Olympic
Village Nearing Completion
By Julu M. Johnson, Jr.
For the first time, Liberia will have an internationally-recognized
Olympic Village that is being constructed at the cost of
US$150,000.00. Morris K. Flomo happens to be the Chief Contractor
and is the one leading the construction exercise.
The project is lying on ten acres of land in Kemah Town,
Paynesville, purchased by the Liberia National Olympic Committee (LNOC),
headed by Philibert S. Browne.
The Director of the Olympic Village, S. Ahmed Tukpah, on Tuesday,
led a guided tour of the facilities of the project and assured that
within two to three months, the first phase of the work would be
fully done.
The area comprises a football pitch that is five meters larger than
the field of the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex and 10 meters more
than the one at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium (ATS).
Students of one of the nearby schools were already using the
uncompleted football pitch to play kickball in preparation of a
pending encounter.
At main the entrance of the Olympic Village is a huge black gate,
which is protected by two thick walls that are marked with various
sponsors of the project such as Daimler Chrysler and Lonestar Cell.
Also marked on the wall is the seal of Liberia as well as the logos
of the LNOC and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Fully completed at the site, meanwhile, are two basketball courts
and one regular volleyball court, while the court for beach
volleyball only requires the necessary sand, according to the
Village Director. There is a yet to be completed track for athletics
that would go all around the football pitch.
The current focus of workers is the construction of an
administrative building that would be made up of offices for the
management team, a multi-purpose hall and bathrooms. The design for
both front and back of the administrative building look exactly the
same.
Regrettably, Mr. Tukpah noted that the administrative building has
already exhausted over $60,000.00 although US$35,000.00 was set
aside for the work.
He cried that the situation has already placed the LNOC in a serious
financial squeeze.
An Olympic sized swimming pool is one facility that would be
constructed at the Olympic Village, but Mr. Tukpah, who is also
President of the Swimming Federation, said the work would fall under
the next phase of the project.
Also earmarked for the next phase is a clinic, which, Mr. Tukpah
disclosed, would be constructed at the back of the proposed swimming
pool. According to him, there is an additional plan to erect a
24-classroom school that could benefit the mostly impoverished
inhabitants of the area.
The funding for the site comes the Association of National Olympic
Committees of Africa (ANOCA), which contributed US$120,00.00 and
that of the Liberian government that is supposed to make available
US$30,000.00.
The village director, however, disclosed that US$85,000.00 of the
money was given by the German company Daimler Chrysler.
Having targeted the grass root to benefit from the project, Mr.
Tukpah has set his mind on a children playground and palava hut at
the Olympic Village.
He went on to say that the Olympic Village would be for the purpose
of youth-related and community-based activities.
Upon completion of the project, Mr. Tukpah anticipates having a
three-day youth camp so as to have children learn about the workings
of the Olympic Movement.
The Olympafrica Project, under which the village is being
constructed, is also benefiting nearly 40 countries on the
continent, with the ones in Senegal and The Gambia getting big
praises.
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