Montserrado County Superintendent Grace Kpaan has challenged teenage girls in the country to prepare themselves to continue the legacy of Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Superintendent Grace Kpaan Urges Teenagers

Speaking Saturday at the launch of a kick-out poverty football and kickball tournament in the West Point town ship, madam Kpaan challenged the youngsters to focus on initiatives that will transform them into responsible state men and women.

She urged the girls in particular to prioritize education classifying it as the gate way to higher heights. The president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf this year appointed Grace Kpaan to steer the affairs of Montserrado County.

Prior to her appointment madam Grace Kpaan was the head of theDock Workers Union of the National Port Authority and she served in that position for two terms. As a civil society and faith based activist she is the founder of the organization Action Against Rape (AAR).

ARR has work extensively promoting women related issues, creating awareness on HIV/AIDS and advocating against rape and gender based violence.

As superintendent of Montserrado County she said her focus now is to resolve the problems of street children in Monrovia and its environs. So it was in this light that she accepted the invitation from the Christian Media Center to work on the 2010-Kick Out Poverty Campaign.

The kick-out football and kick-ball tournament was organized by the teen based Girls Alliance for Future Leadership with support from the Christian Media Center.

The head of the group Joetta Sandi said the tournament under the theme kick-out teenage pregnancy is aimed at reducing the rate of teenage pregnancy in impoverish communities of Monrovia. She said the group will use the peer education methodology to ensure a reverse in the trend of teenage pregnancy.

The Girls Alliance for Future Leadership (GAFL) is a teen based all girls' organization working to reduce teenage pregnancy in Liberia. A group of five teenage girls from various high schools in Monrovia organized a movement to ensure that they use peer education methodology to help reduce teenage girls' school drop-outs.

Currently they have a membership that is running to over 70-girls since the formation of the organization in last June, 2010.

As a new and young group, the Christian Media Center director Nah Davies says he believes the girls are a magnificent tool to work with in reducing teenage pregnancy and the HIV infection rate amongst teenagers. Mr. Nah Davies said he is committed to work with the young people to reduce school drop-outs amongst teenagers as a result of pregnancy.

The Kick out Poverty tournament is part of the Christian Media Center millennium development goals campaign for 2010. The west point town ship where the tournament was held is one of Monrovia's largest, densely populated and popular shanty towns where all its residents live on less than a dollar a day. Christian Media Center Believes working with the youths of west point will help transform that society.