Liberia: WIN commences First-Ever Inter-Community Quiz Competition in District 10

Monrovia — The Watkins Initiative For Nations (WIN), under its Community Engagement and Empowerment Program will Friday, March 26, 2021, commence a nine (9) Month inter-community quizzing competition. The competition opening ceremony will be held at the Ford-Madden Christian Academy (FMCA), Smythe Road Community, Sinkor, Old Road, bringing together 34 communities to lock horns in an academic challenge. There will be awareness of health and human rights, counseling and testing for HIV would be conducted throughout the quizzing competition.

The over 55,000 residents of District 10 and its surrounding communities which are part of the Township of Congo Town will for the first time in history witnessed the occurrence of such an event in the vicinity, as all technical partners working on the program have satisfied already.

The competition is held under the theme: “Wake Up and Take The Right Action”; with a Motto: “People! Our Concern.” Community registration is absolutely free, including attires for the players, coaches, and captains. Awards for the first, second, and third winners will be given out during the end of the competition this year’s November.

Our team of judges, moderators, and panelists are drawn from community-based organizations, civil society organizations and pressure groups, human rights organizations, and the Government of Liberia. Representatives of the government of Liberia (Ministry of Health-National AIDS/STIs Control Program, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Youth and Sports); Civil Society organizations and community-based organizations (Press Union of Liberia (PUL), Anti-AIDS Media Network (AAMIN), Media aid/Peter Quaqua School of Journalism, the Society for Liberian Journalists (SLJ)) and Human Rights Groups (Independent Human Rights Commission, Youth for Development and Social Actions (YODSA), LEGAL and Global Initiative For Tranquility (GIFT), Concerned Intellectual Association (CIA), and Old Road Center for Intellectual Discourse (ORCID)) are all expected to participate during a different time interval of the quizzing competition.

The league which is expected to bring together 34 communities to challenge one and other academically, is being sponsored by Y. Solomon W. Watkins, an eminent son of Montserrado County, Electoral District 10.

Speaking to journalists in Monrovia, Mr. Watkins said they (WIN) realized that COVID 19 like all other health related issues has had serious economic and developmental impacts on Liberia and the rest of our world, thus resulting to the lack of school fees for many school going persons, thereby rendering most youth school dropped out. “We do believe such an event will help reawaken those in school and out of school thereby affording them the opportunity to share experiences through the academic challenge. It will be held in the context of increasing public health and human rights awareness during which consoling and testing for HIV will be carried out,” Mr. Watkins noted.

Mr. Watkins through WIN has been doing a lot in Montserrado County for the people of District 10 and surrounding communities ranging from connecting communities to the Liberia Water and Sewer Cooperation (LWSC), which is aimed to increase the population access to piped water supply services, to the distribution of several Anti- Ebola and Coronavirus assorted materials including buckets, barrels, drums, flayers, nose masks, stickers, cholera to protect residents against the diseases within 52 communities in the Congo Town Township, especially Communities on the Old Road.

A lot has been ongoing apart from the institution of innovative educational programs, some of which include, scholarship and financial aid for students crossing across, primary, secondary, junior, and senior high school as well as university level. More than 25 students residing in the District are currently benefiting from WIN scholarship and financial aid program.