100 students from five schools in Montserrado County’s districts #13 and #14 will be fully sponsored by APM Terminals Liberia for the upcoming academic semester through the company’s Educational Scholarship Program, which was launched early this year. The program targets best brains in schools within the two districts, in order to build the younger generation for a better Liberia.
About a year ago APM Terminals Liberia launched a scholarship/sponsorship program through its corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment to provide greater opportunities for the underprivileged and empowering the next generation of leaders.
The sponsorship program initially covered thirty-six (36) schools, but the number later dropped to sixteen (16) due to the school’s non-compliance with the Ministry of Education regulations. However, that number has again dropped to five.
The five schools remaining on the APM Terminals scholarship fund drive are God’s Glory Primary School, Mother Kebbeh Academy, Freeway Baptist High School, Rev. Peter Amos George Memorial Academy and Boakai Konneh Foundation School.
At the contract-signing ceremony, held on Jimmy Jolokon’s campus over the weekend, all the schools were represented by their principals, while APM Terminals was represented by its Managing Director, Jonathan Gerald, as well as its scholarship committee chairperson.
Speaking during the occasion, the head of APM Terminals Scholarship Program said he joined the APM Terminals in 2011 as an intern, but today he is the head of one of the company’s best CSR programs—the scholarship program. He said he was excited to see students who are far more brilliant than him sitting across the hall, noting that he feels happy to be among them.
“Ladies and gentleman, when we gathered last year to award the scholarships, our Managing Director spoke out. We say ‘Our words are our bounds’. He mentioned to everyone that we could do this again. So I’m again happy that we’ve lived by that. We have done it again!
“Working with our stakeholders, including our honorables and administrations of various schools, we went through a rigorous process to highlight the plights of students in their various institutions that needed academic support. And APM Terminals, being a responsible organization, today, is committing to sponsor 100 students across five different institutions in districts #13 and #14,” the head of APM Terminals scholarship program noted.
He thanked all those who contributed L$2,772,900 (two million seven hundred seventy-two thousand nine hundred Liberian dollars) toward the process, as it was not a decision to be made in just a few seconds.
Scholarship students who were given the opportunity to make remarks rained praises on APM Terminals for the sponsorship.
Christopher Barway, a 7th grader at Mother Kebbeh Academy, said, “Today I am grateful to the APM Terminals for providing the opportunity of our scholarship. Today is my first time to stand here to give a few words. I want to appreciate APM Terminals for helping us to continue our education.”
Similarly, Favor Smith, an 8th grade student of Rev. Peter Amos George Memorial Academy, used the opportunity to extend thanks and appreciation to the APM Terminals family for their continued support toward the education of Liberian children.
The program was graced by the Managing Director of APM Terminals, Jonathan Gerald; Montserrado County’s district #13 Representative, Edward Papie Flomo; Anthony D. Wesseh, proxy of District #14 Representative, A. Vamuyan Konneh, and others. Montserrado County Senator, Abraham Darius Dillon was expected to grace the occasion, but did not apparently due to his busy schedules.
Representative Flomo praised APM Terminals for its continued support toward his district, as things have not been rosy since he became a lawmaker about four years ago. “I want to say a very big thank you to the APM Terminals family. You know, since I took over as representative, thing have been very difficult. As the MD said that APM Terminals is here forever, we also pray that he remains the managing director forever. I say this because at first we found it so difficult to get our way through this program. But I believe that the right man is here now. Since he took over, this is the second payment to all of the schools,” Representative Flomo said.
The Managing Director of APM Terminals, Jonathan Gerald, speaking, extended thanks and appreciation to all the company’s stakeholders and partners. He made specific reference to Senator Abraham Darius Dillon for the collaboration and guidance. “We appreciate the fact that we can collaborate with national leaders to achieve our goals. Even though we are into cargo handling, it is part of our objective to contribute to the development of the society,” he said.
Gerald admonished the students to take advantage of the scholarship opportunity to continue their education sojourn. He expressed hope that the program will “keep going, going, until forever”.