- As she rollouts program dealing with abuse in schools and communities
Madam Snote W. Sherman, Representative Aspirant
G Bennie Bravo Johnson writes
The Foster Alternative Approach to Adolescent Development, in conjunction with the Liberian National Children’s Parliament, with support from Team Snote W. Sherman, on Friday June 24, 2022, organized a one-day workshop with adolescent students.
The workshop, which was held under the theme “Adolescent Education and Empowerment Build a Healthy Nation,” brought together hundreds of school students at the Bandersville Town Hall and provided them with proper knowledge and adequate information on sexual and gender-based approaches in dealing with abuses in any form in school and community; as well as establishing a network with the Liberia National Children’s Parliament in ensuring a safe environment for adolescents and school-going children.
In making a presentation during the workshop, the speaker of the children’s parliament, Joel UK Gray, urged the students to be watchful of the tricks that perpetrators in school use in venting out evil against school girls, as the promise of unmerited grades for sex stands tall amongst the abuses in school. He urged them to report any forms of violence in school to the right authorities.
Mr. Prezton Vaye, a social worker at Red Meets Green, encouraged the workshop participants to become more involved in sharing information about violence that their parents or guidance would keep hidden from the public.
For her part, the Procurement Director at the Ministry of States and National Chairperson of the Liberian People Democratic Party (LPDP), Madam Snote W. Sherman, expressed her desire and support for the employment of adolescents and stressed the importance of guiding young people in finding their direction and having someone to mentor them at a critical stage of their lives to secure a brighter future.
Madam Sherman admonished the students to be very focused in pursuing their goals. Asserting that the propellers to a brighter future are the focus of a determined mind and consistency.
In the meantime, Madam Sherman is asking the National Legislature to act on a petition that was given to them by different women’s groups. The petition asks that GST be removed from sanitary menstrual pads and that they be made duty-free. It also asks that sexual reproductive health education be added to the national teaching curriculum. This will help improve the school environment for teenage girls and stop them from getting pregnant.
She continued by urging the Liberian Senate to come in concurrence with the lower house to make the drug law a non-billable crime to ensure that the future of the country is secured, thereby urging those youths who are drug addicts to make use of the government’s “reclaiming our youths project.
Madam Sherman concluded by calling on all women grouping in District # 12 and the entire district to support her representative bid to become a part of the thirty (30) percent women’s representation in the national Legislature.
