven model, a growing team, and a founder who has lived the crisis he is working to solve.

Our journey, from founding to impact

2019
Founding

L2SLiberia is founded to close Liberia's mental health gap.

2020
Launch

Programmes and community outreach begin on the ground.

2021
Validation & Pilot

The THRIVE model is piloted and validated in communities.

2022
Hotline Launch

The 24/7 toll-free crisis hotline goes live nationwide.

2023–26
Scaling & Expansion

Reaching 15 counties, training clinicians, and growing.

The architecture of neglect

⚖

The weight of poverty

Over half of Liberians live below the poverty line, earning under three dollars a day. A single private consultation can cost more than a week's wages — and poverty itself is among the most powerful drivers of mental illness.

🤫

The silence of stigma

Where communities have no language for depression or PTSD, suffering is hidden, misunderstood, or blamed on curses. Stigma silences disclosure of violence and abuse — so the true scale of need is always underestimated.

🗺

The desert of infrastructure

Care is concentrated almost entirely in Monrovia. Across 15 counties and 111,000 km² of rainforest and coastline, dedicated services are virtually absent. A person in crisis may be twelve hours from the nearest facility.

⚠

The crises within the crisis

Mental illness intersects with endemic gender-based violence, child abuse and exploitation, rising substance use, and the unhealed generational trauma of two civil wars — each compounding the others.

Reuben Reeves, Founder
Our founder

Reuben Reeves

Founder & Executive Director

Born and raised in Liberia, Reuben witnessed how mental illness, gender-based violence and trauma tore through communities — not because people lacked strength, but because they lacked access. He watched neighbours chained, women with nowhere to turn, children fall through every crack.

Rather than accept this as inevitable, he asked a different question: what if the phone in every Liberian's pocket could become their first step toward healing? From that question, L2SLiberia was born.

"I started this because I was tired of being asked to mourn what could have been prevented."

What makes us different

Free at the point of contact

No Liberian is turned away because they cannot pay. We carry the cost so they don't have to.

Youth led, for youth, by youth

Every protocol, language and cultural accommodation was developed by people who grew up here.

Integrated, not siloed

Hotline, mobile clinic and referral networks are one connected system — not parallel programmes.

Trauma-informed throughout

Safety, trust, choice and empowerment in every interaction. We never re-traumatise. We believe people.

Replicable across West Africa

Free access, local staff, mobile delivery — a model designed to travel to Sierra Leone, Guinea and beyond.

Accredited & accountable

A recognised non-profit with a U.S.-based fiscal sponsor. Every call, referral and follow-up is tracked.
Our impact

From the first call to sustained support.

We refuse to make people choose which part of their crisis is acceptable to bring to us. Our services cover the full spectrum of mental health and protection need — and we measure not just outputs, but outcomes.

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Accredited & recognised non-profit · U.S.-based fiscal sponsor

Mental health

  • ▸Depression and anxiety disorders
  • ▸Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
  • ▸Acute psychosis and severe mental illness
  • ▸Grief, bereavement and complicated loss
  • ▸Suicidal ideation and crisis
  • ▸Substance use and co-occurring conditions
  • ▸Stress, burnout and emotional exhaustion

Protection & violence

  • ▸Gender-based violence — all forms
  • ▸Sexual violence and assault
  • ▸Domestic and intimate partner violence
  • ▸Child abuse, neglect and exploitation
  • ▸Forced marriage and harmful practices
  • ▸Human trafficking and forced labour
  • ▸Community and post-conflict trauma
How the system works

The journey, from reaching out to recovery

01

A person reaches out

Anywhere in Liberia, at any hour, a person in distress dials the toll-free hotline. No cost. No appointment. No queue. Answered within three rings by a counsellor who speaks their language.

02

Assessment and triage

Using trauma-informed frameworks, the counsellor assesses safety, emotional state and risk. Every caller is treated as an individual, not a category — and prioritised by need.

03

Immediate intervention

Evidence-based support on the call: crisis stabilisation, psychological first aid, safety planning, de-escalation. No one is rushed off the line.

04

Warm referral

Where more is needed — medical care, a safe house, legal support, child protection — we personally connect the caller to the receiving service and ensure the handover is safe and complete.

05

Mobile clinic deployment

For those who cannot travel, or communities in collective crisis, the mobile clinic delivers face-to-face care: assessments, counselling and linkage to further services.

06

Follow-up and sustained support

We do not disappear after the first contact. High-risk callers receive scheduled follow-up; visited communities receive ongoing engagement. We measure outcomes, not just outputs.

