Global Environment Faculty-Small Grants Program Poses to Benefit People with Disability, Women and Elders in Liberia

Paynesville – The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) has launched a Small-Grants Program to help young people, women and people with disabilities to protect the forest as a means of promoting the fight against climate change.

The launch of the program was held at the Mission of Hope compound in Lower Johnsonville outside Monrovia.

Feeding Liberia, Mission of Hope for the Disabled, Reformational Youth of Liberia Incorporated and Liberians United for Rescue Action (LURA) are the implementing partners that are going to work with community stakeholders to implement the project.

Launching the initiative, the Executive Director of the National Commission on Disability Daintowon Pay-Bayee praised the Unity Nations Development Programs (UNDP) for their efforts in helping people with disabilities in the country.

According to the Executive Director for the National Commission Disabilities, programs and projects of such will make people with disabilities independent in society.

“It is a dream come true because as persons with disabilities, there are lots of things we can do with our hands, perhaps our physical body cannot do because of our disabilities,” Madam Bayee said.

Samuel K. Boakai is the National Coordinator for the Global Environmental Facility Grant-Small. He told journalists that the project is aimed at delivering the global environmental facility as its way of helping young people, women and people with disabilities to protect the forest as a means of providing global environmental benefit to replace fossil fuel to Solar panels.

“If you protect the forest and you reduce the carbon emission, you are going to benefit and Liberia is going to benefit moreover,” Mr. Boakai said.

He added: “The NGO or CPO that are going at the community level to work with community stakeholders, providing them income by giving them small jobs.”

According to the National Coordinator for the Global Environmental Facility Grant-Small, the program is going to begin in Montserrado County with a plan of reaching other counties in the near future.

Adding up, Victor A. Wilson is physically challenged and serves as the Executive Director for Mission of Hope Mission of Hope. He said they are happy to receive such a grant from Global Environmental Facility.

“We want to say a very big thank you to the Global Environmental Facility for putting their trust in us. And I ask all of us to benefit from the program. Make use of it,” Wilson said.

At the Global Environmental Facility Grant-Small, many participants stressed the need to engage in agriculture that way they will promote goal two of the SDGs that talk about hunger.

“We got to put ourselves together to rise to the occasion to feel ourselves,” James Borbor, also physically challenged told FrontPageAfrica.