Monrovia — An education endowment fund in honor of former Liberian president William R. Tolbert was launched in Monrovia Wednesday at a formal ceremony held at the Monrovia City Hall.
Most of those who attended were students, but government officials and members of the Tolbert family also joined the celebration.
The fund has been started to underwrite the educational costs of underprivileged but deserving young Liberians in both the formal and vocational sectors, say the program's sponsors, the Integrated Communications Services (ICS).
"Currently the ICS is providing tuition-free, capacity-building skills training for students," said James S. King, the founder and president of the group. He said the fund would promote debate in memory of the former president throughout Liberia and engage in annual fund-raising initiatives for education.
Dr. Richard Tolbert, who is not only chairman of the National Investment Commission of Liberia but is also a nephew of the former president, delivered an hour-long speech detailing the "rise and fall" of a president credited by some with making a major contribution to the development of Liberia's infrastructure.
Tolbert recalled the many contributions of his uncle, particularly in the educational sector: "This emphasis on education as the core necessity for national development is a theme that would live with [him]… and a theme which bears repeating even more so in today's Liberia," he said, generating applause from the audience.
Liberia's illiteracy rate, estimated at 80 percent, has been characterized by many as a "crisis" which has sparked a number of initiatives by government and NGOs aimed at ameliorating the situation.
Several people who took part in audience discussion at the launch said they had benefited from educational and other initiatives of the former leader taken shortly before his death in a coup d'etat in 1980.
Senator Nathaniel Innis of Grand Bassa County, Etmonia Tarpeh, the Minister of Youth and Sports, and Tupee Taylor, the former wife of former president Charles Taylor, were among prominent personalities who graced the occasion.
Innis said ahead of the fund-raiser that "if we were to do a comparative analysis, this [President Tolbert] is the man who worked above the rest of the past presidents."
