The students of JESCOR Learning Center Liberia are National Prize Winners of the Wiki Challenge Écoles d’Afrique. They won for their article, “Du-port Road Waterside”, and received a prize of 2,500 Euros.
The Senior Manager of Orange Foundation, Uomah Brown Witherspoon, said Orange Liberia through the Orange Foundation has done excellently well with expanding and extending the Orange Digital School Program across the country.
According to Witherspoon, the wiki challenge is a competition for Orange Digital School in countries where Orange operates and has a foundation with a digital school program.
She said wiki challenge is a competition for children that are 9—13 years old (the age bracket was increased for Africa Liberia), and that the competition has run annual editions since 2017 but only in French countries. “In 2023—2024, a pilot version of an English edition was launched in Sierra Leone for the first time, and it was extended to Liberia, Botswana and Cameroon in 2024—2025,” she disclosed.
Witherspoon observed that the Orange digital schools and wiki challenge initiatives are to bridge the digital divide and foster educational empowerment by providing underprivileged primary schools with access to digital learning tools and content, while simultaneously engaging students in collaborative knowledge creation and digital literacy development through contributions to Wikipedia.
She further said the program collectively aims to enhance educational outcome, stimulate digital citizenship and equip the next generation with essential 21st century skills necessary for success in a rapidly evolving digital world.
Speaking during the Wiki Challenge for African school certification ceremony at the JESCOR Learning Center in Du-Port Road, Paynesville, on Friday, September 12, 2025, Witherspoon said Orange Liberia Foundation currently has 26 digital schools and has published additional 11 schools, covering 12 counties of Liberia but brought only a few schools on board for the wiki challenge since it was their first year in the competition and their first experience and are pressed with time.
She disclosed that, out of the five participating schools from Liberia, only two came up with articles that made it to the competition: “Liberian Cuisines”, written by The Vine International Bilingual Christian School, and “Du-Port Road Waterside”, written by JESCOR Learning Center. “But only one school won the competition on national level, which is ‘Du-Port Road Waterside’ by JESCOR Learning Center,” she noted.
She urged every student, teacher and administrator to make the best opportunities out of these equipment as they prepare for national and international competitions.
Two of the staffs of JESCOR learning center were certificated for being helpful to the students on the Wiki Challenge: Lango B. Korpah, Grade 6 Sponsor and Reading and Vocabulary Instructor, and Shadrick V. Karnga, Grade 4 Sponsor and English and Social Studies Instructor.
The parents of the students have praised the school for making the children to learn digital skills, good English and writing skills. They also appreciated Orange Foundation for the opportunity given their children and the communities.
