Founder's Message
My experience with education has shaped the person I am today and the work I have chosen to do. As a
Liberian, I understand personally what it means for a child to be left behind because of circumstances
beyond their control. In the eighth grade, I spent two academic years out of school because my family
could not provide the support I needed to continue. After high school, it took another four years before I
could enter university because of financial challenges.
Those experiences became part of the reason I founded Upskill Africa Foundation (UAF) in July 2023. I
believe that when we see a problem affecting our children and communities, we cannot sit and wait for
someone else to solve it. We have to stand on our feet, understand the gap, and do our part to close it so
that those coming after us do not have to experience the same barriers.
One of the problems that continues to concern me is the number of children who are out of school, at risk
of dropping out, or unable to fully benefit from education. Poverty, child labor, neglect, violence, early
pregnancy, disability, limited household support, and other challenges can prevent children from accessing
or remaining in school.
We also have to be honest about what we mean when we say education is free. In many African countries,
education may be free or subsidized, but attending school still requires resources. A family that has no
money for food may not have the ability to buy a uniform, shoes, books, school supplies, pay
transportation costs, or meet other requirements associated with sending a child to school.
This is why I believe real problems should be solved from real data. We need to go into communities,
engage families, listen to children, identify the barriers they face, collect reliable information, and
use that evidence to develop practical responses. At UAF, this belief has become central to how we work:
real engagement, real data, real approaches, and real solutions.
Through our No Invisible Child (NIC) Initiative, we are putting this approach into practice. During our
pilot, community-based identification in selected communities helped us identify 75 out-of-school
children, of whom 38 were supported to return to school.
But our work does not stop at getting a child enrolled. We combine education access and child protection
with youth development, digital learning, career development, women and household empowerment, mentorship,
advocacy, and community engagement.
I believe education must be accessible to all. Every child deserves the opportunity to learn, regardless
of the economic circumstances of their family. Every young person deserves the opportunity to develop
their potential, and every community should have a voice in shaping solutions to the challenges it faces.
At UAF, we know that we cannot solve every problem overnight. But we can identify the gaps, understand
them through evidence, work with communities, build partnerships, and take practical steps toward change.
We cannot change the past, but together, we can change what the next child experiences.
