The Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Eta Epsilon Lambda Chapter of Liberia is pleased to announce the following persons that are being recognized by the Brotherhood for their services to humanity. The awards will be formally presented at the 9th Annual Scholarship and Awards Ball on Friday, December 9, 2022, at the Paynesville Townhall. Awardees include:
Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan, MD The Alpha Award of Honor
(For his groundbreaking work in infectious diseases research)
Dr. Nyan is a well-recognized and renowned scientist, inventor, infectious disease expert, and social activist with extensive experience in biomedical and scientific research. He invented an affordable rapid multiplex diagnostics test that detects Ebola, HIV, ZIKA, SARS, Plasmodium (Malaria), Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, Hepatitis B, C, E, and the West Nile Virus; that can produce simultaneous results in 10-40 minutes. His innovative rapid test can be used for early diagnosis and infectious disease surveillance in an epidemiological situation.
He has testified before the United States Congress on matters of global health policy and responding to pandemics. His professional research and academic affiliations include among several others, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, University of Liberia, and the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. Dr. Nyan is worthy of the Award of Honor.
Madam Sara Beysolow- Nyanti The Alpha Award of Merit
(For her ongoing work in peacebuilding and humanitarian affairs)
Madam Beysolow-Nyanti is presently the highest-ranking Liberian working for the United Nations (UN) with the rank as an Assistant Secretary-General. She is currently the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary- General to South Sudan, Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator. She joined the UN in 2003 and previously worked with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Her tours of duty have also included senior level postings in Nepal, Gambia, Yemen, Kenya and Namibia. She also held senior level managerial positions at the Ministry of Health in Liberia from 1999-2003.
She is a gifted Preacher and Ordained Minister at the Zion Grove Baptist Church in Brewerville, Liberia. She also established The Development Brokers—an NGO in Liberia implementing programs that serve communities and populations in need of social intervention services and operates the Social Movement for Change initiative in Montserrado County. She is vocal on issues regarding sexual and gender-based violence and established a safe home for women and girls that has impacted over 30 survivors of rape and abuse, providing counseling and other support services. She was appointed on the Board of the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTEL). Madam Beysolow-Nyanti is a worthy recipient of the Award of Merit.
Madam Theresa Leigh-Sherman The Alpha Lifetime Achievement Award
(For her lifelong work in Professional & Continuing Education)
In 1976, Theresa Leigh-Sherman established the Leigh-Sherman Secretarial School. In its early days, it served as a source of referral to the Government and the private sector in need of professional and well-trained Administrative Assistants and Secretaries, who were well versed in administrative skills, professional etiquette and overall presentation. The school later became an accredited Community College offering Associate Degree in Secretarial Science. Today, thousands of Women in Liberia, attribute their early success and career opportunities to the trainings they received from Leigh-Sherman Secretarial School and Community College.
An elder and respected Stateswoman, she was one of the signatories to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended Liberia’s civil war in 2003 and participated in the peace talks in her capacity as Vice President of the Mano River Union Women Peace Network. She is a former President of the Liberia National Red Cross Society. She served on the Board of the United Methodist University and the J.J. Roberts Foundation. She was honored in July 2014 by former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf at an Investiture Ceremony held during the 167th Anniversary of Liberia’s Independence, and was admitted into the Star of Africa, with the Grade of Grand Band. She is an active member of the First United Methodist Church. Theresa Leigh-Sherman is worthy of the Alpha Lifetime Achievement Award.
Bishop Darlingston G. Johnson, D.Min The Alpha Lifetime Achievement Award
(For highly impactful work in providing spiritual and social development to countless across the World)
Bishop Darlingston G. Johnson is the Founder and Presiding Bishop of the Harvest Intercontinental Ministries Unlimited, a network of over 450 churches, schools, orphanages, radio stations, in 25 nations on five continents serving over 30,000 members. Harvest has ongoing works in Africa, North America, Europe, Australia, and South America. Bishop Johnson is currently the Senior Pastor of Harvest Intercontinental Church in Olney, Maryland with a multicultural congregation of over 2,000 members from about 50 countries.
As Presiding Bishop, he provides leadership and direction to Harvest various Church ministries around the world. He is the Founding Chairman of the African Immigrant Caucus, a group of organizations and clergy that coordinate engagement strategies with U.S. policymakers in quest of beneficial outcomes for African immigrant communities in the Diaspora. He is also National Chair of the African Strategic Leadership Prayer Network and the CEO of the Frontline Ministerial Network, which provides leadership support and development to Clergy. Bishop Johnson is deserving of the Alpha Lifetime Achievement Award.
