Africa-Press – Liberia. The Liberian People’s Party Standard Bearer, Cllr. Tiawan Say Gongloe, is expected to formally announce Dr. Emmanuel Yarkpawolo of the vote-rich Bong County as his running mate.
Yarkpawolo will be officially unveiled in Bong County at the beginning of July 2023. The confirmation of Gongloe’s pick would bring to an end an exhaustive process in which several other names have been considered.
Yarkpawolo was born in 1981 in Gomue Village near Shankpallai Town, Zota District unto the union of the late Kpelekple Yarkpawolo and Gormah Yarkpawolo. His father gave him the name Kwakegba (meaning “let us be here” in the Kpelle Language).
His father was one of the first people to learn how to sew clothes in Bong County. At an early age, Emmanuel learned how to farm, fish, set traps, and cut palms.
He learned from his father and his aunt early on that the purpose of life was to help others. His father would often advise him to be honest in his dealings with people, not to worry about material things but to appreciate God for what he has. These are values that he carries today.
He started school at the age of nearly 14 years in the Bheta Refugee Camp in Guinea in 1995. Prior to starting school, his father sent him to an apprenticeship to become a traditional blacksmith. He spent two weeks in the blacksmith shop, ran away, and returned to the refugee camp, where he later started school.
In 2005,Yarkpawolo graduated from high school as the dux, while serving as Student Council President. In 2008, he obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from Cuttington University; a Master’s Degree in Public Health from Cuttington University in 2011; a Master’s of Science in Environment and Resources with an emphasis in Political Ecology in 2013; and a Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2018.
Yarkpawolo also holds a certificate of Leadership with Integrity from Les Aspin Center for Government in Washington D.C. and a certificate in Management and Entrepreneurship from Columbia University in New York.
He was an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2020. In 2018, Yarkpawolo served as country representative of Landesa Rural Development Institute, an international nonprofit organization that works with governments and local organizations to obtain legal land rights for poor families, and in 2020 as Liberia program director of Landesa.
Yarkpawolo also served as a Senior land tenure consultant at the Liberia Land Commission, where he joined a team of researchers from Landesa to conduct research on customary land tenure throughout Liberia. He joined the Nelson Institute in 2011, where he continued his research on customary land reforms.
As a way of giving back to Liberia, Yarkpawolo founded One Life Liberia in Madison, Wisconsin, USA in November 2017 and established a branch in Liberia. The mission is to provide education for underprivileged children in Liberia, provide agriculture support services including agriculture technology transfer and build employable skills for youth.
Since its formation, One Life has undertaken several projects. The first was the construction of an elementary school in a remote part of Liberia. The school is currently providing education to more than 100 kids ages 5-15, many of whom had never been in school before.
The Yarkpawolo Public School is the only public school in Bong County, central Liberia, that has pipe-borne running water powered by a solar pump. In October 2019, He started working with young men and young women who are drug addicts. His mission was to experiment if they can be rehabilitated in their living environment since Liberia does not have a rehabilitation center. This work is in progress.
Yarkpawolo is the founder & chief Executive officer at V&U LLC, a company that provides a wide range of consulting services including environmental consulting, land policy, project development, and management in Liberia.
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