Child sponsorship 2009 update from Monrovia, Liberia

Summer is gradually going away and we are beginning to see signs of the raining season.  SOS Children’s Village Monrovia and the other facilities in Monrovia send their warm greetings to you.

The Village is currently home to 140 children following the admission of 20 children.  It did not take these children long time to get adjusted to the Village life. Among the newly admitted children are a set of twin who are now one month and two weeks old. These twins (girls) are everyone’s joy in the Village. 

Musuleng, a resettled teenager from the SOS Children's Village Monrovia got married on January 6, 2009 to Patrick.  The wedding was a very unique one.  Mothers, aunties, Village Directors children and staff of SOS Children Liberia attended.  Musuleng grew up at the Children’s Village house number 7 and was became independent in 2000.   The newly wedded couple now lives happily together in a nearby community to the Children’s Village.  She is currently attending the Stella Maris Polytechnic as a business student majoring Accounting.

Easter, the Christians Holiday was celebrated at the Village with pomp and pageantry. The various families of the Village separately attended churches on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  The climax was on Monday when the Village Mothers, Aunties and youth girls together organised and prepared a special dinner for the entire Village including the staff and guest from the community.   The beautiful part of it all was that the food was served in the opened auditorium of the SOS Nursery School with each family house sitting exclusively on a table while the invited guest sat on a separate table in the centre of the hall.  It was actually unique and well attended, and the food was so delicious.

Youth Facility

The Youth facility has a total of 30 youths. We are proud that our youths are making head ways in their pursuit of higher learning.  Most of them at universities and colleges are doing exceptionally well.  One of them has just completed the course of study at the University of Liberia with a BBA degree in Public Administration.  Dixon is presently employed with the government of Liberia at the Foreign Ministry.  On 14th June 2009 three youths will be graduating from the Cuttington University in Bong County with degrees in different disciplines as follows:  Emmanuel with a BBA in Public Administration, Richard BSC in Biology and Jonathan BBA in Accounting.

We say thanks to our sponsors for their valuable support that made it possible for these youths to obtain their College education.

SOS International School

The SOS International School reopened for the 2008/09 session on 10th September 2008. It is presently in the last three terms in the session. It continues to run both the morning and afternoon shifts. Presently, the enrollment at the school stands at five hundred and fourteen (514) comprising 263 boys and 251 girls. Of these are one hundred twenty six (126) SOS children; 74 boys and 53 girls.

The degree of poverty in the country continues to take its toll on effective teaching and learning. This is because parents could not provide their wards the requisite text books. About two thirds of the pupils/students do not possess the recommended texts and half of the student populace does not have sufficient number of copybooks (exercise books) recommended. However, the school has purchased some volumes but these are still grossly inadequate.

Community students have resorted into paid labour in order to pay their school fees while others opted to attend the afternoon shift because they have to hawk some wares in the morning in order to meet up with paying their school fees. Unfortunately, they are tired by the time they come to school and not long after they started sleeping. However scholarships were offered by SOS Social Centre to many of the students from the community to enable them continue their education.

Extra Curricula Activities – the school has been partaking in Inter-school tournaments in both male and female basketball, female kickball and male football. Presently, the school female basketball team has reached the quarter-final stage of the inter-school sports Association league. This is the first time the school has reached this stage.

Moreover, clubs such as Takwendo, chess, Press Club are active in addition to the other pre-existing clubs such as YMCA. In the Takwendo club, the pupils are taken through keyboard, drawing, Korean language and karate lessons. The Press club broadcast news both in the school and on one of the local radio stations: Truth FM radio.

SOS Nursery School

The SOS Nursery School is a resource to the community and village as a whole.  It has the vision of providing quality standard for all children, identify their hidden talents, develop special skills and self-esteem. The school has a total enrollment of 124 students, 33 villagers and 88 community children with a total of six class rooms and a Montessori room.  Our classes are well decorated to enable students learn faster.  In addition, there is a large auditorium which is beneficial to the community for programmes.

On April 21, 2009, the pupils visited an entertainment center as part of their topic on entertainment center.  They had the opportunities to seeing entertainment center and what is being done there.  The pupils also visited the National Port Authority of Monrovia where they had the opportunity of seeing and getting onboard the ship which was a very exciting moment for them.

Our pupils have improved in their lessons in French and act in French dramas at times.  They are motivated with gifts whenever they performed well.

SOS Clinic

The SOS Clinic continues to render medical services on a 24 hours basis.  Our services are extended to Internally Displaced People and members of various communities as well as SOS children and staff.   The clinic offers an in-patient service that includes of a short stay/emergency room, private ward, semi-private and a general ward. The laboratory has been improved with advance equipments and supplies in performing general routine examinations in different areas.

The Social Centre

During the period under review, the social centre with the mind to build the capacity of the community members, conducted three HIV/AIDS workshops in the Sinkor, Central Monrovia and Bushrod Island Communities with the total attendance of 133 participants.  Some of the topics included:  A brief history of SOS and the social centre, HIV/AIDS, mode of transmission, prevention, stigma and discrimination, condom demonstration and distribution, and ended with a film on HIV/AIDS.

Also the SOS Social Centre runs a community scholarship programme which caters to 250 students for the second semester 2008/2009 academic school year and computer literate programme with relatively small computer lab with 12 computers that are used rotationally on an hourly basis.

In continuation of the desire and commitment to ensure that illiteracy in our country is reduced to a reasonable level, the Centre runs an Adult Literacy programme that has the enrollment of 76 learners for 2008/2009 academic year.

Staff Training

The continued psycho-social support for mothers and other co-workers is helping them to develop self confidence and life-skills for self reliance.

We thank you for your unwavering support during these times of global economic hardship.

Sincerely yours,

James D. Ponpon
Village Director