Liberia: One Life Liberia, Urey-Yarkpawolo Foundation Launch L$2M Scholarship Fund for 500 Zota Students

ZOTA DISTRICT, BONG COUNTY — In the town of Shankpallai, where Dr. Emmanuel K. Urey Yarkpawolo grew up and eventually left to build a career in environmental advocacy and education, the community gathered over the weekend to celebrate something that started, in his words, as a personal debt he wanted to repay.

By Selma Lomax, [email protected] 

The occasion was the launch of a L$2 million scholarship fund, a joint effort between One Life Liberia Inc. and the Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo Foundation for Development.

The fund, which reached its fundraising target in roughly two weeks, will support more than 500 grade-school students across Zota District who might otherwise struggle to stay enrolled.

For Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo, the initiative traces back to his own delayed start in the classroom — he did not begin formal schooling until age 14. That late start, followed by a path all the way through higher education, shaped how he now thinks about the students he grew up around, many of whom face the same obstacles he once did.

Rather than operate as a one-time cash giveaway, the program is designed to run through the people who see students every day: teachers, principals, and parents.

Those closest to the classroom will help identify which children need help most, and support will come in more than one form — tuition assistance, yes, but also books, supplies, and other materials meant to keep children from dropping out over cost alone.

Two schools, William T. Womba Public School and Shankpallai Lutheran School, are already receiving instructional materials as an early piece of that effort.

Organizers were also careful to frame the fund’s purpose narrowly. Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo described it as a community response to need, not a political vehicle — a distinction he raised unprompted, suggesting he anticipated the initiative might otherwise be read through a political lens given his public profile.

The launch ceremony doubled as a fundraising rally, drawing residents from across District Four along with friends and professional associates of Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo.

Serving as the event’s motivational speaker and chief launcher of the campaign was Mrs. Aisha Lai, standing in for her husband, Fabian Michael Lai, President and CEO of the National Oil Company of Liberia.

Mrs. Lai’s remarks tied personal history to the day’s cause. She invoked her husband’s own continued academic pursuits — despite already holding two master’s degrees — as evidence that learning doesn’t stop at a diploma.

She also drew on her own background as a former Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, where she worked on community development and later supported scholarship programs for girls, experience she said convinced her that education reshapes not just individual futures but entire communities.

The Lai family backed that message with a L$200,000 cash contribution to the fund. For residents watching the fund take shape, the appeal was straightforward: a local son, having gone further than his own circumstances once suggested, was funneling resources back into the district that raised him.

Many described the initiative as a meaningful investment in Zota’s children and thanked Dr. Urey-Yarkpawolo and his partners for choosing to give back in this form.

Whether the fund becomes an annual fixture or a one-time gesture remains to be seen — but for the 500-plus students expected to benefit this year, the immediate effect is a lighter financial burden and, organizers hope, one fewer reason to leave school early.