Ahead of a three-month long course, the University of Liberia College of Health Sciences (ULCHS), through the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Innovation (CTLI) under its innovation program: Health Entrepreneurship Advancement Leveraging Research (HEALR), held a one-day orientation seminar for the course’s entrepreneurparticipants.
The ideation course runs from October 3 to December 12, 2022, and is intended to assist aspiring entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions to health problems/challenges in Liberia. The course will expose participants to strategic approaches to identifying, researching, and developing solution-oriented ideas as an entrepreneur. Participants will gain knowledge, practicalskills, and attitudes essential in building good leadership for operating a successful enterprise.
The course will also provide a suitable and conducive environment for participants to exchange ideas, share experiences and engage in peer-to-peer learning.
During the Ideation orientation, Dr. Angela Benson, Deputy CEO of Benson Hospital in Paynesville, urged young women to follow their goals and not be deterred by public perception if they are to contribute positively to the change needed in Liberia. “As females, there are many challenges out there for us, but you have to push to achieve your goals. You must be disciplined, set your goal, focus, and follow your goals. Do not be deterred about public perception if you are to contribute to the change in Liberia,” Dr. Benson stated.
Mr. James Mulbah, CEO of Green Cities, a youth-based social enterprise operating Liberia’s first waste segregation and recycling center, who also served as one of the panelists at the occasion, encouraged the young people to do more voluntary work within their respective communities.
Additionally, two participants of the seminar in persons of Steve Konah, Executive Director of ‘For Beach Project,’ and Augustina L. Appleton, head of the Samuel Kanyan Doe Youth, expressed great excitement about the program and zest for becoming entrepreneurs.
“I am excited by the moral lessons taught by the two panelists today. We were taught that in order to be a successful entrepreneur, you must start by being a volunteer. I think this lesson is good for us, youth, because we, the young people, also place the issue of financial benefits ahead of everything,” Mr. Konah stated.
“I am interested in this entrepreneurship program – it is important because it helps bring the changes in society, especially the changes we want in Liberia,” asserted Madam Appleton.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded BRIDGE-U: Applying Research for a Healthy Liberia Project supports the HEALR program.
