26 October 2009
In compliance with new guidelines governing the appointment of Honorary Consuls, twenty one (21) persons were appointed or reappointed as Honorary Consuls to 14 countries covered by relevant Liberian Embassies, while the list will be subsequently updated as required vetting is finalized.
According to a Foreign Ministry release, following a review by the President in 2007 of Government's Honorary Consuls, six Honorary Consuls were retained because of their relationship to Liberia's Maritime Programme.
The six are Geraldo F. Bernstein of Argentina, Hannelore Bohnis Dettinger of Germany, Nicolas Soutos of Greece, Jan Tormond Dege of Norway, Jesus Munarriz of Spain and David A. Straz,Jr. of Florida, the United States of America. According to the new guidelines, this approach involves the submission by each applicant of a curriculum vitae, with his/her national passport to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through Liberian Missions abroad, vetting of applicants by the National Security Agency for its clearance and forwarding to the President for her endorsement.
This is followed by informal submission by the Liberian Ambassadors of their candidatures to the concerned governments prior to those governments final approval and granting of exequaturs to the proposed Honorary Consul. The former practice of designating non-Liberians abroad as Ambassadors-at-Large; or Special Envoys are generally no longer in effect, while there have been no reappointments of Honorary Consuls in Lebanon, Angola, Israel, Austria, Australia or Chicago in the U.S.A.
The Ministry noted that any persons purporting to be Honorary Consuls of Liberia in those countries are doing so fraudulently. In addition, any visas obtained from those purported Honorary Consuls will not be honored.
Moreover, no longer will Honorary Consuls receive Liberian Diplomatic passports; this practice the Foreign Ministry says is consistent with what tends to obtain in most countries. Besides, appointments will now be for three years only and will be renewed thereafter following appraisal of their performance and their contribution to Liberia's Poverty Reduction Strategy, popularly referred to as "Lift Liberia."
Meanwhile, the 21 persons that were appointed or reappointed as Honorary Consuls to countries covered by relevant Liberian Embassies are Carl Ostergaard, Honorary Consul, Denmark, Berlin, Germany; Bernard Martineau, Honorary Consul, France, Paris, France; Alexander Soutos, Honorary Consul, Greece, Paris, France; Michael Gigilinis, Honorary Consul, Greece, Paris, France; Kimani Mathu, Honorary Consul, Kenya, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Vincent Van Den Bogaert, Honorary Consul, Luxemburg, Brussels, Belgium.
Others are Antonio Jose Ferreta de Carvalho, Honorary Consul Geeneral, Portugal, Paris, France; Alejandro Munnariz, Honorary Vice Consul, Spain, Paris, France; Antonio Arenas, Honorary Vice Consul, Spain, Paris, France; Requel Lucia Perez Brito, Honorary Consul, Spain, Paris, France; Ralph Klinger, Honorary Consul, Switzerland, Paris, France; Mohammed Bashir, Honorary Consul General, Switzerland, Paris, France and Michael Koelsch, Honorary Consul, Germany, Berlin, Germany.
The list include Klaus Krichner, Honorary Consul, Germany, Berlin, Germany; Jan Miller, Honorary Consul, Germany, Berlin, Germany; Henrique Benson, Jr., Honorary Consul, Germany, Berlin, Germany; Robert David Blick, Honorary Consul, United Kingdom, London, United Kingdom; Cynthia Nash, Honorary Consul, Georgia, USA, Washington, D.C.; Jean-Pierrot Mahir, Honorary Consul General, Cameroon, Cameroon; Shawky Hemeidan, Honorary Consul, Zambia, South Africa and Thelma Traub Awori, Honorary Consul General, Uganda, Ethiopia, respectively.
In commemoration of Global Hand Washing Day, the Liberia National Red Cross Society (LNRCS) recently conducted a five day sensitization and awareness outreach on the importance of hand washing in various schools in four counties. The sensitization and awareness outreach was conducted to educate students on the importance of hand washing as a first defense against diseases.
During the outreach, the students were encouraged to participate in dramas, sing songs, display drawings, write recitations and messages in promotion of hand washing. Prices will be awarded to the winners at the end of the competition. Also, two sets of hand washing kits were distributed to each of the targeted schools. Each of the kits contained two barrels, two tables, two floor mobs, four plastic buckets and 30 pieces of soap.
Mr. David Johnson, principal of the Nyehn Town Public School, one of the targeted schools located in Todee, at the launching promised to encourage students to practice hand washing on and off campus and promised that the items will be used for the intended purpose.
He thanked the Liberian Red Cross for the initiative, which according to him, will ensure a healthy student population in the country. October 15 every year is commemorated as Global Hand Washing Day. Liberia joined the commemoration of the day in 2008 with the first celebration in Monrovia under the theme "Clean Hands Save Life."
This year the Liberian Red Cross extended the celebration to four counties: Montserrado, Margibi, Bong and Nimba, targeting 25 schools.
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