FOUNDATION NAME
Kou Yorway Foundation is named in honor of my grandmother, Kou Yorway, to acknowledge the sacrifices she made to get me (Yah Gbunblee Tongor) started on the path of education. My mother died when I was only two years old. My grandmother became my caregiver and raised me and my siblings in a town called Bainlekpala. There, she was forced to farm for our survival. Later, my five older siblings traveled to various cities in search of education, and I was left alone with my grandmother. She registered me in the local elementary school where I attended school in the mornings and joined her on the farm in the afternoons. Once I lost my slippers and because I could not attend school without footwear, my grandmother had to crack enough palm kernels to sell and buy me another pair. I lost my slippers a second time to the river current and my grandmother went through the same sacrifice to get me another pair of slippers. This stopped only when my late brother, Marcus Gbunblee Tokay, took me from the village to Monrovia where my attendance at school became more regular.