By Precious D Freeman
The West Point Women for Health and Development Organization (WPWHDO), in collaboration with the British Government, through its Embassy in Liberia, has re-launched a grant agreement to promote quality education for Liberian girls.
The grant, which was recently signed in Monrovia, supports or facilitates girls acquiring 12 years of quality education in the country, mainly those who dropped out of school as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic or pregnancy.
The agreement was signed under the project titled, “Promoting Girls’ Quality Education for Gender Equality.”
Speaking to beneficiaries at the re-launching ceremony, the program officer at the British Embassy, Robeletta Rose, advised them to take the project very seriously, because girls education is a priority for the British Embassy and the People of the United Kingdom.
According to her, they believe that when one educates a girl, they educate a whole nation, and that they are so excited to continually seek support to get funding from the project, but it’s left with the beneficiaries to take it seriously.
“When someone is helping you to wash your back, you have to help yourself to wash your front; it is important that you take this project seriously because you never can tell what opportunities await you,” she cautioned.
She explained that her working with the British Embassy did not start as magic, but rather, she went to school and made use of every single opportunity that came her way, adding that without education, a girl is nothing, all she will do is to bear lots of children and always remain in the kitchen.
“Times have changed, and I feel so jealous seeing other women in different countries excelling. The opportunities you people have today, some people want the same but they do not have people to help them through, so if you can appreciate the little that you have, it is easy for someone to bless you with something bigger,” she added
She emphasized that some of the things that people in London want to listen to are the encouraging stories they share with their colleagues about the importance of school and the opportunity they are benefiting from in order to go to school.
“We are happy to share your success on the internet so that everybody sees it and gets interested to work with West Point Women,” she said.
She explained that when the phase one of this project finished, they had to go back and engage their colleagues from London, and they were able to come back with the phase two of this project.
Speaking further, the Executive Director of WPWHDO, Nelly S. Cooper, said the project aims to encourage the next generation of women to be able to take on the mantle of going to school.
“So, we are saying that we are grateful to the British Embassy, which continues to help us with what we started in the past during the heat of COVID-19,” she said.
“Thus, the Embassy agreed to help us empower our girls who suffered during the pandemic to have some basic skills,” Cooper added.
However, she has called on the beneficiaries’ school principals to help foster this endeavor by encouraging the girls so that every one of them can make Liberia a better place.
“We are trying to encourage the girls who have dropped out of school because of pregnancy and have become baby mothers, for them to remain in school and complete their education. Some of us were baby mothers going to school, and we remained there and completed our education. And today we are helping society,” she said.
For his part, the Superintendent of the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS), Isaac Saye Lakpoh Zawolo, in his remark, lauded the British Embassy for continually supporting WPWHDO in providing opportunities for the girls of Liberia.
Zawolo stated that Liberia will be great, not because of men but because of women; that is why, as a superintendent, he continues to welcome the girls education program.
According to him, an educated woman would most likely resist her child joining an extreme movement.
“We continue to do things in the MCSS that will make girls feel comfortable staying in school,” he said.
However, speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, Esther Doe and Theresa Sumo lauded West Point Women and its partners for their continuous support in making sure that their dreams come to pass.
According to them, they never knew that this great opportunity would come their way, because they had already lost hope of going back to school since they got pregnant with no support.
“We don’t have anything to give in return for the help that you great people have rendered to us, but we can assure you that we will make use of this great opportunity in order to better our lives,” they promised.
Signing the document, Deputy Head of Mission and Development Counselor at the British Embassy, Kate Thomson, thanked the Executive Director of WPWHDO for implementing such a project intended to help promote girls education.
She said the British Embassy wants to support this project in order to ensure that every girl in the world gets at least 12 years of quality education.
Thomson said the support for girls’ education is their foreign policy, vision, and number one priority for their government.
She told the beneficiaries that they have the right to quality education, whether they experienced pregnancy or not, or are encountering any difficult circumstances noting, “If girls are not educated, there will be more conflict, violence, poverty, illness, and disease,” she said. “It is not just your right, but you need that quality education. I was lucky to get 12 years of quality education, which created so many opportunities for me in the world. And I want the same to happen to you. This is why the British Government is financing this project.”
