FNC @30: Proprietress/Board Chairman (Dr.) D. Evelyn S. Kandakai and FNC’s Family
By Samuel G. Dweh—freelance Development Journalist—+231 (0)886618906/776583266/samuelosophy@yahoo.com/samuelosophy1@gmail.com
The Family Nursery Center (FNC) and was founded on June 3, 1991. Age range of students is between 2 and 5.
The Founder is Dwaboyea Evelyn S. Kandakai, former Liberia’s Minister of Education (1997-2006), and former Chairperson of the West African Examination Council (WAEC)
With a Kindergarten unit now attached, FNC celebrated its 30th year of educational relevance, which ran for four days—Sunday (May 29) and Thursday (June 3) Sunday was for Thanksgiving Service at the St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, located on 10th Street, Sinkor, Monrovia, where Dr. Kandakai worships.
The celebration was rotated among three branches of the School, beginning with Branch #1 in Mamba Point, Monrovia, and divided into three phases: Spelling Bee (Day 1), Color Day (Day 2), and Ground Breaking for annex of Branch #2 (Day 3)
“We, parents and teachers, shouldn’t only teach our kids Multiplication or Arithmetic. We should also teach them spellings for them to become readers and writers in the future, ” Dr. Kandakai, President of FNC’s Board of Directors, said to an assembly of parents and administrators of the School on Day Three, Tuesday, of the 30th anniversary celebration at FNC’s Branch 1. She’s an Author of three Books—“The Village Son” (fiction), “Facing the Sun” (Memoir—non-fiction memoir— of her family’s tribulations and triumphs during Liberia’s civil war), and “Sinkor” (fiction)
The remarks of Madam Kandakai were preceded by Welcome Remark by student Isaac P. Jeke, age 2, of the ABC Class (Branch #1); and Welcome Remarks by student Mohammed Diawara, also of Branch #1. Each kid’s poise and eloquence during delivery generated applause from and standing ovation by most of the adults in the audience.
During the Spelling Bee (contest), the kids thrilled the audience with outstanding memory and correct spelling of most of the 144 words they had been given weeks to the contest. The list of words began with ‘lightweights’ (words with three and four letters) and ended on ‘heavyweights’ (over seven letters)
Branch #1 defeated Branch #3 in Round 1, which qualified Branch 1 for the second round with Branch 4. The defeat was on “bonus questions” (words)—“angry”, “write”, and “notice”, which no member of Branch #3 got. Both contesting groups tied at 35 points. Branch 1 maintained their winning spree against Branch 4.
The outstanding spellers of the contest were: Zachariah Forkpa (Branch-2); Akelia Weslely (Branch-1), M atthew Washington (Branch-3), Lurika Besay (Branch-1), and Edwin Fallah (Branch-2)
Day 1 climaxed with presentation of prizes of the Spelling Bee, done through two of the invited guests.
“My journey to being an avid reader and professional writer, today, started with what used to be called Spelling Beating in the Kindergarten School I attended before Liberia’s civil war. It is almost similar to what the kids did today. During my school days, our English Teacher gave us a list of words to memorize, and formed students into a line. Then he called a word out of the list to a student. If you missed the spelling, and your classmate got it, he or she will beat into your palm, with the teacher’s cane, the number of letters making up the word you couldn’t spelling,” narrated Samuel G. Dweh, president of the Liberia Association of Writers (LAW), Author and Journalists, who presented the First Prize of the Spelling Bee to the Champions FNC 1, narrated to the audience before presenting the prize.
He also said his love for spelling, born from the Spelling Beating, has contributed much to his being an Author of more than three Books.
“I do not have a university degree, but I coached two Presidents’ degree-possessing speechwriters on grammatical constructions. The first was President Ellen Sirleaf’s Independence Day’s speechwriter in 2011. There were grammatical errors in the President’s speech; I wrote an article, highlighting the errors and educating the speechwriter on the correct grammatical constructions. The article was published in the Daily Observer newspaper, where I was Proofreader,” he said to the audience.
