International Women's Day TED Show
As part of activities marking International Women's Day (8th March), iLab partnered with the Ministry of Gender and Development and the United Nations Mission In Liberia to host the International Women's Day TED show for girls. A special TED talk featuring prominent women; Michelle Obama (America's First Lady) and Leymah Gbowee (Nobel prize winner). TED is a platform for ideas worth spreading. Started in 1984 as a conference where technology, entertainment and design converged, TED today shares ideas from a broad spectrum — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independent TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world. To learn more about TED, visit their website.
We had presence of The Assistant Minister, Ministry of Gender and development; Hon Magdalene Dagoseh who gave the opening remarks of the event and encouraged the student to take control of their futures by acquiring education.
Both TED talks discussions were moderated by two prominent Liberian females. TED talk 1. Michelle Obama "Please for education was moderated by Barkue Tubman while TED talk 2. Leyman Gbowee " Unlocking the intelligence, passion and greatness of girls. The discussions included, questions and answers and comments from both the students, moderators and officials in attendance.
Nobel Peace Prize Forum Google+ hangout connected classrooms
Uniting Distant Stars (UDS) and iLab Liberia co-hosted The Google+ hangout connected classroom. We had about 50 students from primary level such as Russ Wood Christian Academy, various high schools, and University of Liberia. The program was about two hours long and started at 9:30AM (CST) in Minnesota, which was 3:30PM (GMT) in Liberia.
The featured speaker for the Nobel Peace Prize Forum (NPPF) youth festival morning session was Liberia's 2011 Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee, who has presented several times to Minnesotan youth. This is NPPF's first year of using Google+ Hangout.
After Leymah's TED talk, about four students from Minnesota were able to ask her questions. A Liberian scholar from Russ Wood, Ishmael, represented his peers by asking her a question. He asked; "How can Liberian youth become peace builders?".
The events were successful and we were overwhelmed by the number of students that participated actively in both events. We hope to continuously help local and international organisations to make possible such important events available to the youths of Liberia.