Mercy Corps suggests to LOIC

Humanitarian agency Mercy Corps official Mr. Nyema Richards has told Liberia Opportunities Industrialization Center (LOIC) in Gbarnga, Bong County of his NGO’s willingness to work with a co-team of people within LOIC to help reintegrate career counseling program to benefit every student that goes to LOIC.

“So we hope that the school will take advantage of continuing to engage us and we can work with a co-team of people within this school to help them reintroduce this career counselling program within [your] program and so that every student that comes through this wall can continue to benefit,” Mr. Richards said Friday, 29 September at a career fair for 145 LOIC students implemented by Mercy Corps.

Mr. Richards who manages Mercy Corps’ social investment arm called Promoting Sustainable Partnerships for Economic Transformation (Prospects) expresses hope that the school will take advantage of trying to continue to engage NGO for the benefit of every student that will go to LOIC.

He observes that the trainings Mercy Corps is giving the students come along with helping them to get the job and keep the job, but they are not technical trainings.

Cognizant of the fact that some young people may not know what to expect in the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) program they are involved in, he says Mercy Corps invited professionals to share experiences with the students to motivate, challenge and inspire them that they can achieve in the fields that are venturing into.

Judging from various presentations made by professionals at the program, Mr. Richards makes a conclusion that the students did not have to be the brightest students in their classes in order to succeed.

Instead, he encourages them to like what they are doing and put in time, giving a caution that it comes with hard work and dedication. “So my admonishment to you is that find interest in what you are doing, give it your time and you will see you will yield the dividend …” he says.

Having reminded students of the success stories and some of the experiences shared by the guest speakers, at the program in Gbarnga, Mr. Richards urges the LOIC students to take lot of factors into consideration in their various fields of study

He thanked the speakers for their time and the admonishment given the students in spite of their very busy schedules. He has expressed hope that one day the school would take ownership of such program and reintroduce career program in various studies for all the young people that will attend LOIC.

The Mercy Corps career fair in Gbarnga came on Friday came days after humanitarian group and Swedish Embassy near Monrovia signed about US$5.8m agreement to support the development of young Liberians.

Speakers at the career fair in Gbarnga included Cuttington University IT Specialist Mr. Anthony Siakor, Home Economist Marthaline Sombai, Agriculturist Mrs. ruth Q. Pratt, Plumber Jeff Quoinah, Mason Samuel Cammue and Electrician Mustapha Dukuly.

While the students sat attentively in the hall, each of the speakers had time to give the historicity of how they began their careers, the kind of challenges they encountered along the way and how they were able to overcome certain conditions and finally made successes. Each of the presenters was allowed to answer questions and concerns raised across the flood by students to clear their doubts.

During remarks, Bong County official Mr. Nathaniel Quenlyme urged the students to take their career very serious, applauding young women for the challenge of venturing into architectural areas now a days, unlike in the past when women mainly liked accounting and other business courses.