No matter who you are, one pathway reaches you

THRIVE is designed so that the child in Lofa County, the market woman in Duala, the police officer in Tubmanburg, and the farmer in Grand Gedeh all have a way in.

🧒

Children

School-based support, illustrated letters, play-based healing, ACE screening.

🎓

Youth

Youth-friendly clinics, peer champions, digital support, letter exchange.

🧺

Market women

Evening group therapy, women's circles, GBV trauma support, savings groups.

🌾

Rural & farmers

Mobile outreach, community radio, voice letters, village healing hubs.
The L2SLiberia framework · How it works

THRIVE

An evidence-based, community-centred, integrated mental health model for the full spectrum of Liberia's population. Non-clinical at its foundation — built from community strengths, grounded in global evidence, and designed so that no one is excluded.

Transform Heal Rise Include Voice Empower
T

Task-sharing & affordable access

Trained community mental health workers, sliding-scale fees, mobile outreach and a national hotline make care reachable and affordable for every Liberian.

H

Healing hubs in communities

Non-clinical, community-owned safe spaces — "living rooms for mental health" — where healing happens through peer support, shared experience and local practice.

R

Restorative & stigma-free healing

Changing how communities understand mental health through contact, education, faith-leader partnership, community radio and cultural narrative change.

I

Integrated systems building

Embedding mental health into schools, clinics, police services and government — building systems redesigned around young people's real needs.

V

Voice through letters & peer exchange

Our signature model: expressive writing and letter exchange — written, voice-recorded and digital — giving everyone a stigma-free outlet to be heard.

E

Economic empowerment & trauma healing

Addressing root causes — poverty, unemployment, childhood adversity — through livelihood support, trauma-informed care and opportunity creation.

Implementation

The stepped-care pathway

Services match need to resource — the lowest barrier reaches the most people, with clear pathways to specialist care.

STEP 1

Community & peer

Letter exchange, healing hubs, community radio, school & market wellbeing circles. Delivered by peers and volunteers.

STEP 2

Community health workers

Problem-solving counselling, group therapy, crisis assessment and warm referral by trained, paid CMHWs.

STEP 3

Primary care

Mental health integrated into clinics and health centres — mhGAP-trained staff, perinatal screening, medication.

STEP 4

Specialist & crisis

Psychiatric assessment, inpatient care and emergency crisis response via hotline escalation.

Grounded in evidence, rooted in culture

🌍

Universal design

Every component serves all Liberians — the child, the market woman, the officer, the farmer, the elder — without exception.

🤝

Community-led

Communities are not passive recipients — they are co-designers, leaders and owners of their own solutions.

📚

Evidence-based

Every pillar draws on proven models — WHO mhGAP, the Friendship Bench, expressive writing, task-sharing.
Our people

Board of Directors & Advisors.

A team of clinicians, builders and advocates — youth led, for youth, by youth, and globally connected — guiding L2SLiberia's mission to make mental health care a right for every Liberian.

Leadership

One connected team, carrying the mission from the call to the community.

Reuben Reeves
Chief Executive Officer

Reuben Reeves

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Board of Directors & Advisors

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Donate

Your gift becomes a voice on the line.

Every donation keeps the hotline answered and the mobile clinic moving. You carry the cost so a Liberian in crisis never has to.

☎

Free at the point of contact. No caller is ever charged.

📊

Accountable. A recognised non-profit with a U.S.-based fiscal sponsor; every gift is tracked and reported.

Make a gift

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Secure payment processing · Tax-deductible where applicable

Illustrative impact — actual costs vary by programme

$25

Answers 10 crisis calls

$75

Funds a mobile clinic visit

$250

Trains a community champion

$1,000

A full week on the hotline

Partner with us

Foundations and institutions can fund a county, a clinic route, or the hotline itself.

Give monthly

Recurring gifts let us staff the line with confidence — the single most valuable way to help.

Amplify the message

Mental illness is not a curse — it is a condition that can be treated. Help us say it louder.
If you or someone you know needs help

The hotline is open, day and night.

+231 771 440 009

Free from every mobile and landline network in Liberia · Answered within three rings

Get in touch

For partnerships, press, volunteering or general enquiries, reach our team. For crisis support, please call the hotline above.

✉
Email
liberia@letterstostrangers.org
📍
Where we work
Monrovia & 15 counties — Liberia, West Africa
🚐
Mobile clinic
Request a community visit through the form
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