The Gbokolen community, in Cavalla District, Grand Gedeh county was a scene of excitement and joy on May 14, 2017 when the charity organization Kids’ Educational Engagement Project (KEEP) dedicated its 3rd Reading Room.
Making remarks at the program, County Education Officer, Harrision Darwolo thanked KEEP and its team for the Reading Room. He said that education is the backbone to any developing nation and commended the Executive Director of KEEP for her efforts and noted that it takes something with a special heart to do what she does and has done for the community and the public school.
Hon. Darwolo said that the whole frame of education is about reading and comprehension. If you can read and understand what you have learned, you can apply that to your studies and your life.
He commended the organization for supporting the Ministry of Education’s own effort to improve the quality of education to children and said it may not be a huge facility, but it has a great value, the objective that at the end of the day, the students of the Gboloken school will be better readers and excel in their studies
Representing the Superintendent of the County, District Commissioner Hon. Alfred Dorue applauded the organization for the effort and said the facility is one that is much needed the county.
He admonished the students of the school to make sure they use the Reading Room, to take advantage of it.
He used the opportunity to ask the Ministry of Education through the CEO to ask for qualified honest teachers who would be committed to providing sound education to the students in the school and not ones who will promote or perpetuate a culture of bribing in the school system.
This is not helping the school system.
He commended the Principal of the school and the women of the town who were very committed to seeing the project successful and worked many hours hauling sand and crushed rocks for the construction team
In remarks, the Founder & Executive Director of KEEP, Mrs. Brenda Brewer Moore explained to those present how her organization started, its work during Ebola and what it continues to do.
She said reading is something she enjoyed doing as a child and it helped her immensely during the civil war.
She noted that during their work in the various counties, one thing continues to stand out, which is that many students struggle to read and do not have access to books or a space to read, do homework, etc. she said her organization is committed to supporting the work of the government of Liberia and other developmental partners and will keep striving to do more.
She noted that there are plans to run after school support programs to the students of the school now that the room is available and will work closely with the principal and other school and county authorities on this.
She noted that it brings her immense pride that KEEP can support in this project to Grand Gedeh as currently, in the entire county, this is only the second Reading Room or Library.
So this tells you how much greatly needed this Reading Room is to promoting a culture of reading and providing students with access to books to improve their reading skills.
This Reading Room brings to three the number of Reading Rooms the organization has established in Liberia, with the other two currently in Montserrado County.
The Executive Director of KEEP thanked companies that helped make this project possible. Companies mentioned were Royal Grand Hotel, Palm Springs Hotel, Cellcom Communications, Total Liberia, International Law Group, Jetty Trading, LISCR, United Commodity Inc. (UCI).
