Recounting achievements under the watch of his leadership as chairman, Joe P. Perry has disclosed ongoing developments and challenges in Fofee Town, Louisiana, beginning with what he termed as success story and what’s ahead, namely the construction of pit latrines, palaver hut and students’ scholarship drive to be major undertakings in the community, since he took over as community chairman about two years ago.
The community is also geared towards conducting a democratic election for a new tenure of administrators before the end of 2025, the head of the current administration disclosed.
He made an opened appeal calling on officials of Montserrado County to reach out to them for development since elections are over. The Township of Louisiana in Montserado County District #1 is approximately 15 minutes drive away from the nation’s capital Monrovia, but still remains a remote area yet striving to attain basic social services.
“Most of our community dwellers were going into bushes to toilet when I became chairman of this community; a lot of houses were built without bathrooms and toilets, therefore the community did become conscious when we had our first general meeting and concluded that the issue of latrines was the main focus of all our priorities. Right after the meeting the community decided to begin the construction of public latrines based on what we had in coffers,” Mr. Perry explained.
Chairman Perry said his administration has erected latrines in four ‘Blocks’ of the community and is about to complete the fifth to eradicate opened defecation that has been faced by the people of Fofee Town. The local community in the interior of Montserrado County in Liberia is now experiencing relief of the aged- old problem that was once considered a cultural practice by most of its residents for decades.
Funding to underwrite the projects outlined by the community is made available through the Chinese company’s initial financial agreement with the community people to mine the sand in the area. There was a disagreement over the company’s operations at the beginning of work in the area due to what the people of Fofee Town were eager to benefit on the basis of a genuine social cooperate responsibility bond.
“The company did not agree to our request but said some assistance could be rendered to the community for its upkeep to steer other development initiatives,” Chairman Perry recounted in an interview with The In Profile Daily.
Among other things, the chairman said about twenty seven students in both public and private schools are now beneficiaries of the scholarship program designed and implemented by the community leadership that has taken into consideration the economic constraints of parents and guardians in the country.
The scholarship scheme targets under-privileged school going kids. Most of the children are those who lack parental support (abandoned children) or with jobless and low income parents.
The community is also challenged to pay monthly salaries of three teachers at the government public elementary school the Fofee Town Public School. The volunteered teachers have been teaching for a prolonged period of time because they were assisted by an NGO he referred to ‘Roxing Academy’ under USAID projects with the Ministry of Education.
Unfortunately, the abrupt closure of aid from the American people has brought them to kneel and the community has to shoulder their salaries as a responsibility to keep the students in school.
Mr. Perry has informed The In Profile Daily of a one thousand five hundred US dollars check given to the community by the manager of the sand- mining group for the renovation of a makeshift palaver hut to accommodate social meetings, recreation, peace building engagements and political gatherings. The project is almost completed with a plan to beautify it for modern entertainment purposes.
He also made ardent call to claim the attention of officials in Montserrado County to urgently respond to fix the stretch of deplorable road between Fofee Town/ and Mcgill Town communities before the rains intensify.
He said the road also connects Fendell and a major route of transport used by farmers and traders on a regular basis, emphasizing that those politicians must wake up to act on issues that affect the people whom they asked for votes to be elected in recent time.
The FofeeTown Chairman named Senators Saah Joseph, Darius Dillon and Representative Rugie Barry of Montserrado County as people of interest to the communities’ development in order to improve the socio economic lives of residents in that part of the country.
Chairman Perry also said the issue of the community up-coming elections in November of this year is democratic and cardinal and also a transparent way to govern. He ascended to the position in 2023 and decided to commit his leadership to the constitution of the community for a fresh election at the end of tenure.