Senior FACS student combines major with passion on mission trip to Haiti

All it took was a Facebook video to ignite the passion of Liberty University senior Family & Consumer Sciences student Sofia Johnson to help the women of Haiti.

While scrolling through social media, Johnson saw a video that focused on the struggles of homeless women in the United States who dread their menstrual cycles due to being unable to afford feminine hygiene products.

Though the video did not have an international focus, Johnson said the Lord used it to speak to her about what He wanted her to accomplish.

“My heart was just broken for them,” Johnson said. “I wanted to do something to help, and I just felt the Lord say to me that I was going to help women in Haiti with that same problem.”

Without any knowledge of Haitian culture, Johnson sought out the advice of her childhood friend, Shondy Samuel, who had taken several mission trips to Haiti. She learned that hygiene products are difficult to come by there, too, and as it turns out, her friend was also feeling the Lord calling her to start a ministry in Haiti.

The two friends started the Panty Protection Program, an organization focused on bringing hope to the women of Haiti through health education and providing hygiene products.

Last week, Johnson and Samuel, along with two family members, traveled to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. There, they handed out more than 2,000 disposable sanitary napkins, which had been prepackaged into smaller bags with a note that said, “Jesus loves you” in Creole.

“Women and their families will literally go hungry in Haiti just to buy a package of pads,” Johnson said. “When we started running low, women began to fight over them, and my heart just broke for them. I can just go to Walmart; no one is going to fight me. There are enough for everyone (here in the U.S.).”

Many of the donated products came from family members and friends. In order to buy supplies and plane tickets, Johnson, who is studying fashion merchandising, created headbands from old clothing and sold them on Instagram, raising up to $3,400 for the trip.

“It was so exciting to use my calling and major to help with the funding for this trip,” Johnson said. “I really want to get a master’s degree in counseling and combine it with my fashion degree as a ministry.”

She said that during her time at Liberty, she has been motivated to follow her dream of using fashion to assist her in ministry.

“All my professors (in the FACS program) have really encouraged me to think outside the box when it comes to my career,” Johnson said. “Even throughout Liberty’s Convocations last year, many of the speakers kept saying that your vocation is your mission field. It has given me great perspective. That desire and passion to help others really blossomed at Liberty.”

Johnson said she is already planning a return trip.

“On the last night of the trip, I felt really discouraged,” she said. “I felt like we didn’t make enough of an impact and that there was still this huge need. But God just spoke to me and told me, ‘I don’t want you to feel satisfied from this trip because there is more for you to do here.’”