Monrovia – Yayeh Initiative, a nonprofit organization, promoting educational development across Liberia has officially launched its Spelling Bee Competition Third Edition, for 2022.
The competition which was launched at the start of the week is in collaboration with Yayeh Initiative partners, Monrovia City Cooperation Youth Affairs Unit, and has been accredited by the Ministry of Education.
The Spelling Bee competition according to the Chief Executive Officer of Yayeh Initiative, Yayeh Jalloh, is expected to bring together children in schools across Montserrado to compete in spelling words, while it is also expected to be extended to other counties.
Before the competition, participating schools will be provided handbooks that will contain 1,000 (One Thousand) words that will be used during the competition.
“Every year, we (Yayeh Initiative) and our Partners host the Spelling Bee Competition to benefit schools across Montserrado County, and, today we are very excited that we are extending our program to additional five counties,” Madam Jalloh said.
“For the benefit of our new audiences and partners, our journey goes back to 2018, as Miss AMEU, when I set up my team to embark on our humanitarian endeavors where we single-handily established relationships with orphanages and Mental Health homes and made donations of relevant logistic, food, clothes, paying school fees.”
“As you may know these wise words from NELSON MANDELA, code on code, “Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mind that a child of a farm worker can become the president of a great Nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another,”
She said proceeds from the event will be used to sponsor students in schools to include, including the provision of scholarships, books, laptops, phones, and cash prices among others.
Madam Jalloh told FrontPage Africa that the group has always designed the Spelling Bee to develop children’s confidence, presentation, and cognitive skills positively, shaping their attitudes for life and enabling them to attain education.
She has estimated a target number of 300 schools to work with, for this year’s event and other educational initiatives.
“We will have one (1) representative per school, making it three hundred (300) students in total to contest at the preliminary rounds. Out of the 300 students, two hundred and eighty-eight (288) students will drop and twelve (12) will contest at the Grand Final where our team will confirm the best three(3) winners of the Liberia National Spelling Bee Competition in collaboration with Monrovia City Cooperation Youth Affairs Unit, Accredited by the Ministry of Education,” she noted.
“But with your help, we can do more. Our more is to cover the 15 counties of Liberia.”
She expressed frustration over global economic setbacks created by their Coronavirus situation a few years ago, which mitigated the learning capacity of children in the country.
Madam Jalloh is saddened that this situation is still creating a lot of challenges for parents and the societies, couple another crisis, a real global threat of war in Europe.
However, she believes in these times, Spelling Bee has also been created to fill in these corridors, enabling children to improve their literacy, learn key social skills, and develop positive attitudes toward life.
Jalloh further maintained that such a competition will help motivate participating students to compete in school and transform them into change agents and credible leaders for future generations.
She said: “This Initiative has seriously put into consideration the followings, the guideline of the Ministry of Education-Republic of Liberia, and the guideline of the Ministry of Health-Republic of Liberia.”
“This is our opportunity to unveil the Yayeh Initiative in Collaboration with the Monrovia City Cooperation Youth Affairs Unit, Accredited by the Ministry of Education. The Liberia Nation Spelling Bee Competition 3rd Edition 2022 officially to the public and introducing our sponsors and partners.”
Meanwhile, besides the awards, every participant is expected to walk away with books, pens & certificates.