Your students took to the fields on March 28 and 29 to participate in their first Inter-Vocational Kickball and Football (aka soccer) Tournament held at the Monrovia Vocational Training Center (MVTC). This tourney brought together 8 schools with UDS being the newest and smallest. Our teams played their hearts out during this two-day tournament with UDS Kickball team winning the tournament and the UDS Football team coming in second due to a penalty in the final game.
UDS Football Team on the field with the MVTC campus in the background on Day 1 of Tournament.
Both teams came into this tourney with high spirits because they wanted to take home both trophies to show small schools have the zeal to succeed. So when the Football team lost the final game they succumbed with emotion because they hoped and prayed they bring home the trophy.
Your UDS Kickball Team winners of 2-Day Inter-Vocational Kickball & Football Tournament.
Your UDS Football Team played hard and brought home 2nd Place competing against 7 larger schools.
The trophy presentation is scheduled mid-April. In the meantime, We are very proud of both teams performance during this important two-day tourney. Their wins promoted UDS to the spectators and other schools. We celebrate both teams’ achievements…Go UDS!
UDS Kickball Team Showing Their Spirit Between the Semi-Final and Final Games with Kelvin Fomba (Co-Founder & Director) Playing the Djembe Drum.
Written by Crystal Soderberg, UDS Communications & Outreach Coordinator
This past December, 75 Uniting Distant Stars members (both students and staff) were had the opportunity to embark on a two-day field trip to a satellite tech-school in Buchanan Grand Bassa County! Thanks to the generosity of our donors and one very giving sponsor, it was possible to give some of our students their first trip out of Monrovia.
If you are not familiar with Buchanan, it is about 2 hours down the coast of Liberia from Monrovia, towards their bordering country Cote d’Ivoire. Buchanan is the third largest city in Liberia, with a population of approximately 97,000 fewer people than the Monrovian capital. (Government of The Republic of Liberia’s 2008 National Population and Housing Census). The city is located right on the coast of the Waterhouse Bay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean, which houses a large fishing industry. Buchanan is also home to The Liberia Opportunities Industrialization Center, or, “LOIC.” This center was founded in 1977 and has many shared values with Uniting Distant Stars. As of 2013, they had 177 young people attending training courses in electricity, tailoring, carpentry and more. Both organizations aim to target post-war recovery and to educate and train their students for high-demand jobs in Liberia.
With everyone ready to go on the bus to LOIC, UDS students and staff readied themselves for a trip just over two hours long. No one was quite ready for the bus to break down on the drive and turn this into a five-hour trek. This bumpy start resulted in higher energy for the kickball and football games that the students played when they got into town. The men’s football jerseys were hand printed by UDS’ very own, Godfrey Solomon, who is a volunteer administrator.
UDS Kickball (left) and Football (right) teams.
After the games, everyone attended a short program for the LOIC student leader elections and feasted on food provided by our support staff. Following the elections, both our students and teachers had an opportunity to network with their peers. Our Liberian Co-Founder and Executive Director received a great deal of feedback from our students and teachers on the quality of education and support received by UDS. This gave them an opportunity to compare the two institutions and learn from each other.
UDS Kickball (left) and Football (right) teams.
As eventful as the day was, both teams gained valuable learning experience from this trip, both in visiting a new city and in learning about an institution that runs on similar values to their own. The UDS students and staff were fortunate to spend the night with family in the area before heading home the following day!
If you are not familiar with Buchanan, it is about 2 hours down the coast of Liberia from Monrovia, towards their bordering country Cote d’Ivoire. Buchanan is the third largest city in Liberia, with a population of approximately 97,000 fewer people than the Monrovian capital. (Government of The Republic of Liberia’s 2008 National Population and Housing Census). The city is located right on the coast of the Waterhouse Bay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean, which houses a large fishing industry. Buchanan is also home to The Liberia Opportunities Industrialization Center, or, “LOIC.” This center was founded in 1977 and has many shared values with Uniting Distant Stars. As of 2013, they had 177 young people attending training courses in electricity, tailoring, carpentry and more. Both organizations aim to target post-war recovery and to educate and train their students for high-demand jobs in Liberia.
