Liberia: LEAD MFA Breaks Ground For the Construction of New Dormitory

Authorities at the LEAD Monrovia Football Academy (LEAD MFA) have broken ground for the construction of a new dormitory for boys in Careysburg, rural Montserrado County. 

The project, when completed, will host at least 250 students and 50 staff. According to the school, the project has a ten-month duration, which began in September 2023 and is  expected to be completed in July this year.

LEAD MFA is an independent Liberia-based nonprofit organization. It is not linked to any one academic institution, football club, political party, or ethnic group.

It targets 250 students across the 15 counties. According to authorities at the school, the construction of the new dormitory is beyond its current facility. 

LEAD MFA exists to build a generation of ethical, empathetic, and entrepreneurial Liberian leaders. It provides Liberia’s talented youth with full-time academic classes, football training, and life skills lessons to improve academic performance.

William H. Smith, Co-Founder of the institution, described the groundbreaking ceremony as inessential and a great milestone achievement for the institution. 

“The school is situated on ten acres of land. At the end of the day we will have a town hall, cafeteria, green football pitch, and the administrative building itself,” he added.

Smith said the school uniquely uses football — the most popular sport in Liberia — as a positive incentive and mechanism to encourage students to attend school and improve academic performance.

Over the years, he said they have delivered professional coaching and a comprehensive football curriculum that disrupts bad habits, introduces fundamental techniques, and encourages student-athletes to “think the game” at a high level.

He mentioned that they also use education and football to break down gender barriers, by girls studying and training with the boys — and often outperforming them both in the classroom and on the pitch. “Our girls have a sense of empowerment that they vocalize,” he said.

“We have 250 students here, 105 boys and 59 girls. We have 13 instructional staff; among them, we have 2 female teachers.”

The LEAD MFA has a gender component, also where we have gender classes and life skills. 

We provide support and counseling for each of our student-athletes and staff with emotional, social, and learning needs. 

Our professional guidance counselor and social workers liaise with families of student-athletes to develop support plans and indicate the contents of the plans to senior staff to create an enabling environment for the progress of student-athletes.

The guidance counselor and social workers keep their doors open during academic classes and football training, ensuring that support is available daily.

The school breaks down gender barriers and prepares our students to lead positive change in Liberia. 

For the 2023-24 school year, the school has 173 student-athletes, 56 girls and 117 boys, ages 10–20, in grades 4–12. From 2015 to 20, LEAD MFA operated out of rented facilities in Monrovia, Careysburg, and Konola. In the January 2021 school year, the school moved into its 10-acre residential campus in Careysburg, Montserrado County.