U.S. and Liberia Sign Joint Statement On Friday, April 30, 2021, U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Michael McCarthy joined Minister of Information, Culture, and Tourism Ledgerhood Rennie, National Traditional Council Chief Zanzan Karwor, and Deputy Minister for Legal Affairs Deweh Gray at Providence Island to announce a U.S.-Liberian collaborative initiative on the preservation of the historic venue and development of recommendations for its reuse. Also in attendance were Minister of Justice Frank Musah Dean, Mayor of Monrovia Jefferson Koijee, and Stephen Battle, Program Director of the World Monuments Fund. In 2020, the U.S. Department of State awarded the World Monuments Fund (WMF) a nearly $100,000 grant from the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP), overseen by the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, to conduct a study on preservation and reuse of Providence Island.