About the Students

The Dougbe River Presbyterian School of Liberia is open to all children and youth from the 12 villages who made it possible through their gift of land. As of the fall enrollment for the 2018-2019 academic year, the school serves over 200 students. Almost 50% of them are girls, a significant detail in a country where girls and women do not have nearly the same opportunities as boys and men.

The students also participate in extracurricular activities such as:

  • Health clubs (one for boys and one for girls) to talk about issues of hygiene and puberty
  • A press club whose members write articles for the newsletter
  • A boys soccer team and a girls kickball team that compete against local high schools (the nearest is 45 minutes away)
  • An academic challenge team that competes with other teams across the county (anywhere from 45 minutes to 4 hours away).

Eric Karmee – 8th grade

Good morning school. Good morning everybody. Good morning Liberia, I’m student Eric Karmee. … Now here comes the news. DOUGBE RIVER PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOL OF LIBERIA – PRESS CLUB PRESENTING THIS NEWS LIVE FROM DOUGBE FM 96.5 MHZ …

First the headline: The impact of DRPSL in the lives of the Twarbo children. Story in detail.

At first the children of the Twarbo region struggled for education. Some were engaged into early marriages, some were wandering without any reasons, while others were involved into criminal activities.

All these acts were done by children in Twarbo because there was no school, and they knew nothing about the importance of education as a whole.

Fortunately for us, one of the sons of the soil Mr. Isaac Monah saw the need of building a school in Twarbo with the mindset of bringing education into this region, Twarbo. 2009-2012, the school was built and officially open to teach the children in order to take them from the dark into the light.

Angeline

While the school doesn’t currently have space or staff for a high school, older students can complete their ninth grade education before enrolling in high school elsewhere in the county. Students like Angeline can use resources such as the school library, which is the only library in the Konobo District, and they can count on the school to prepare them for the national entrance exam into high schools. They can also take on leadership roles on campus. Angeline, for example is the student body president and leads the morning assembly every day

In fact, as of the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year, a majority of the student body across all age groups is female. For Angeline and the other girls, the school helps even the playing field in a country where women are routinely disadvantaged. And it plays a key role in shaping the opportunities for future generations of women in Grand Gedeh County.

Praise

The school is a place where children like Praise can come learn math, English, science and social studies starting as young as four years old. As a kindergartener in the school’s early childhood program, Praise learns her numbers and English through songs and stories. She learns about the world around her from qualified, experienced teachers who have chosen to move to one of the most remote parts of the country to serve these children. Having started in the preschool program a year earlier, she is already well ahead of her peers in cities like Zwedru, Gbanga, and even the capital, Monrovia. Through the lunch program, she is guaranteed at least one solid meal each day, while she plays and learns and works toward her better tomorrow.

Samuel

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Middle school students like Samuel engage with the school’s deeper subjects, like natural sciences, more advanced mathematics, reading and writing, and Bible. And they take advantage of the extracurricular activities arranged by the teachers, like the boys football team or the girls’ volleyball team, or the academic challenge team, all of which compete with other schools in the county, some as far away as 3-1/2 hours by truck. They participate in the press club, which writes articles for the school newsletter, and the health club, which teaches boys and girls in separate sessions about health, hygiene, and the human body.

Samuel himself is in the seventh grade. He is the goalie of the boys’ football team and the captain of the academic challenge team, which remains undefeated over three semesters. He represents the school at events held on campus and is a true leader among the students.