Ahead of resumption of academic activities for the ensuing school year 2018/2019, a local non governmental organization (NGO), Youth Eye Liberia (YEL), on Friday, August 24, 2018, presented assorted classroom materials to over 150 schools in Montserrado County.
The instructional materials included 100 pages of hard cover composition notebooks, several dozens of 2HB pencils, pens and sharpeners, which were valued at L$75,000.
Beneficiaries were drawn from Belle Town of 72nd and S.D. Cooper Road communities, which are described as two of the most underprivileged communities within the suburb of Paynesville.
While presenting the materials to the students, YEL executive director Nimpson Todd said the donation was part of the organization's 2018/ 2019 Students Assistance Program (SAP), which had earlier identified needy students from underprivileged communities for the support.
"Under the SAP, YEL provides classroom materials and financial support to selected students whose parents can not afford such things," Mr. Todd informed beneficiaries, who jubilantly celebrated after receiving the materials.
Prior to making the donation, Todd said a vetting committee in those communities identified students or children whose parents are "disadvantaged and incapable" of sending their children to school.
"The essence of YEL doing proper vetting of the beneficiaries was to provide a light in the darkness, hope for the hopeless, and strength for the weary, because the entity believes that each Liberian child must be given the opportunity to acquire education," Mr. Told said.
"Underprivileged members of the society are always in need of help, and so we divided our SAP into two phases, to provide assistance to our students in such category and at the beginning of the academic year. During the semester's break, we will focus on a new set of beneficiaries,"' said Todd.
He said that since the YEL was established in 2008, about 15 students have benefited from its scholarship program at the primary level, while more than 1,500 students have benefited from the YEL's SAP.
Todd expressed the entity's desire to expand its activities to other counties, with necessary support from the government and donor organizations, "because we are aware that several other children in other parts of our country are in dire need of assistance to achieve their academic desire."
In Monrovia alone, according to Todd, YEL has identified more than 20,000 underprivileged and challenged children whose parents find it almost impossible to send them to school.
The beneficiaries thanked YEL's leadership for the donation, which they described as timely.
One of the parents, Alex Forkpah, who spoke on behalf of others, said the donated materials will go a long way in the life of the students, especially at a time when the country is going through financial difficulties.
Forkpah then called on other philanthropists to follow YEL's good example as doing so will add value to life.
