Three Elements to Assist You Achieve Self-reliance and independence as an Individual

The Chair and Members of the Board of the New Hope Academy

Mr. Augustine S. Arkoi, Founder and CEO, Better Future Foundation

The Principal, Administrators, Teachers and other staff of the New Hope Academy

Members of the Graduating Class

Families, Friends and well wishes of the Graduates

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

It is a pleasing honour for me to have been selected as the Guest Speaker for the 14^th Graduation Ceremony of the 12^th Grade Class of the New Hope Academy of the Better Future Foundation. I am humbled by this experience. Today, 25 young persons – 13 females and 12 males will graduate from high school. Your Academy is fulfilling Liberia’s and the global community commitment to advance gender equality in the ratio of female to male students that are graduating today.

You have proven that when given the opportunity, girls can excel on equal basis with boys. And you have dismissed as false the idea that equal participation of women and men, in education, business, governance and other fields is not possible. Thank you for your remarkable contribution.

It is to you, the graduates that I will address my remarks. You are taking an important step, to leave high school, to start another set of steps towards fulfilling your fullest potentials. You overcame many difficulties along the way, not the least the effect of the tragic Ebola virus crisis.

You will face the real world with its opportunities, promises and hope on the one hand, and obstacles and new challenges on the other. I have no doubt that you have been prepared. I would like to share three criteria or elements that you may find useful for your journey.

It is in this regard that I will speak on the theme: ‘Three Elements to Assist You Achieve Self-reliance and independence as an Individual’

1.   Own your decisions and expand the choices available to you

Take responsibility for your decisions whether for your career choice, for your participation in skills development or your involvement in different social or other groups. Never be pressured or forced into deciding. Always make sure you have all the information needed for your decision making.  Take your time. Weigh the options and make the decision. When you decide, own the outcome and do not blame it on others. It is only when you own the outcome of your decisions that you can learn.

A Noble Prize winner, Amartya Sen highlighted the importance of choices in his economic development model when examining poverty and development. In his model widely known as the capability approach, he argued that the purpose of poverty reduction is to expand the choices and the extent of freedom people have to achieve what they value. Freedom according to Sen, is the ability to shape one’s own destiny as a person and as a part of various communities.

Therefore, the  purpose of fighting poverty is to expand decisions and options that are available to more people. You can take actions now to expand the options that will be available to you tomorrow – by learning new skills and increasing your ability to do new things that will prepare you for future jobs and other opportunities.

When the choice a person makes is a result of desperation, it may be the same as no choice at all. When thousands of a societies’ youths, at great risk to their lives migrate to distant lands in search for opportunities because their own society offer few opportunities for them, the society denies itself of its most valuable resources -youth whose ideas and energies, given the room to flourish can be the key to unleash even more opportunities.

2. Own your conclusions, based them on facts and evidence

The conclusions you hold are important. They shape how you view the world. There is a saying that two persons looked outside the same prison bar, one person saw the mud hole the other person saw the sky. One saw despair, the other saw hope. There are no limits to the number of conclusions you can hold, but not all your conclusions may be valid.

For conclusions to be valid, they must be based on facts, on evidence. Find your own way to have factual and balance access to information. Some people read more, but not more of the same things, but different perspectives too. Others listen to radio – but not the same radio stations or programmes all the time, others search the internet, others talk to people. The key is to always find balance on the different perspectives in order to inform your conclusions.

I would like to share few of my conclusions with you from my perspective as a student of social work, human rights and conflict management:

Conflict is inherent in every society. Scholars have found that the root causes of conflict can be traced to the denial of certain basic needs of groups. One of these scholars identified six basic needs: identity, participation, recognition, collectivity, justice and security. These needs must be met for all groups – Christians and Muslims, abled and disabled, women and men; persons living in urban areas and those in rural areas, and the many other differences that define groups in society.

Violence is a result of inadequate skills to resolve conflict and long term neglect of utilizing the skills where they exist.

The skills useful to identify, resolve and reduce the impact of conflicts are basic. They are skills that you can embrace and learn to use: negotiation, planning, advocacy, networking, problem solving, listening, communication, to name a few.

3.  Own your relationships, priorities those that enhance your potential

In the world outside high school, you will find that building relationships will become an important life skill. Whether they are relationships with individuals, groups, institutions, or communities, you must be able to exercise your free choice in the relationships your form. Relationships will take a large share of your time. They can fuel your creativity but also they can drain your insights and energies.

Whereas relationships can be with physical institutions or groups, you can also form relationships with norms and values that are important to society. Maintain a close relationship with the truth, be honest; maintain a close relationship with hard work, be committed; maintain a close relationship with justice, be fair. These are the values when you embrace will separate you from the rests. They are values important in Liberia and anywhere in the world. Integrity is achieved when you are able to uphold these values and norms not sometimes, to some people and some places, but all the times to everyone in every circumstance you face.

In concluding, a self-reliant and independent person (each of you graduating today) can become only great contributor to your personal and community development. To exercise self-reliance, own your decisions and expand the choices available to you; own your conclusions and base them on facts and evidence; finally own your relationships and prioritize those that enhance your potentials.

Congratulations, THANK YOU!