By Vamba A. Sirleaf (YES 2016-2017, Liberia, hosted by PAX in Jasonville, IN)

Liberia, my homeland, has been facing difficulties in using technological tools in offices, schools, and even playgrounds. Personally, I feel very dissatisfied about the whole situation. In Liberia, most of our local schools are lacking the real time efficient facilities needed in good schools.

Many students in Liberia don't have access to a library, a computer lab, and physics and chemistry labs. Many are very inexperienced with computer usage and advanced lab facilities. You wouldn't believe that notable schools in Liberia don't have up-to-standard libraries. Because of the poor and discouraging learning environments, many youth don't have the opportunity to pursue careers. Many students in Liberia have had their dreams destroyed and feel hopeless; this has led to serious damage in the lives of many future leaders.

Because of that, with all the values installed within me as a YES student, I have been tirelessly working to ensure a better and brighter future for youths, the advancement in technology, and a better and more convenient learning environment. I started this journey back on August 23, 2017 when I founded the National Youth for Progressive Change commonly known as (N.Y.P.C). There are several reasons why I decided to establish this beautiful organization such as:

1. To bring forth a non-political organization that will reunite the youths.
2. To reach out to the unreachable ones, so that their voices can be heard.
3. To motivate, embrace, develop and advocate on behalf of the youths.
4. To make progress on everyone's goals, aims, and creative destinies.
5. To have a better learning atmosphere and environment.
6. To help better-develop the young minds, attitudes, and efficiencies intellectually, socially, morally, academically, delightfully, and superiorly.

We were committed to our cause and ideology. We did a lot of volunteering activities in many different communities. We even did a fundraising project where we raised enough money to give scholarships to ten students. We opened a free computer learning institution where we taught more than 30 youths with the few computers we had.

Today, our inspiration has taken us to another innovative step. I founded another institution by the name of Veteran Software Company and I am now proud to see a lot of schools joining our online school management systems. This has been very awesome as schools within Montserrado County are now able to manage and run their school-based activities on the internet. With no doubt, we have made student’s grades easily accessible on the internet to both students and parents.

With so much love and desire I have for Liberia, we will not stop until we can see 80% of Liberian High School Graduates have portable computer knowledge and experiences with technology. We will also not stop until our online school management systems reach most schools in all the 15 counties in Liberia. We will not stop until we have employed countless amount of youths in and out of Liberia.

We will also not stop until the rate of high school and college dropouts can reach zero. We will also not stop until 80 – 90% of Liberian Youths say no to drugs, prostitution, violence, and other social and economic crimes. Finally, we will not stop until we see Liberian Youths better off with positive mind-sets and innovative thoughts and future.

So, to all readers, this is my story and we will stop until we achieve the above goals and get Liberia rising again. We have the mid-sets but cannot fully do this without moral and financial contributions. If you are interested in helping our cause, check out our websites linked in the story and visit our Facebook page for more information about the projects I been undertaking as a Liberia and YES Student.