Liberia’s leading telecommunication giant Lonestar Cell MTN has launched a youth -focused 21 Days y’ello Care, seeking to equip 200 high school students with computer knowledge and information communication technology (ICT).
Launching the program Monday, 3 June at the G.W. Gibson High School Campus in Monrovia, the company announced that it is sponsoring four public schools including G.W. Gibson; Bassa High School in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County, DolokelenGboveh High School in Bong County and the J.W. Pearson High School in Ganta, Nimba County.
50 students will be targeted at each of these four locations cited, which will total 200 students in all for the training courses.
The 21 Days y’ello Care campaign is launched as a result of the company’s observation that youth make up 65 percent of Liberia’s population, but a good number of them leave the walls of high schools and colleges without knowledge in computer and ICT.
According to Lonestar Cell MTN Corporate Communications and Social Responsibility Manager Madam Christal – Dionne Reeves, a one – day training and tools will be provided for students, following which the best and brightest students will be picked from each section.
Madam Reeves notes that these students will be taken on a journey for a year to continue to learn building apps, cloud storage, and beautiful software, among others.
She recalls that in 2018, Lonestar Cell MTN decided that its 21 Days of y’ello Care will be a youth – focused campaign which is designed to equip students with skills in addition to painting their schools, building or refurbishing their libraries, among others.
“We want to equip them with skills. We decided we want to equip them with skills in ICT in technology, science technology, engineering mathematics …,” says Madam Reeves.
Particularly for G.W. Gibson High School, Madam Reeves indicates that high school students there will experience what is called E-learning as soon as possible to expose them to the world via the internet.
“So today we have come here to launch our 21 Days of y’ello Care and we are looking forward to work with all of you here to make an impact,” she notes.
Further, Madam Reeves narrates that MTN will also donate some digital tools to these schools to impact the students with skills that will enable them to sit for an interview, go online and create their own beautiful cloud storage, among others.
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As at 2018, she reveals that MTN started to do ICT training for young people because the company believes that everyone deserves the benefit of a modern connected live.
She details that the 21 Days of y’ello Care is the MTN Family’s annual event aimed at giving back to the community as part of its corporate social responsibility campaign that happens in all 21 MTN companies around Africa.
The 21 Days of y’ello Care affords MTN staff the opportunity to go back to the communities to deliver training, give back to clients and do so many things.
In 2016, Madam Reeves recalls that the company donated a brand new ICT lab at a rural school in Grand Cape Mount County, refurbished a library at the Charles D.B. King School in 2017 and rebuilt a hand pump at the Monrovia Demonstration School, among others.
For his part, Lonestar Cell MTN Legal and Regulatory Manager Winston Tubman says this is something that the MTN group does every year in June, giving back to the community that makes the company what it is.
Following the launching exercise, the Principal of G.W. Gibson Mr. Moses Zanga extended profound thanks to the MTN Family for the transformation it is bringing to his school, saying a few days from now the school will boast of a computer lab.
Also representing Bassa High School, Mr. Richard Paye thanked the Lonestar Cell MTN for the 21 Days of y’ello Care, saying it will be a great help for his school.By Winston W. Parley
