Monrovia – A Former President of the Montserrado County Students Union has outlined several reasons why Macdella Cooper is best suited for the vacant Montserrado County’s Senate seat.
George M. Kesselly argues that Madam Cooper’s primary objectives is to promote and expanded support for gender equality as well as necessary economic revitalization for the county and country at large.
“Our people need all of these in order to sustain their own individual welfare, health care and continuing education for themselves and their children,” Kesselly said, stressing that the former Presidential candidate is suitable for the senate.
He said Cooper has accepted “the call of honor to again serve her country by recognizing our petition for her to contest in the Montserrado County Senatorial by-election”.
He added that her decison to contest in 2017 for the presidency was to offer her insights, share her best practices, and learned international experience on the issues affecting Liberia.
Added Kesselly: “She has a plan for a better Montserrado County and Liberia at large. Only through increased economic participation and advancement can honest people become honorable citizens and jointly destroy the culture of violence against women, including female genital mutilation, wife burning, rape, wife battering, child trafficking, early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and prostitution.”
The former president of Montserrado student group asserts that ideals of good governance are also essential for any successful advancement, which he claims give Madam copper’s support among her international supporters and friends towards finding solutions to the country’s current economic woes.
“Madam Cooper believes that good ideas must be coupled with high integrity and skilled leadership,” he said, adding, “As she walks the streets of Monrovia, meeting and talking with fellow Liberians, she continues to exhibit her acts of charity, supporting worthy causes, which is at the cornerstone of the founding the MacDella Cooper Foundation (MCF).”
The MCF, which was founded by Madam Cooper, primary mission is to educate, train and motivate Africa’s most vulnerable children, disadvantaged youth and marginalized women, by helping them become productive contributors to their nations’ economic, social and political development.
Establishing MCF in 2003, provided the fundamental building block for her to raise millions of dollars to support national development projects in Liberia, he said.
“We believe that MacDella Cooper will use her philanthropic platform to continue advocating for and funding the promotion of human rights for women and children’s protection, as well as access to education, healthcare, affordable housing and employment for the citizens of Montserrado County and Liberia at large.”
In 2010, Madam Cooper launched the MCF Academy – a tuition-free boarding school for vulnerable and “at risk” children.
Since then she has often emphasized that the academy’s mission is to provide quality education and life skills for disadvantaged children in an environment that is conducive to learning. At the MCF School, students get three meals a day consisting of healthy, locally-grown ingredients.
She is optimistic that the Montserrado County Senatorial aspirant is hopeful that the Academy will prepare future leaders who take pride in themselves and their country.
“I’m driven by passion, but I’m also a realistic person, I can’t change the whole world, but I can start the process by investing in sectors that will grant the vulnerable demographic of our society access to basic human rights, to education, healthcare, affordable housing, security, and jobs,” Madam Cooper said recently at an event in Monrovia.
“I believe by doing so, they will become productive citizens and contribute to the economic development of our country and the world at large, and also play their role in the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.”
Kesselly added that over the past 15 years Madam Cooper has worked to promote effective leadership and good and inclusive governance in Liberia.
“In as much as her efforts have primarily been through philanthropy and peacebuilding missions, these commitments are founded on the moral imperative to substantially improve Liberia’s social services which are currently in an appalling state,” he asserts.
He too is also aware that access to basic services remains well below pre-civil war status for more than a third of the population as even higher proportion of the country’s citizens survive on less than the US $1 a day.
He claims that Cooper has been working to remedy some of the country’s problem by helping to bring investors to the Liberian economy in the areas of affordable housing, energy, and technology, which also creates job opportunities for Liberians in and out of Montserrado country.
“Therefore, when elected as Senator of this great County, she will work harder to empower women, girls, and youth from diverse backgrounds, creating opportunities for them to prepare themselves with the necessary tools to become a great leader,” he said.
Kesselly says Madam Cooper has remained committed to supporting religious tolerance in the county by extending frequent plesantries to “all my Muslim brothers and sisters in Montserrado County and has wished them a blessed Ramadan.”
Her passion for good governance, gender equality and for others are the reason why she officially announced her candidacy as Independent Candidate for the Senatorial By-Election for Montserrado elections on July 2, 2019, he concluded