The Joseph N. Boakai Foundation in collaboration with the United Churches of the World Inc (UCOW), in Liberia, at the weekend graduated 350 people in Kakata, Margibi County, after 6-9 months of intensive vocational training, covering tailoring, culinary arts, tie & dye, and also fabrics manufacturing, known locally as Country clothes.
The latest batch of graduates, according to training coordinator, Rev. Johnson Sumo Sr. is the biggest so far to graduate since the vocational center was established in Margibi County in 2014, under the patronage of the UCOW Inc. and The JNB Foundation. Of the total of 350 graduates, over 300 were youthful women and hail from this rural part of the country.
Rev. Sumo said that of 600 candidates who initially enrolled to acquire training in the above referenced disciplines, 250 candidates dropped out during the course of the training thus leaving the center with 350 students who continued through to graduation.
Outside of the Kakata City hall where the graduation ceremony took place, bundles of some of the products manufactured by the students-from liquid/powder detergents to food as well as Country cloths and tie-dye were placed on public display by the school for sale to the general public.
Bishop Philip Nelson who once lived in the United States and now a resident of Careysburg, praised the locally-made products by the students and appealed to the government and JNB Foundation/UCOW to help promote and market them locally and internationally as a means of generating income for the manufacturers and the government.
Rev. Nelson, the program’s counseling and rehabilitation director, pleaded for help in sourcing and marketing the students’ work and products, a call buttressed by the school’s queen, Winningfafaith Carr.
She asked local and foreign NGOs to help seek funding that would enable the center to purchase culinary, tailoring, Country cloths, hairdressing and tie-dye materials in order to help them continue production.
She requested the administration of H.E. Amb. Joseph Nyuma Boakai to employ the center’s teachers/trainers, most of whom are currently without permanent employment, and further appealed for scholarships for students enrolled in the various vocational programs, saying, “education is the most powerful weapon that one can use to transform a nation.”
The JNB Foundation’s Board Chairman, Rev. David Saa Fatorma who served as keynote speaker during the event listed four key points upon which he urged fellow Liberians to build their nation: they include possessing a spiritual and mental mindset, walking in wisdom under the fear of God, and exercising good work ethics.
Discussing the topic SHIFTING, Rev. Fatorma, a Liberian Civil War massacred survivor who now runs his own church, asked his countrymen and women to become what he calls “shifting agents” by adopting excellent work practices at their workplaces.
He urged graduates to step forward and create jobs for themselves, using those skills they had acquired, and not run after employment elsewhere, stating that “the world’s most successful people” aren’t people who work for people but folks who created jobs and work for themselves.
“You never get rich by working for somebody” he said, explaining further that he has seen people in other parts of the world who hold Master’s degrees in various disciplines and yet went on to sell in the market rather than wait for, or run after a job as is usually done in most cases, in Liberia. Rev. Fartoma quoted Genesis 1:27, and pointed out that the LORD God, created us in His own image and likeness because, God Himself is a Creator and as such mankind is a creator and therefore capacitated to do great things, including creating jobs for ourselves.
“You are a creator. Don’t look for work; create the job; you have the capacity,” he declared before the jammed packed Kakata City Hall audience Saturday.
He praised the graduates for finishing the training, an exercise he stated is in fulfillment of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s plans to provide youths of the country, especially the women, with education and vocational training through which they can better their lives.
The JNB Foundation’s Deputy Executive Director Henry Saah Flanpor maintained that one of the current administration’s campaign promises was to prioritize vocational training for youths in Liberia; that Saturday’s graduation stood as a testament to such a promise. He proxied for the foundation’s Executive Director, Mr. Jackson K. George, Jr. who was out of the country.
