Gender, Children and Social Protection Minister Julia Duncan Cassell has called on adolescent and younger Liberian girls to hold themselves to the highest standards and cultivate a new culture of professionalism.

Minister Duncan Cassell, speaking in Gorblee, Grand Bassa County, on Wednesday at the EPAG Round-4 graduation, urged the over 60 young women to use their acquired skills to serve themselves and Liberia well.

EPAG is the Economic Empowerment of Adolescent Girls and Young Women’s Project.

Minister Cassell urged the women to seize every opportunity to use the EPAG experience as a steppingstone to realizing their dreams.

The young women were trained in business, customer service and life skills.

“Have a good attitude; show patience and fortitude; be proactive; work hard; communicate with your employer; and ask questions,” Minister Cassell urged the graduates.

“We have every confidence that you will excel in whatever you set out to do. The foundation has been laid. You must now build upon it,” she said, amid applause.

Minster Cassel used the occasion to commend EduCare, the local NGO that is the service provider implementing the EPAG project on behalf of the Gender Ministry.

She expressed the Liberian government’s appreciation to development partners especially partners that made the EPAG project successful, naming the Swedish government through the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and the World Bank, who administered the project.

The EPAG Project was launched in 2009 by then Ministry of Gender and Development with the goal to increase the employment and income of 2,500 young women by providing livelihoods, life skills training and facilitating their transition to productive work.

The graduation exercises kicked off in Grand Bassa recently and climaxed in Compound #2, Compound #3/Gorblee, Bacconnie, Korkowein and Gorzohn.