Keynote Address
By
Mr. Harry Tenumu Conway
Alternate Permanent Representative of Liberia
International Maritime Organization, London;
United Kingdom
On the Occasion of the 7th Annual Convention of
Zwedru Multilateral High School Alumni Association in the Americas
Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
August 11- 13, 2017
Mr. President and Officials of ZMHS-AAA
Distinguished Guests
Ladies & Gentlemen!
May I first thank you for finding me worthy amongst peers to address this gathering as keynote speaker, mindful that there are other eminently qualified colleagues, if not even more than I am.
With that said, I will speak to you on the topic:
“ The need for Critical and Strategic approaches to Scholarship Awards – The pursuit of a self-sustaining Model”
I would first like to contextualize the task before us in light of our beloved country, Liberia. We are one of the 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the World despite being one of the richest in terms of natural resources endowment. However, if we are to harness these resources and benefit from them, it is critical that we possess the requisite human resources (i.e. trained high quality human capital in various disciplines in support of national development).
It is no secret that our country is in dire need of quality human resources, which can only be achieved through educating the youths in various disciplines. On the other hand, the tough post-conflict and post – EBOLA economy back home leaves many families hard pressed to support their kids, be it feeding them daily or sending them to school. Hence, assistance, in the forms of scholarships, financial aids, etc. is critical and extremely desirable. It is much needed. You therefore deserve commendation for thinking in this direction and desiring to do something concrete about it.
Brothers and Sisters, as we gather here today to raise funds in support a noble cause back home, I would ask that we reflect on an ‘extant culture’ that has arisen out of our civil war. And by that, I mean, a new cultural mindset is now prevalent in the country whereby students or people generally have come to accept begging, including soliciting funds to go to school, as opposed to hard work (i.e. dignity of labor) as a means of earning a living. I am sure some of you may be wondering, what has this got to do with raising funds for scholarship back home? What it has to do is that, students, besides demanding help (“Please help me with school fees”), feel entitled to receiving hand – outs. You will all bear me out that in time past, and for me, I can recall our older brothers and sisters who came to our parents to pay their school fees always offered some service in return. It was either, “Paypay or Oldma, can I teach your children” and you pay me at the end of the month” (i.e. home teacher), or “can I wash or Iron your clothes, or haul firewood for something?” We always offered to do something in exchange for what we wanted. The most interesting part of it all was, they would bring their report cards to show they were doing well or had been promoted to the next class. And in return, parents or elders would offer school fees, buy uniforms, books, copy books, etc. But today, what do we have? A totally different story, you see no report cards; students go about using school fees as means of obtaining money from people to buy expensive smart phones or take care of girlfriends; and worst of all, lack of appetite for quality education. You failed in 9th Grade in school X, but jumped to 10th Grade in School Y. Even School Y is not interested in securing reference from your previous school, but the school fees you are paying. This is the environment we are talking about. An environment whose appreciation for the core ingredients for success in today’s world is twisted and inverted.
Now, I raise these examples for two reasons:
- We should only support those who demonstrate a strong desire for scholarship in the form of commitment to do something; and
- Our support should not be just to keep people in school, but also aim to address the larger problem of loss of direction by the youths of today in terms of appreciating the value of education underpinned by hard work;
With that said, I now return to the issue of critical and strategic approaches to the issue of scholarship support. By critical I mean asking hard questions as to whether those who we wish to help deserve the help, and whether our help will guarantee a better product in the end to serve our communities. Or do we want to run a charity program to maintain the status quo which in the end will see our country remaining backwards as it is today? And as for strategic I mean, we should put in place a mechanism that will be self–sustaining. This means after we have generated the seed money here, we could set up a stationery shop, for example, that sells school materials including stationery and in which scholarship recipients would work; etc. And by way of partnership, the School should a space available on campus for that purpose. We could also collect material donations which could be sold at rock-bottom prices to generate funds for the scheme. Are these not what charities are doing? This scheme could be replicated in other areas, including poultry farms, vegetable gardens, etc.
I would like to close by saying, it is better we support one student who appreciates the value of education and is prepared to work hard to succeed, than a hundred students who lack the desire to learn and regard the scholarship scheme as source of income for daily subsistence living. As the people would say in Nigeria, “Chronic sickness needs chronic treatment. Liberia is a country that is chronically ill and requires chronic treatment.
Thanks, and God bless us all!
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