dr. janice cooper, a liberian who fled to the states during the war, has returned to lead the program. >> we recruited a cohort of 21 students, who were physicians, physicians assistants and nurses in clinics and hospitals, as well as in schools of nursing, to be part of our first cohort of mental health clinicians. >> bipolar disorder is not a one-disease condition. >> they spend many weeks learning about, identifying and treating mental health disorders and all the major mental health disorders in liberia. they learn all the basic tools that you need for screenings and assessments. >> be very aware of sound-alike, look-alike drugs. >> they also learn medication management and for some of them this is really the first time that they're learning pharmakinetics and how particularly, psychotropic medications work in the body. >> reporter: one member of this first class is 34-year-old quendi appleton. >> i wanted to be a part of that, being able to bring back hope to the hopeless. seeing them you know being able to go to school, to work like any other person in the community. >> reporter: fr