GVL, Innovative Education Liberia discuss partnership

Golden Veroleum Liberia executives recently met with company partner Innovative Education Liberia to discuss the long-term impact of education in Liberia.

Head of Corporate Communications, Virgil Magee, and Career and Education Manager, Jean Hannah-Thompson, discussed issues with IELs Elijah Tarpeh, and Gary Friesen, during their week-long visit to Liberia.

A press release issued by the company says GVL – IEL partnership has been in place since 2014, when IEL’s parent Ambassador Enterprises visited Sinoe County with a team of university students from Taylor University (located in Indiana, United States) to provide mathematics workshops to elementary and high school students in the county.

As part of the previous visit IEL set about laying the foundation for a nationwide initiative to, in the long-term, impact 700 primary and secondary schools, 10 colleges and universities, three rural teacher training institutes, 149,000 students and 3,100 teachers.

In March 2014, IEL, along with the Sinoe County Association of the Americas and Taylor University, collaborated with GVL to conduct a KA-Lite/Khan Academy mathematics workshop for five schools in Butaw, including the GVL Elementary School. The result of the three-day workshop was a 29 percent overall improvement in math scores.

In April this year, a team from IEL spent ten days in Liberia, meeting with high-level government, education and corporate officials, to explore partnerships for its Samuel Morris Scholars Program.

“We hope to get more sponsors and push the program into full swing, as education is at the heart of improving our society,” said Tarpeh. “The partnership with GVL and the previous visit to the GVL School was an eye-opener, our trainers loved the students and we couldn’t wait to get back here to continue the effort for them.”

The GVL School in Butaw currently has approximately 650 students, with plans to expand into other areas where the company operates. The company also has long-term plans to build high schools in its operational areas. In addition to the school system, GVL also provides scholarships to qualified Liberian university students studying agriculture and has in the past sent Liberian Engineers to Jakarta, Indonesia to study mill operation. To date the company has donated half a million dollars United States dollars ($500,000) for the ongoing scholarship.

In another development, Indonesian Ambassador, Harry Purwnato and his wife Lili recently concluded a visit to the headquarters of Golden Veroleum Liberia. During the visit the ambassador presented GVL’s Vice President for Government Affairs, Henri Harmon with credential, solidifying his status of honorary consul for the Republic of Indonesia in Liberia.

As honorary consul, Harmon is expected to strengthen bilateral relations in areas of cooperation, particularly trade and socio-cultural relationship with both governments. While at the GVL headquarters office, Ambassador Purwnato also met with Indonesians citizens working for GVL, as well as Equatorial Palm Oil, respectively.