Sixteen beneficiaries receive gift items for excellence in academic year 2008/09 – By Cletus Noah VOS Office Manager

For more than three years now, the Volunteers of Sean (VOS) holds yearly end of the school year indoor programs with parents, guardians and beneficiaries to evaluate the scholarship program for the past year and then recognize our beneficiaries and parents who did well.

We recognize students who perform well by presenting gifts and raining praises on them. This is done to encourage both students and parents and to send a message to those who did not perform well to put more time into their studies.

This year’s end-of-year recognition program took place at our office in Congo Town on August 15th. Sixteen students received shoe boxes and t-shirts as gifts to motivate them. They comprised eight boys and eight girls. The equal number of boys to girls is an indication that indeed VOS is prioritizing girl child education and that the girl child can excel as much as the boy, when given the chance. All the gift items presented were received from the Sean Devereux Children’s Fund UK in January. A student who did not obtain the required 80% average got one t-shirt as consolation prize.

During the jam-packed indoor program, Sean Devereux Children’s Fund KU Resident Oversight Coordinator, John T. Monibah, spoke to both beneficiaries and parents. He praised Fr. Joe Brown SDB and Sean Devereux Children’s Fund UK for the money and material support given to VOS for the children of Liberia. He also reminded parents and beneficiaries to teach their children the value of generous giving as a way of life. He said we in Liberia should learn to share with others as our fore fathers and Sean himself did. He said money and materials received from Sean UK come through donation and generous giving from children as well as adults and groups. He thanked those who have written letters and made personal visits to say thank you to VOS. He told them VOS was interested in knowing the impact the scholarship program has had on the children.

Volunteers of Sean’s Academic Scholarship Program is meant for needed Liberian children whose parents are not in the position to afford school tuition and fees. We draw a lot of inspiration from Sean himself who used tuition and fees as to help poor Liberian children go to school. Many of them are today studying in universities while others are married and fully employed with organizations such as CRS. VOS thinks this legacy of Sean should continue as long as we receive support.

During the indoor gathering, parents, guardians and direct beneficiaries said they were very grateful for the VOS support. They said the help was important because without it, they could not have made it to this point. They recalled that they have received lots of things from VOS including tuition and fees, text books, backpacks, copybooks, pens, pencils, rulers, umbrellas, rice, sports bottles, bread flour, and clothes. As recipients smiled broadly, some participants (students) of the recognition program wept openly while others cried out aloud because they failed to obtain the required 80% overall average to be recognized. Their parents praised VOS for this approach and said it would encourage the children to do better next year.

Last academic year VOS paid tuition and fees for 55 students and provided them other materials. For academic year 2009/2010, we are hoping to help 100 students and have already £3,400 from Sean Devereux Children’s Fund UK for this year. VOS is working with beneficiaries in 36 schools in Monrovia, including 25 elementary and junior high schools, 15 senior high schools, Stella Maris Polytechnic, and GOJA Incorporated First Aid School. Seven students graduated at end of academic 2008/09 (six finished high school while one completed the First Aid School). They are moving on to universities and colleges.

In the late 1980s a young British educator called Sean Devereux came to Liberia to work as a Volunteer of the Salesians of Don Bosco, a priestly religious order of the Catholic Church. When the civil war started in 1989, he and the Salesians working in Tappita, Nimba County were forced to move to Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. In 1990, he started working for the United Nations World Food Program as a volunteer, and remained in Liberia until 1992 when he was moved to Kismayo, Somalia as a UNICEF volunteer, where he was killed in January 1993 by an assassin’s bullet.

During his work in Liberia both as a Salesian and later UN Volunteer, Sean taught, worked with, assisted, and impacted positively on the lives of myriads of poor Liberian children and youth. Among the people he interacted with, Sean was seen as a teacher, co-worker, humanitarian, disciplinarian, one who lived by example, sportsman and lover of children.

Sean’s death news hit us all like a massive earthquake. Many did not know what to do. Others named their children after him, some founded a football club in is honour, while others named institutions after him. In October 2005, Sean’s former students, co-workers, friends and admirers amalgamated themselves into a youth service group called Volunteers of Sean. It’s motto is:”Volunteering like Sean”.

Its Mission Statement summarizes its objects:

To assist poor children to go to school

To foster peace, reconciliation and non-discrimination among people (conflict resolution)

To provide humanitarian relief/assistance to needy

To participate in/undertake/volunteer community initiatives worthy of emulation by young people

To undertake advocacy work/campaigns for children/youths empowerment through academic, vocational and apprenticeship education

To organise sporting events for underprivileged schools

Since it’s founding in 2005, Volunteers of Sean (VOS) have been involved in the following activities:

Assisted in undertaking community cleanup initiatives on 12th Street and in Larkpazee, Monrovia

Distributed relief items to needy schools, orphanages and elders

Provided academic scholarships to more than 100 poor children in academic year 2007/08 and 2008/09

Provided sewing machines and fabrics to needy seamstresses

Collaborated with partner institutions in organising and holding the Sean Devereux inter-high school basketball tournaments to foster peace and reconciliation among young people

This newsletter was originally added to the site last year, but re-added to explain some of the activities in which the Volunteers are involved

Dear Friends

As many of you will know I went out to Liberia last year accompanied by Fr Joe Brown and Sally Hounsham. If you haven’t already read about our experiences I would encourage you to have a look at earlier pages in the website where you can read about our adventures and the projects we have been supporting.

This month saw the launch of the Sean Devereux Peace Walk on the 6th January in Monrovia. It has been organized by the Volunteers of Sean, who are a group of young people whom Sean taught and worked with and were inspired by his commitment to humanity during his time in Liberia The aim of the walk is to keep Sean’s legacy and the values he stood for alive, focusing on child’s rights, protections and advocacy, community involvement, using sports as a mobilization and peace fostering tool. Fr Joe Brown and one of our Trustees traveled to Monrovia to attend the launch. Once they are both back from this trip we will have a full update which will be available on the website and in our next newsletter. To read more click here Read the rest of this entry »

This entry was originally posted in November 2006 but has been added to explain the activities of this very worthy group:

Volunteering Like Sean Devereux

Everyone has a mission to fulfill in life. Some do it well, some don’t. Sean Devereux fulfilled his well in Liberia. Now his former students, friends, co-workers, and admirers are trying to emulate him.

When Sean Devereux (British) came to Liberia in the late ‘80’s, he came with a single mission purpose: to serve. Later on, his motto became even more concise: “While my heart beats, I have to do what I think I can do, and that is to help those who are less fortunate”.

This was Sean’s mission purpose and this he fulfilled well in Liberia and later on in Somalia. Unfortunately, he was killed in 1993 in Somalia. But fortunately he and his legacy live on in the hearts and minds of Liberians with and among whom he served.

Inspired by Sean to serve the needy, Volunteers of Sean (VOS), a non-for-profit organization, aims at reaching out to people in need and doing those things that Sean did, not in a big way but in a small and effective manner. Read the rest of this entry »