Support to Rural Girls Education in Liberia

1.0 INTRODUCTION:
This update is a highlight of recent activities implemented under the above-mentioned Project covering the month under review (February -May 2019). Activities were held in Bomi, Cape Mount, Bassa, Margibi and Montserrado counties in Liberia. The report reflects the agreement between GlobalGiving and the Initiative for Democratic Alternatives (IDA)-Liberia for the implementation of the project.

2.0 PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR THE MONTH:
2.1 Completion of tuition payment 2019
2.2. Monitoring and follow up field visits
2.3 Book distribution to schools
2.4 Partnership and stakeholders’ meetings

3.0 ACHIEVEMENTS/ IMPACTS OF THE PROJECT FOR THE PERIOD UNDER REVIEW:

Completion of tuition payment 2019

IDA Liberia is working in 5 counties and 11 schools in Liberia , under its Support to Girls Education Project in 2019. The project which is aimed at supporting the educational needs of students in rural Liberia; especially rural children who are faced with financial hardship in those communities. This project has up to 231 children benefiting from a full scholarship , stationery and other learning materials in 2019. This year project has a total of 128 girls and 103 boys.
Out of the 231 sponsored students . IDA-Liberia has made full payment of 80% tuition payment , meeting all our obligations with our partnered schools in 2019.

The remaining 20% will be made available before the second semester ends June 2019 and progress reports are also made available to our program team .

Monitoring and follow up field visit:

During the month under review, our project team visited 8 schools to monitored and follow up on students and hold discussions with school administrations . Between March 23- April 15, 2019. The team met with 120 students and 27 school administrators from the below listed schools.

• Jenneh Public School & Kingdom Builders Community School, Bomi County,
• Madina Public School & Konjah Public School, Sinjah, Grand Cape Mount County,
• Fred-Mart Community School and Lowerhardlanderville Community School in Buchannan, Grand Bassa County,
• Minor Community School and St. Eafa Community School in Kakata, Margibi County.

During the visit, our team also received progress report on each student , which was part of the requirement for acceptance on the program. The team also had 8 meetings with school administrations bringing together over 27 participants at various locations. The meeting was aimed at highlighting lesson learned, success stories and challenges of the program for 2019. IDA-Liberia will follow up with the Ministry of Education and other relevant authorities about some of the challenges and how to adequately address them as the sector responsible for education in Liberia at various partnership monthly educational sector meetings.

Progress report emanating from the schools showed students are doing excellent in schools, students’ participation in class lectures and discussions has increased to 45% as compared to the time we started at 20%. Students involvement in class activities have tremendously increased. This is due to fact that students are using the books that were donated by IDA-Liberia to do assignments and home work. Student dropped out has also significantly dropped this year according to the school administrators, which is all due to the support IDA-Liberia and its partners are providing. Attendance has also increased to 45 % as compared to last year, when schools in those communities had a very low rate of attendance.

Books distribution:

During the months under review, IDA-Liberia project team distributed 380 pieces of assorted elementary school books to 9 schools in Cape Mount, Bomi , Montserrado and Margibi counties, Liberia. IDA-Liberia team made the donation between March 15-April 15, 2019. The below listed schools received books , The remaining 2 schools will received their books in May.

• Konjah Public school- Grand Cape Mount County
• Madina Public school- Grand Cape Mount county
• Kingdom Builders community school –Bomi County
• Jenneh Public school –Bomi County
• Rebecca J. Wilson public school –Montserrado County
• St. Effa community school-Margibi County
• Minor Community School- Margibi County
• ROSODAN School System- Margibi County
• Harriette E. Barlay school system- Margibi County.

Partnership and stakeholders’ meetings:

During the months under review, IDA-Liberia project team participated in 7 partnership and stakeholder meetings. Those meetings brought together over 160 participants representing various institutions working in the same community on various programs. Participants and stakeholders are these meetings included, County and District Education authorities, policy makers and local and community leaders , International NGOs, and local NGOs representatives.
Partnership meetings are aimed at providing updates and progress reports on projects and activities to the line ministates and authorities. And to further strengthen networks and collaboration between, International NGOs, and local NGOs working on the same thematic issues .

These meetings provide organizations the opportunities to share lesson learned, and success stories about their projects and activities in the same community. IDA-Liberia Program Manager ,Alvin Freeman provided updates on our current projects and activities and shared some of the success stories from our program.

4.0 Constraints:

During the months under review ,there were few challenges that the project team encountered. Increased in the cost of transportation for local volunteers, due to the bad roads condition in rural Liberia and the high cost of living in those communities. Team members traveled by motorcycles to reach communities and schools in rural Liberia . The demand from more schools and families in the communities has increased . IDA-Liberia continued to received information from public school authorities in rural communities about low turnout of volunteer teachers in public schools. This is due to little or no incentives for Public school volunteer teachers from the central Government, or community. IDA-Liberia project team begin holding consultations with school authorities to encourage volunteer teachers to continue their services, as look out for other options during the next fiscal school year.

5.0 Recommendations / conclusion:

Thanks, and appreciation to our supporters, donors, GlobalGiving, local communities and schools for the level of commitment shown towards the successful implementation of the project. As the team continued to support our beneficiaries. IDA-Liberia is appealing to supporters and donors for more support as the increasing demand for support to rural children education in Liberia is alarming.

• IDA-Liberia Project update 2019 (PDF)