Monrovia – A visiting delegation of the SOS Villages International on Tuesday, February 21, 2017 paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Julia Duncan-Cassell aimed at discussing ways to address youth problems in Liberia as well as pledging the organization’s commitment to working with government to create more opportunities for youths.
The SOS delegation headed by the President, Siddhartha Kaul, included the Deputy Operations Officer, Tom Malvet, the International Regional Director, Benoit Poit who were accompany by the Acting National Director, Simon Tokjohozin and one of the Board members, Cllr. Henry Reed Cooper.
Mr. Kaul hoped that Liberia can be a good partner to the SOS family now that there is a long existence of peace; acknowledging that Liberia has more needs, he said a peaceful transition will be the best assurance for better partnership.
He realized that child mortality is still on the increase in Liberia as well as health and education issues and with the finalizing of the SOS goals at the close of last year, youth care is now a priority especially for Africa.
The SOS International president assured the Minister of his organization’s increased commitment to Liberia’s recovery agenda even though its income was a little bit stagnant due to the active involvement in the migration crisis in Europe.
He pledged to offer assistance to another 50 Ebola orphans in Juah Town, Grand Bassa County, where the presence of the SOS has been significant for several years; talking about giving youths the right kind of education and deriving an approach for the change of youths.
Minister Duncan Cassell thanked the SOS International guests for the visit and assured that Liberia remains a partner of the SOS International family indicating that there are lots of challenges in the country yet there are more opportunities.
Minister Cassell realized that taking care of children from an early stage sets the platform for fewer problems with the youth and disclosed that Liberia is going more into public-private partnerships in terms of health, education and child protection.
She said government looks forward to partnership so that the children are not left behind because by doing so the country will experience less youth problems and a productive society void of early child marriages, teenage pregnancy and FGM related issues that tend to prevent girls from going to school.