The Sierra Leone Brewery Limited over the weekend dedicated $500 apiece to three of the most outstanding students from three institutions within the university plus another $500 brass band to the institutions they come from.
Launching the Maltina excellence award at the Brewery staff canteen, commercial manager Kobi Walker who deputized the managing director said the non alcoholic multivitamin enriched malt drink that delivered vitality, nourishment and care would award the $500 scholarship grants to three outstanding first year female students within the university for the 2007/2008 academic year and on wards.
The award will be done annually for the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) and Fourah Bay College (FBC) .
Mr Walker explained that Brewery’s core value of passion for learning and the high rate of illiteracy particularly among women who constituted 50% of the country’s population precipitated the company to support the education of women.
He said, “the Maltina brand caters for all categories of people and has maintained a good working relationship with students down to the secondary schools”.
The commercial manager spoke about the Maltina relays in schools, the beach volleyball, cycling, Maltina school kiosks and cafeteria at FBC.
The vice chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone, Professor Gevao, expressed the university’s appreciation for Brewery’s initiative to boost the culture of excellence in the university.
He used the opportunity to appeal to other commercial institutions to follow Brewery’s steps, stating that it was becoming apparent that government alone could not fund university education.
Director of planning at the University of Sierra Leone, Dr R. Buck, said it was a concern for Brewery to help women in education as women were seriously handicapped in terms of their professional aspiration.
“What Brewery is doing is an attempt to correct this imbalance”, he intoned.
He explained that, “a five-member committee will be formed each from the three campuses and one from Brewery with me also with the task to asses the students sent”