Africa-Press – Liberia. The Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development is in high gear as it celebrates awards and accomplishments this month.
The Center, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 2018 on the vision, inspiration, and determination of its founder, former President Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, to serve as a catalyst focusing on the political and social equality of women across Africa.
“Our loudest and biggest congratulations go out to Madam Johnson Sirleaf,” the Center said in a statement on Wednesday, March 13.
Madam Johnson Sirleaf, on March 8 (International Women’s Day), received the Forbes 30/50 Lifetime Award for being the first democratically elected female President on the male-dominated African Continent. During her tenure, Madam Sirleaf successfully led Liberia, following 14 years of civil conflict, through various socio-economic reconstruction and development programs that set the country on the path of peace, democracy, and macroeconomic stability.
After two terms in office as president, Madam Johnson Sirleaf, by popular demand, continues to shine the “Ellen light” by choosing to stay committed to teaching, guiding, and inspiring young women in Liberia, across Africa, and the World through the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (EJS) Presidential Center for Women and Development.
A key milestone to be acknowledged, recognized, and celebrated is the EJS Center Archives, Library, and Exhibit Department, which holds a large collection of Madam Sirleaf’s personal and professional documents. This department, headed by Jenelle Sirleaf as Director and Lucia Massalee Yallah as Archivist, has over the past years led a team of committed and dedicated hardworking employees collecting, sorting, categorizing, and preserving Former President Sirleaf’s personal and professional documents.
The large collection includes personal and professional letters and communications, speeches, written articles, handwritten notes, interviews, photographs, memorabilia, audio, and visual materials – an original collection that documents her life before and after her 12-year tenure as President of the Republic of Liberia.
Our Founder, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a 1971 MPA graduate from Harvard University, signed a unique Memorandum of Understanding in June 2023 with the Harvard Library to steward and provide access to her collection to the world. The physical collection will be stored and preserved at the Harvard Library for an initial deposit term of 25 years.
Photo 2: Workers of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center uploading boxes containing the former President’s personal and professional collections for onward shipping to the Harvard Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, for archiving
Madam Sirleaf had this to say after the signing of this unique Memorandum of Understanding: “The papers need to be preserved and available, particularly for women in Liberia, in Africa, and elsewhere – to follow the history of my life. We hope they will inspire future generations”.
On March 1, 2024, based on the terms of the June 2023 signed agreement, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s personal and professional collections were shipped to the Harvard Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. The Presidential collections, which are official documents of former President Sirleaf’s 12-year tenure as president, are in Liberia and will remain here.
Phase two of June 2023 signed a unique Memorandum of Understanding with the Harvard Library will send a team of Archivists and IT technicians to work with the EJS Center and the Government of Liberia to digitize her presidential papers and make them available to audiences and non-profit organizations for research and educational purposes.
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