The Yayeh Initiative, in collaboration with the Monrovia City Corporation Youth Affairs Unit, over the weekend in Monrovia launched the National Spelling Bee Competition’s third edition.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Yayeh Initiative, Ambassador Yayehsorie Jalloh, the Ministry of Education has accredited her organization to hold this year’s National Spelling Bee Competition.
Ambassador Jalloh quoted the late South African President, Nelson Mandela, “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mind, that a child of a farm worker can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we give, that separates one person from another.”
She indicated that since 2018, as Miss AMEU, she set up a team to embark on humanitarian endeavors of establishing relationships with orphanages and mental health homes as well as making donations of relevant logistic, food, clothes, tuition payment, among others.
She explained that the Yayeh Initiative and partners host the National Spelling Bee Competition to benefit schools across Montserrado County every year, but this year the program has been extended to five additional counties, which will bring together school children to compete in spelling words.
“As a non-profit institution, proceeds of this event are used to sponsor students in schools, which include giving scholarships, books, laptops, phones and cash prices,” Ambassador Jalloh added.
She noted that the program is designed to positively develop children’s confidence, presentation and cognitive skills in shaping their attitudes, as enabling them to attain education.
“Our target for this year is to work with 300 schools. We will have one representative per school, making it three hundred students in total to contest at the preliminary rounds. Out of the 300 students, 288 students will drop and twelve will contest at the grand final, when our team will confirm the best three winners of the Liberia National Spelling Bee Competition,” she disclosed.
She stated, “A few years ago the Coronavirus situation mitigated our children’s learning capacity, and there are still some global economic setbacks.” She said these are still creating a lot of challenges for parents as well as societies.
Ambassador Jalloh pinpointed that the Spelling Bee has also been created to fill in these corridors to enable children to improve their literacy, learning key social skills and developing attitudes towards life.
She narrated that the first winner will walk away with a full one-year scholarship, as well as laptop, cash and books, while the second winner will walk away with one semester’s scholarship along with cash and books. The third winner will take away one semester’s scholarship, cash and books, while all participants will walk away with books, pens and certificate.