Eric W. Wowoh
Social Entrepreneur | Author | Speaker | Philanthropist | Humanitarian
Getting to the Bottom Line of a Happy and Fulfilled Life...
From the ravages of civil war to refugee camps, to meeting Jesus, to coming to America, then back to Liberia to live out my life purpose.
From the ashes of war…
I lived as a child in a poor, but peaceful community in Liberia, West Africa. That all changed in 1989.
As I returned from a fishing trip to feed my starving family, I was captured by rebel fighters. Civil war had broken out in Liberia. They beat and tortured me trying to compel me to become a child soldier.
For two days I sat alone in jail—with no food and both my arms broken. But by a miracle, I was set free.
…to exile in refugee camps…
Upon my escape, I was forbidden from returning home. So I found my way out of Liberia as a refugee.
Life in the refugee camps was profoundly difficult. We went weeks without food. There were no schools or jobs.
For 14 years I lived in 12 refugee camps across 10 different countries.
…to meeting Jesus…
Christmas 1992 was the hardest I’d ever experienced living in refugee camps. Food was low, people were starving and I was hungry and angry.
But early one morning, an evangelist made his way into my part of the refugee camp preaching about Jesus and the love of God.
From that moment, everything changed. My life has never been the same. Jesus changed my entire life story forever!
…to a computer.
In 2002, while living at the Oru Refugee Camp in Nigeria, a friend gave me something that would change my life forever: a computer.
Obsessively I began learning how to use it. Then I began training refugees from all over Africa to do the same.
The birth of Change Agent Network in the USA
I am a former refugee from the West African nation of Liberia. Since 2015, I have lived as a permanent resident of Dallas, Texas. I came to the United States in 2006 on a refugee resettlement program administered by the U.S. Government and the Catholic Diocese of Acadiana, Louisiana. I arrived knowing no one, without funds or a job, full of fear and confusion. By God’s grace, I was befriended by kind people in Lafayette, Louisiana, and I gradually gained my footing. I realized there must be a larger purpose in my rescue from poverty and civil war that I endured throughout my fourteen years in refugee camps, in Africa. Soon the answer came to me that I was to do all I could to help the people of my country to recover from a long civil war by educating our children and young people as well as providing work for the adults. As a result, I founded the non-profit, Change Agent Network, Inc. (CAN), with the goal of transforming the entire nation of Liberia through education, mentorship, and sustainable development. This awesome work is fueled by the power of prayer. Currently, 23 schools have been established, educating thousands of children in six counties of the country and the establishment of Change Agent Network University (CAN-U) in Liberia.
“My life was saved and transformed so that I can change the lives of others.”
