At 11:00 local time on March 18, the Confucius Institute at the University of Liberia and Lolo Enta orphanage officially started the donation ceremony. Mr. Grigsby, minister without portfolio, Mr. Zhang Yue, Chinese ambassador to Liberia and officials from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Liberia were invited to attend as honored guests.
At the beginning of the ceremony, Mr. Huang Jian, Chinese director of the Confucius Institute delivered the opening words, welcoming the guests and highlighting concerns about children's education and the importance of healthy growth. After that, the Chinese ambassador addressed that cooperation and relations between the two govenments as well as civil friendly exchanges were undergoing healthy development, and that the Confucius Institute not only conducted classes and courses in the University of Liberia, but also reached out to the community to promote friendship and cooperation between the two countries. He also acknowledged that in the future, the Embassy would continue to promote more investment in private partnership projects by non-governmental organizations, Chinese-funded enterprises, and even individuals. The Minister without Portfolio and officials from the Ministry of Education made speeches to express their sincere thanks to the Confucius Institute and the Chinese people.
After the opening ceremony, Mr. Huang Jian and Mr. Grigsby co-signed the list of supplies and handed overthe donations to Lolo Enta orphanage. More than fifty children from the orphanage and two hundred residents of the community broke into loud applauses. The child delegate from Lolo Entaorphanage expressed her gratitude to the Chinese friends with her tender and sincere voice. Finally, the management of the orphanage and the community leader also made their acknowledgements and expressed the hope that the donation projects could be carried on.
Catering to the actual needs of the children in the orphanage, the Confucius Institute provided over 60 kinds of supplies, suchas educational equipments, educational toys, sports goods and nutritional supplements, and goods of such kinds would be supplied on a regular basis. The project aimed to carry out the cooperation of the "China-Africa friendship action" projects to promote friendship between China and African countries.
