Hello Women Project

Based on the reflection that young women in Liberia (and most of the world) faced obstacles that limit them from finding and keeping jobs or starting businesses, including lack of productive skills, sexual harassment, opposition from spouses, lack of capital, and a high burden of domestic and family responsibilities.

Orange has partnered with YOCEL to implement the “Empower 2 Earn (E2E) project” designed to bridge these gaps by increasing awareness of technical fields amongst school-going girls in six counties (Montserrado, Margibi, Grand Bassa, Bong, Nimba, and Lofa).

The project is expected to impact the lives of 1,900-2000 School-going girls between the ages of 15-24.  

Project Inception Meetings:

As part of the Hello Women project launched, YOCEL conducted three (3) project inception meetings from March 25- 30, 2024 in Bong, Nimba, and Lofa Counties. The inception meetings were designed to solicit stakeholders' views on key challenges preventing female students from enrolling in technical fields across the counties. Also, awareness materials were distributed among participants.  

Key outputs from the Inception meeting include the following:

·         30 key education stakeholders engaged per county during the inception meetings. In total, 90 education stakeholders engaged in Bong, Lofa, and Nimba about opportunities around STEM education for girls.

·         Participants received key information about the background of the Hello Women project, highlighting Orange Liberia's commitment to promoting “Digital Literacy” for the people of Liberia.

·         Participants shared their inputs to the Hello Women project rollout at the sub-national levels.

·         Key commitment from community leaders, school administrators, and MOE to join the ongoing Hello Women awareness campaign.  

Back to STEM Town Hall Meetings:

After the project inception meetings in March 2024, YOCEL launched the “Back 2 STEMS” activities between April 16-19, 2024. The back-to-stem meetings brought together key education stakeholders including community leaders, school administrators, students, and parents to receive training, and awareness messages relating to the Hello Women Project and STEM education in general.

The back-to-stem activities were implemented in Lofa, Nimba, and Bong Counties which brought together key education stakeholders at the county level to brainstorm and share ideas around strategies to increase awareness around STEM education to boost female enrollment at the national and sub-national levels.

YOCEL was able to work in collaboration with the different education stakeholders, and successfully conducted the “Back to STEAM” town hall meetings at the following venues in the Counties:

1.    Bong County: @ the Ministry of Youth, and Sports Youth Center in Gbarnga.

2.    Nimba County: @ the Tech Computer Conference Hall in Ganta City.

3.    Lofa County: @ the Margustus Conference Hall in Voinjama City.

Invited schools that attended the “Back to STEM” town hall meetings:

1.    Lofa County (April 16, 2024): New Life Community School, Kormah High School, Voinjama Free Pentecostal High School, St. Joseph High School, and Voinjama Multilateral High School

1.    Nimba County (April 18, 2024): Zokeseh School System, Francis Nyahn Mawien Public School, Fullest Gospel Academy and J. W Pearson School

2.    Bong County (April 19, 2024): Dolokelen Gboveh High School, John F. Bakalu High School, William VS. Tubman High School, NV. Massaquoi High School and St. Martin Catholic High School

Key outputs from the meeting include the following:

·         15 STEM ambassadors were identified and recruited during the Back-to-Steam town hall meeting in Bong, Nimba, and Lofa Counties. Five (5) STEM ambassadors per county.

·         250+ students received training and mentorship about STEM education from 15 high schools in Bong, Nimba, and Lofa Counties

·         150+ education stakeholders engaged during the Back-to steam town hall meetings from Bong, Nimba, and Lofa Counties

·         Key information about STEM education including data and statistics shared with key stakeholders during the meeting.

·         Participants learned about Orange's contribution to digital literacy in Liberia highlighting key projects ranging from Hello Women, Orange Digital Schools, Women Digital Centers, etc.

·         Participants learned about available STEM courses offered at different Universities across Liberia including scholarship opportunities.

·         Participants learned about the different enrollment ratios between boys and girls.

Distribution of the factsheets:

In continuation of the “Hello Women” Project activities implementation, YOCEL ambassadors began distributing the project factsheet from April 20th – 30th 2024 targeting female students, community leaders, and parents across Bong, Nimba, and Lofa Counties. The factsheet distribution was intended to raise awareness and share key information about employment opportunities for students who acquired knowledge in technical courses, and the availability of scholarship opportunities across these technical universities.

YOCEL also used the medium to motivate school-going girls to take advantage of these technical courses to enable them to compete with their male counterparts for employment opportunities in the future. The STEAM ambassadors were able to carry out these awareness outreaches to targeted schools, and communities across Bong, Nimba, and Lofa Counties.

Key outputs from the distribution of the Hello Women Factsheets are as follows:  

·         2,500+ students were reached with awareness messages about STEM education from 15 schools across Bong, Nimba, and Lofa Counties.

·         2,850 factsheets were distributed across 15 schools in three Counties (Bong, Nimba and Lofa).

·         350+ community members including key stakeholders were reached with awareness messages about STEM education.

Production of Multimedia Contents:

To continue the awareness around the “Hello Women” project, YOCEL worked with key education stakeholders and developed social media content for awareness at the national and sub-national levels. The Social media contents were shared via YOCEL Social Media platforms targeting students, parents, community members, and other stakeholders.

In addition, YOCEL also developed jingles to be aired at local radio stations across the counties for awareness.

Key outputs from the production of Multimedia Content are as follows:  

·         Over 20+ multimedia content developed for the Hello Women project for awareness

·         6,500+ people reached via Facebook with awareness messages about the Hello Women project.

·         Over 7000+ people reached across three Counties (Bong, Nimba, and Lofa) with awareness messages about the “Hello Women Project”. The radio jingles were played at four (4) local radio stations (Radio Gbarnga and Super Bongese in Bong County, Voice of Lofa in Voinjama, Lofa County, and Radio Gegemah in Nimba County).