JARIUS ANDREW
GREAVES_YONER-LIBERIA_FOUNDER/EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Weaver Avenue, AB
Tolbert Road, Paynesville City, Montserrado, Liberia
E-mail: yonerliberia2008@gmail.com
Cell#:
(+231)-886-577-742/777-287-529
BRIEF BACKGROUND HISTOTRY OF YOUTH NETWORK FOR REFORM (YONER-LIBERIA)
After Liberia’s long 14-year civil war ended and a democratic
government elected in 2006, Jarius Andrew Greaves, a victim of the civil
war led and established Youth Network for Reform (YONER-LIBERIA) in 2008
and to realize this vision, he formally incorporated YONER-LIBERIA August 20,
2010 as a Legal Youth Development Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in
Liberia with the primary goal to re-unite communities and civil war enemies
especially, the thousands of child soldiers who had turned youths through
socio-economic development initiatives. YONER-LIBERIA has initiated several
innovative peace, security and socio-economic development and empowerment
interventions in Liberia through voluntary community service, inter-community
sports tournaments, inter community peace dialogues to hardness the energy of
young people and to empower them through civic and voter’s education, and
conflict prevention through community outreach and radio and televisions
awareness and access to employment to build and sustain peace through
partnership with communities to provide local scholarships to deserving
students, conduct training, and engage in advocacy and other community
services, waste management and business networking; entrepreneurial/start-ups
training, inter-community peace and reconciliation sports tournaments and
dialogues to engage and empower young people to promote positive values,
healthy habits, and education – resulting in real life power.
YONER-LIBERIA’s MISSION is to undertake actions that
nurture and build honest and able leaders to become self-reliant and agents of
positive change within their communities, and its VISION is to have a
more just and developed society where all children and youth will live freely
and receive supports and opportunities to realize their full potential without
any form of discrimination.
Today, YONER-LIBERIA is one of the leading grassroots
youth development NGOs in Liberia, advocating youth engagement and empowerment
initiatives, and has directly impacted the lives of more than 30,000
under-privileged and poverty-stricken children and youth in our community and
the nation at large in addressing their social, psychological and economic
needs through several innovative programs and provided services that have
helped them become self-reliance– thus creating their independence– and building their capacities in preparation for
long-term empowerment and job opportunities. Practically, the programs and
services offered by the organization are basically improving the skills of
individuals in peace and reconciliation and unity; provided skills in personal
hygiene, work readiness and job/opportunities search, time management, career
planning, while providing academic and other capacity building support and
developing them into patriotic citizens.
More
specifically, YONER-LIBERIA has;
Organized and hosted 20 inter-community youth peace and
reconciliation dialogues and sports tournaments including the biggest peace
tournament ever in Paynesville after the Civil War
Provided more than 500 scholarships to less fortunate kids and
youth at primary, secondary, university and vocational/technical education
through its Local Scholarship Program since 2010
Provided 31 full/part time jobs through its Waste Management
Business Program
Enlisted 500 youths in its Vacation/Internships Program
Constructed three hand pumps in slums and commercial centers
through the “Giving Back to our Community” Program
Provided food and non-food items to more than 500 old,
disadvantaged and physically challenged people quarterly for a period of three
years now
Carried out more than 30 local community service/clean-up
campaigns
Organized more than 50 different youth education
workshops/forums in the areas of health, leadership, peace-building,
entrepreneurship, and good governance and elections
Organized mentoring
sessions for students seeking internships, scholarships, international
seminars, workshops and conferences and more than 25 have participated in
regional and international youth forums around Africa
In the eight short years
since its founding, YONER-LIBERIA has played a major role in the peace-building
and sustainable development processes in post war Liberia with too many
unproductive, unsupervised youths who were used as child soldiers and are the
youths of today through valuable structured programs. YONER-LIBERIA uses
volunteer community service, local scholarships and entrepreneurial/start-ups
training including inter-community peace and reconciliation sports tournaments,
dialogues to engage and empower young people to promote positive values,
healthy habits, and education – resulting in real life power.
YONER-LIBERIA has relied on professional and
youth volunteers or minimally compensated staff, which has resulted in high
turnout, attracting qualified professional volunteers, and participation of
youth volunteers who serve as positive role models and peace-builders with peers
in their communities.
YONER-LIBERIA has a
growing expert in youth and local community development and influencing local,
national and regional youth policies and empowering young people to become
peace-builders.
Also, three years ago,
YONER-LIBERIA secured financial support from CHF-International, now Global
Communities and constructed a mini office on a parcel of land donated by its
Board Chairperson which is being used to fully run and manage the affairs of
the organization. This innovation has set YONER-LIBERIA a part from all other
local youth organizations in Liberia. It’s conducive for the functions of the
organization and has therefore increased the visibility, and improved the
working vision of the organization in responding to the problems faced by
children and youth in Liberia.
As an implementing partner
of Mandela Washington Fellowship-Liberia (YALI), YONER-LIBERIA has supported
the successful conduct of mentoring sessions for more than 500 applicants on
strategies to fill out the 2015, 2016 and 2017 applications, and is the Lead
Organizer of the U.S. Department of State’s GIST Techconnect Viewing Group
Event in Liberia that aims to promote entrepreneurship and innovation for youth
empowerment and socioeconomic development in Liberia. YONER-LIBERIA also,
working in partnership with more than 20 local and national youth organizations
and 5 public and several regional and international organizations in Liberia,
Africa and around the world, including USA and India.
Contacts
Information
Mobile Numbers:
+231-886577742/+231-777287529
Email:
yonerliberia2008@gmail.com/ infoyonerliberia@gmail.com
SOCIAL
MEDIA LINKS:
www.facebook.com/yoner.liberia
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Youth-Network-for-Reform-Yoner-Lib...
GOOGLE: https://wwww.google.com/+YouthNetworkforReform
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/yoner-liberia/103/831/880
TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/yonerlib2008
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