The LAW president added: “The second President’s speechwriter I, a High School certificate holder, taught grammatical constructions to was of Head of State George Manneh Weah. The President’s speech to the 75th Sitting of the United Nations General Assembly of Heads of States, in 2020, had more than four grammatical errors. I did to this speech as I did to President Sirleaf’s in 2011.”
On Day 2 (Colour Day), the kids were attired in FNC’s 30th celebration T-shirts (red, orange, blue, and green), each inscribed with “FNC @ 30” at the back. The teachers were also dressed in celebration T-shirts of different colors.
The main activity was “color support” contest, where parents and other invited guests dropped money into a plate placed in front of student attired in a particular Celebration Day’s color. Four students—two males and two females—represented the four celebration’s colors, with each sitting behind a plate. The contest had two rounds.
In the first round, Blue won with one thousand, six hundred and thirty Liberian Dollars, and won the second round with two thousand and thirty-five Liberian Dollars—and became the overall winner with a sum total of three thousand, six hundred and sixty-five Liberian Dollars, plus five United States Dollars. Color B was represented by student Dority Jinlata of Nursery B (FNC Branch 4)
The Proprietress and President of FNC’s Board of Directors, Dr. Evelyn Kandakai, paid a Posthumous homage veteran Liberian educator Jessie Wah King, who offered a space in her compound in 2018 to be named “Branch II” of FNC. Madam King died at age 101 in 2020.
“We are about to give a Posthumous Citation to Madam Jessie Wah King, an outstanding educator and humanitarian. She was my Teacher in 8th grade class of the College of West Africa, a High School. We first met in 1963. She was teaching Music and Religious Education,” Mrs. Evelyn Kandakai, whose surname name was “White” (family’s name) during that time, said to the audience and showed a cream paper card for all to see.
Portion of the wording on the paper card: “The Family Nursery Center is very highly honored to present this Citation to Jessie Wah-King (+) for her Outstanding Humanitarian Service/Exemplary Devotion to Duty/Exemplary Assistance to this Institution”
The former Minister of Education said the space she requested to be another branch of FNC didn’t have roof.
“I still have with me her permission letter, in her own handwriting, authorizing us to use the place for our Early Childhood Education project, named Family Nursery Center,” Madam Kandakai said.
She told the audience about Madam King giving historical backgrounds of various Streets in Liberia’s capital City, Monrovia, to her class during teaching sessions at CWA between 1950s and 1970s.
The final day (Thursday, June 3) of FNC’s 30th anniversary celebration was held at Branch 3—on the Land of Dr. Kandakai’s family. The High Table was under a shed made from zinc, about ten yards from a white building marked “Family Nursery Center & Kindergarten Reading and Resource Center”.
Musical selections and recitations by FNC’s students and those of visiting guest-schools (Nursery and Kindergarten) was succeeded by the speech by the Guest Speaker, Rev. Emile D. E. Sam-Peal, Superintendent/Principal of Lott Carey Baptist Mission School.
The topic of his speech was “pride”, negative, which he likened to an inflated balloon.
“Do not think you are better than others, because people are saying: you are clever in your school, you can sing well, and other things,” the Guest Speaker warned the kid-students and adults at the program.
To demonstrate his comparison of (negative) pride and the balloon, he inflated a balloon in his hand with air from his system until it burst.
“That’s what pride does to anybody with such negative feeling,” the Lott Carey Mission’s spiritual and educational leader said to the assembly of students, youths and parents.
The Final Day ended with Ground Breaking ceremony for the construction of an Annex of Branch #3 (in Brewerville)
The Guest Speaker pledged five hundred United States Dollars for the construction, promised to give the money in the following week.
Board members of FNC and some of the invited guests made cash contributions, or made pledges, toward the Annex construction.