Monrovia – Cummings Africa Foundation has donated several pieces of yearbook to the Nimba County Community College (NCCC) on the first graduation of the school held in 2015.
The Foundations spent nearly $10,000 on the 1,000 yearbooks, which were printed in Ghana. It was in response to the college’s request due to low budgetary allocation and scarce resources.
The founder of the Cummings Foundation Alexander Cummings via his wife—Mrs. Teresa Cummings—said it was not a difficult decision make to sponsor the College’s yearbook project.
“As you may already know, the Cummings Africa Foundation is vested in empowering and uplifting Africa and Africans in the areas of education, health and agriculture because we feel that the bedrock of Liberia’s transformation will rely on the development of expertise in these sectors,” Cummings said.
“I am heartened to learn that Nimba Community College’s array of discipline is assigned with these three sectors.”
The yearbooks, in addition to highlighting the graduates and graduation activities, showcase the culture of Nimba County, capturing the Dahn mask and kola nut, symbol of peace and coexistence.
The Country Director of Cummings Foundation Fatu Gbedema for her part said she was hopeful that the sophisticated look of the yearbook and the professionalism with which they were done would attract donors to the College for the benefit of students and Liberia.
Enrollment at the College has increased from less than 450 students in 2011 to nearly 1,500 in 2016, with another round of graduation scheduled to commence in 23 days.
“Lots of people want to take from people. They don’t want to give but when you see people from Liberia who can look at a community college in one of the rural areas…say ‘We want to give yearbook to the first graduating class’ means a lot to us,” said Dr. Yar Donlah-Gono, thanking the Foundation on behalf of the College, county and government.
Dr. Donlah-Gono said the yearbook said much about how far from the dark days of the civil war Nimba had come to a forerunner of the new Liberia.
“Many, many problems that have happened began in Nimba, and so to be able to stabilize Nimba County through the education of the sons and daughters of Nimba and the people who are even coming from the neighboring countries like Guinea and Lofa are very grateful,” Dr. Donlah-Gono said.
“This yearbook is going to be a lasting history that will be kept in the library, in the different homes and villages. People will be looking at the photos of their kids coming out.”
“This will probably motivate more excitement in sending their children to school because many of them, after the war, went back home and started making farms or living some kind of lives.”
She said the College had enrolled more students than many other community colleges around the country, and that the yearbook added more value to the first graduation of the school.