By Alfred Kollie, alfredkolliejr92@gmail.com
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder of a non-governmental organization, the TGK Foundation, has alarmed over the growing wave of dropout students, particularly female students from schools in Liberia.
According to the TGK Foundation CEO, Ms. Tonia G. Kerkula, it is very sad to see students, especially females, who are considered to be future leaders of Liberia dropping out of school because of poverty and the lack financial resources.
In Liberia, most female students struggle to complete their secondary education due to several factors including unwanted pregnancies they usually carry; while schooling due to lack financial support, poverty and other social phenomena that interfered their academic goals.
The situation makes many young people to be the breadwinners of their families and as the result leads to be high school dropout rates in the country.
Babies are bearing babies in this country because too many young people are hustling, no support or opportunities to make their dreams come true; it is really terrible for our country” Ms. Kerkula asserted.
Speaking to a team of reporters on Friday, December 23, 2022, the TGK Foundation CEO said it is time that Liberians work collectively to assist kids, young people who don’t have the opportunity to excel but want to achieve their goals.
Meanwhile, putting smiles on the faces of several underprivileged students in Monrovia, Ms. Kerkula continued her humanitarian gesture of sponsoring students in school.
The TGK Foundation CEO disclosed that she has provided financial aid (support) to nine (9) students at the Grace Academy School System (GASS), a private junior high school located at the Lofa Community in Bona Farm, District #4, and Montserrado County.
Speaking a day after she donated a consignment of food and non-food items to kids in the community for the celebration of the festive seasons (Christmas & New Year), Ms. Kerkula revealed that she has been sponsoring the students from first grade and she will continue to support them until they graduate from high school.
“I don’t have support from the Government or elsewhere, but through the help of my friends from the UK and the work that I do, I am able to sponsor these students because I am touched by God to do so,” Ms. Kerkula said.
According to her, she started the TGK Foundation as a “Beauty Salon” in 2007 in the UK when she later got the inspiration of assisting the needy including widows.
Being a British Liberian, Madam Kerkula saw the need to give back to her home country – Liberia. In 2018, thorough her Foundation, she actively started to help a few number of underprivileged students whose parents could not afford to send their children to school.
“Well, I got my inspiration from the Late T.B Joshua (of Nigeria) during one of his messages when he said “you don’t have to be rich before you help others, you can start with whatever you have now. Today, by the grace of God and through the contribution of a few friends of mine in the UK, we set our target of two thousand pound (2, 000 pld) every year to sponsor the students and reach out to the needy in Liberia and I am grateful that God is using me to assist others. My plan is, and I promise by the grace of God, to continue to sponsor these students until they graduate from high school. Not only that, my vision is to establish a trade school where young people will go and learn skills that will bring sustainability in their lives and their family,” Ms. Kerkula intoned.
The British Liberian humanitarian also disclosed that she has been helping the Grace Academy School System technically and financially in order to have it gives the best education to its students.
She said if Liberia educational system will be compared to other countries like Ghana, Nigeria and other countries, Liberians both in and out of the country need to work collectively and not only to relax on the Government for such improvement.
While calling on the Liberian Government to do more in the educational sector, she also urged Diaspora Liberians to start investing into their country if they want to see the development they wish to see in Liberia.
She also vowed to continue using the TGK Foundation which focuses on supporting underprovided students, widows and the needy to touch the lives of many people in Liberia and abroad.