Monrovia – The National Adult Education Association of Liberia (NAEAL) has embarked on a project to educate young people to utilize their God-given talents.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway, Jr – [email protected]
The project, which is titled: ‘On the Move,’ is a mobile filming program that films true life motivational stories of individuals making use of their talents for a living despite the obstacles in their way to prevent them from using their talents.
The project, which was designed purposely to tell the stories of young people, brought together 32 aspiring filmmakers from Sierra Leone, Ghana and Liberia and gave them in-depth skills in film making and understanding of the media’s role in society.
The project is intended mainly to educate young people that NAEAL believes make up the majority of the population in West Africa and a lot of them struggle to get education, training or employment.
The participants produced two fictional and two documentary films on the challenges young people face as they strive to eke out a living or realize their dreams against all the odds.
The films were shown in Kakata, Margibi County, over the weekend by NAEAL.
During the filming, young people in Kakata trooped in to the Kakata Administrative Building to watch the movies.
The first movie shown from Sierra Leone is about a young Sierra Leonean boy, identifies as Morris. He loves to dance and tries to prove to his father that he can make a living using his talent.
After a series of setbacks that nearly shatter Morris’ resolve, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
While the next movie was a 14-minute documentary about a young lady, who due to the poverty, she ended up crushing rocks, a job entailing hard physical labor in a dangerous working environment.
Intermittently, viewers provided their views and the lesson learned from the movies, as they were being shown.
Moses Quah, 23, said he was impressed with the Morris’ determination in the movie.
“I learned a lot from the movies. I think it is a measage to parents and children. I learned that when young people have talents, they should do all they can to make use of it, also, it should motivate parents to embrace their kids whenever their kids’ talents are being identified,” he stressed.
Another viewer was Madam Tracy Dunbar, a mother of three boys.
She found herself guilty after watching the movie. She stated that she has been in the habit of suppressing her 17-year-old son, who loves to play football and is on his school team.
“I can make the school people and his other friends shame when they come to my house and call my son to go play for them.
They usually say my son is a good player and he normally scores goals for them but I have been against his football habit all the time, but with what I just saw from this movie, my son is free to play for his school and his friends from now. Whenever he goes to play, people give him money as well,” she explained.
NAEAL said it is pleased to use the movies and documentary to educate young people and parents how to live and maintain their talents.
The team leader of NAEAL on the move project, Luther N. Mafalleh, said the same is being carried out in Sierra Leone and Ghana.
He said his team intents to film the movies around the country in order to educate the young people.
“We are young people and we need to be encouraged about what we do for living.”
“We need something to motivate us about our lives, so, by filming these works done by professional people from the three countries, it will help to educate our young people,” he explained.
Luther said NAEAL is only the implementing partner to the funding donors, XChange, Brot and others.
The National Adult Education Association of Liberia (NAEAL) is a registered and accredited local non-governmental education and development organization actively involved in adult literacy, peace education, advocacy, community empowerment and geared towards eliminating if not totally, eradicate poverty in the Liberian society and humanity in general.
NAEAL was established in 1977 by a group of young Liberian educators, who were interested in promoting literacy in Liberia.
The groups aim is to empower people through adult education and literacy in order to sustain community development and cooperation.
The group has implemented numerous adult literacy programs as its core activity in almost all 15 counties of Liberia.
Two-thirds of our beneficiaries have been vulnerable and economically challenged men, women and children.
NAEAL operates several programs including but not limited to Adult Education, Training for Institutional Capacity Building, Networking and Adult Literacy Resource Development.
It develops and uses her own literacy materials to facilitate adult learning at the community level and the learning approach is a combination of REFLECT methodology, PRA and participatory adult learning principles.
In implementing the adult literacy programs, NAEAL works in partnership with communities, their representatives and coordinates activities with the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Education, and National and International organizations working to reduce illiteracy in Liberia.