The Chargé d’ Affaires at the British Embassy near Monrovia has offered to collaborate with the National Commission on Disabilities or NCD in a partnership aimed at making UK scholarship opportunities more accessible to diverse applicants of people with disabilities otherwise known as PWDs in Liberia. The initiative seeks to remove physical and gender-based barriers by encouraging people with disabilities and women to apply for the prestigious Chevening program.
While the selection process remains highly competitive and based on academic merit, the partnership focuses on providing technical training for the online application system. Speaking at a one-day training of PWDs at the NCD Head Offices in Monrovia recently, Simon Tooth, pointed out that individual skills and experience had been and will continue to be the primary focus of an application rather than physical limitations. By highlighting previous success stories, such as a visually impaired scholar, he said the program aims to foster an inclusive environment where all qualified candidates feel empowered to pursue international education.
The training activity, the British envoy stated is intended to bridge the barriers between physically challenged and other in the attainment of the Chevening scholarship. This, he asserted, will provide an inclusive opportunity that welcomes applicants regardless of their physical or mental abilities. By collaborating with the disability commission and hosting specialized training sessions, Mr. Tooth believes will dismantle perceived barriers and encourage underrepresented groups, specifically women and persons with disabilities, to pursue higher education in the UK. “So I think we have been working with the disability commission for a while now and really, our aim with partnering with the commission is to ensure that ability or disability is not a barrier for applying for achieving scholarships and studying in the UK.
We feel it’s essential to give everybody an equal opportunity to apply and have their experience and their skills considered in exactly the same way regardless of disability,” said the British envoy. “And obviously now we are doing this in conjunction or in support of International Women’s Day.” In remarks, the Deputy Executive Director for Administration at NCD, Emery Amos Jassie, implored more disabilities take advantage of the program. He indicated that in order to increase participation, there are active plans to decentralize awareness efforts, reaching remote counties to inform qualified candidates about these life-changing opportunities.