Madam Debbie Scott-Caranda Alpha Award of Leadership and Service
(For steadfast leadership providing decades of expertise in early childhood education and development)
Madam Debbie Scott-Caranda is a veteran educator with over 47 years of teaching in Liberia as a university professor, classroom teacher and school administrator. She comes from a generation of Liberian teachers who understands the value and importance of a solid education foundation which begins with early childhood education. She began her career in 1974 at the Bright Functional School (BFS) in Monrovia. BFS closed during the civil war. In 1978 she established the School of Prime Systems (SPS), in Lakpazee, Airfield, with 12 pioneering students. Today SPS is an international school of excellence, located on its own sprawling campus in the Morris Farm Community, in Paynesville, with an enrollment of over 200 students from Nursery/Pre-Kindergarten to 12th Grade. To date, SPS has graduated over 200 high school graduates, of which 98% have pursued post-secondary skills and university degrees.
She recently retired from the University of Liberia Teacher’s College, where she trained potential teachers in instructional methodology for the core subjects for over fourteen years. She was trained as an educator at the University of Liberia’s Teachers College and Georgia State University (USA) in curriculum development and teacher training. She has also been the Music Director for the International Gospel Translators Choir since 1974, for the AME Bridge Over Troubled Waters Broadcast. Her latest education project is the “Come and Learn It,” TV program featured on local HOTTV station weekly, focusing on Language Arts Skills. “Aunty D” as she is called on the show, is the host and teaches Comprehension, Vocabulary, Grammar, Story time and Proverbs. She is a stellar and first-class Liberian educator to whom many students owe a debt of gratitude. Debbie Scott-Caranda is well deserving of the Alpha Award of Leadership.
Hon. Upjit Singh Sachdeva
Alpha Award of Leadership and Service
(For consistent and exemplary corporate social responsibility in business)
Hon. Upjit Singh Sachdeva is the Chief Executive Officer of the Jeety Trading Corporation, which for many years has operated a chain of building material and houseware stores. “Mr. Jeety” as he is locally called participates in multiple social causes including the well-known weekly feeding program, at which the company serves hot meals to countless persons in central Monrovia. Thousands including visually impaired or blind, handicapped, drug addicted, homeless persons, the elderly, dis-advantaged youths, and others have been fed through this initiative on a weekly basis. The program serves 800 to 1,000 meals daily and since 2017, has served 1.5 million meals. During the 2014/15 Ebola crisis that ravaged the sub-region, his company provided support to the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority for the construction of a Treatment Center in Virginia, Liberia. From 1995 to 1999, he served as President of the Indian Community Association in Liberia.
He also served in various capacities representing India in the Diplomatic Corps since 1994 and was Commissioned Honorary Consul-General in 1998 and until February 2021. As Honorary Consul-General, he worked to expand the bilateral relations between India and Liberia culminating into a visit by the India Minister of State for External Affairs in 2009, then a State Visit by Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to India in 2013. He helped to secure aid and donations from India in the public transportation with 70 buses, training and spare parts, fire trucks, grants in health, scholarships and donations of medical supplies and medicines during the Covid Pandemic. Both former President Sirleaf and current President George M. Weah have bestowed national honors on Hon. Sachdeva. In 2011 he received commendation as Knight Grand Commander, and in 2021, awarded the commendation of Knight Grand Master of Humane Order of African Redemption.
Kids Educational Engagement Project (KEEP) Alpha Award of Leadership and Service
(For creative approaches to promoting reading in counties and galvanizing support for reading rooms)
Kids Educational Engagement Project (KEEP) provides educational support to children in various communities in Liberia. KEEP began out of efforts to keep Liberian children academically engaged while schools were closed due to the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak. Schools were closed indefinitely and that meant children were falling behind in completing required academic schoolwork. KEEP was established nearly a decade ago by Human Resources Management Professional, Madam Brenda Brewer-Moore and is supported by individual and institutional donors.
KEEP has been providing educational materials and support to children ranging from Pre-school to 6th grades along with reading materials to help build their vocabulary and reading skills. KEEP provides training to teachers and others in effective reading techniques and approaches. In addition, some of KEEP’s reading rooms are providing basic computer training over a three-months introductory course. KEEP also implements life skills and other self-development and improvement targeting mostly rural women whose child or children may be actively participating in a reading room.
KEEP has managed to create a significant following and is supported by those persons and institutions who see the need to reach as many children as possible and to ensure more children in Liberia are provided access to primary education, regardless of where they live in Liberia or their social status. KEEP deserves the recognition by the Fraternity for an Alpha Leadership and Service Award.
