A local non-governmental organization, GEM-LIBERIA, has embarked on a campaign aimed at galvanizing financial support that would underwrite the enrollment cost of 100 (One Hundred) underprivileged Girls for the 2020/2021 school year.
GEM-LIBERIA, established in 2005, is an advocacy and empowerment group primarily engage in enhancing the human capacity development of women and girls.
On Friday, February 12, GEM LIBERIA launched its latest “Take A Girl To School L$1,000 Scholarship Drive.”
The scholarship drive campaign was officially launched by Amb. Christine Brooks-Jarret at the Kebbah Town Hall in Barnesville. Amb. Brooks-Jarret used the occasion to call on well-meaning Liberians to join the effort in giving academic opportunity to girls.
She expressed hope over the prospect of the initiative, and therefore, pledged to fund the scholarship of five (5) underprivileged Girls.
According to GEM-LIBERIA, the rationale behind the ” TAKE A GIRL TO SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP FUND DRIVE” is to create new opportunities and possible solution for underprivileged Girls, who they claimed can barely afford tuition, to access education this academic year.
Since its establishment, GEM-LIBERIA has cater for scores of underprivileged Women & Girls.
Gracing the occasion as Guest Speaker, Amb. MacDella Cooper, Chief Executive Officer of the MacDella Cooper Foundation, expressed how overwhelmed she was to partake in an initiative intended to give girls academic opportunity.
Amb. Cooper applauded the Executive Director of GEM- LIBERIA for undertaking what she described as a such monumental initiative for girls empowerment.
The head of Movement for One Liberia (MOL) also emphasized the need for more of such initiatives, something she indicated will serve as an impetus for lifting girls’ hope regardless their status or condition in the society.
Amb. Cooper at the same time pledged her fullest cooperation and commitment to the “TAKE A GIRL TO SCHOOL SCHOLARSHIP FUND DRIVE.” She added that her institution will rally additional support for the initiative, and that, she will ensure that it doesn’t just end with this school year.
The scholarship fund drive initiative is another campaign, under GEM-LIBERIA’s “Girl Education Movement Program.”
In 2017, GEM LIBERIA, under it’s Girl Education Movement Program, embarked on the uniforms, shoes and book-bags to School Campaign.
The campaign which targeted entirely girls in the primary academic category, witnessed the distribution and donation of several packaged uniforms, school-shoes and book bags, to underprivileged girls from five different schools.
“The distribution of shoes, book bags and uniforms to needy girls, was as a result of a survey which provided that most girls from underprivileged backgrounds easily drop out of school either because of their parents inability to purchase a new uniform, school shoes or book bags. The initiative was part of efforts to maintain girls in school,” GEM-LIBERIA Executive Director, Madam Davidetta Togba-Cassell.
Executive Director Togba-Cassell said:
“In support of this program goal, and how we have realized that there are more girls out of school during regular school hours, GEM-Liberia derived at this “Take A GIRL To School Scholarship Fund Drive Campaign.”
The GEM-LIBERIA ED iterated that the scholarship fund drive campaign is primarily gear towards raising resources that would be used finance the enrollment cost of 100 (One Hundred) underprivileged girls in the primary division.
“Girls who are likely to stay out of school this academic year due to the financial instability of their parents. Some of those girls are mostly seen around the community and along the marketplaces especially while other young girls are in school. Some have already registered but their parents are unable to complete the payment of their tuition,” Madam Togba-Cassell added.
According to her, prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 Pandemic, GEM-LIBERIA, under its Girls Education Movement established an All-Girls-Tuition-Free-Primary-School, the Jennifer Albee Enrichment School, in Kebbah- Barnesville. The school exclusively supports the special learning needs of girls inclusive of technical skills development.
“The Goal of the school is to raise and equip more girls for national competitiveness,” she disclosed.
Madam Togba-Cassell put the academic/tuition cost of each girl at L$15,000 (Fifteen Thousand Liberian Dollars).
Meanwhile, Madam Togba-Cassell has extended special commendation to those she regarded as their valuable Supporters. She noted that the launch was made possible through the incredible support of the Supporters, whom she said, have already begun making contribution towards the scholarship fund drive.
Madam Togba-Cassell also applauded Madam Jennifer Albee of the U.S.A for the unflinching support to GEM- LIBERIA and their program’s goals.
