IPNews-Monrovia,Liberia-13 August 2018: The Chairman on the Committee of Judiciary in the House of Representatives of the 54th Legislature, Representative J. Fonati Koffa, has suggested that one of the ways to reduce vulnerability of slum dwellers is for the young people to be given the opportunity to seek higher education.
Rep. Koffa, a lawyer by profession, made the observation when he served as keynote speaker and the chief launcher at a program marking the 6th Annual Scholarship Fund Drive of the Federation of Borough Youth (FOBY), Incorporated.
He admonished young people to seriously search for education, because when one gets to achieve higher education, the more successful he/she can become.
Koffa represents residents of Grand Kru County District #2 at the Legislature. He told hundreds of citizens of New Kru Town on Saturday, August 11, 2018, that there is more likelihood of success through which one can achieve status as a politician, doctor, engineer, lawyer or in any professional career. “That means you should go to school and acquire higher education,” he said.
“The more educated you are, the better you are prepared to face challenges and vicissitudes of what life throws away,” Rep. Koffa told his audience.
He defined education as a sense of goals and of mastering skills, which make one disciplined to make good choices.
He added, “When you learn, you earn; and when you earn, you make it decent for all of us, because we have a society and democracy that we can all contribute to; that we can all be part of and that we can all be proud of, a society that will make citizens state owners and soldiers in this democracy, because we have to make it work. Also, as a people, we can make our democracy to work, to live peacefully and become prosperous. That is what education is all about.”
The president of FOBY, Peter S. Wesseh, Jr., said the Scholarship Fund Drive, which Representative . Koffa launched, is intended to raise L$3.5 million to sponsor and help enroll in school 193 students from the Borough. The scholarship will include students from kindergarten to university.
Wesseh said that 28 of the beneficiaries will be from tertiary education, 30 from vocational, 50 from senior high schools, and 40 and 45 respectively from elementary and junior high schools.
About L$330,000 was raised through donations from Representatives Koffa, Dixon W. Seebo, Montserrado County Senator-elect Saah Joseph, and Mr. G. Baccus Karpeh.
FOBY, a member of Federation of Liberia Youth (FLY), was established in 2007 to foster unity and development for the general good and welfare of the young people of New Kru Town.
