Laye Gono, the street art entrepreneur who trains young students in Monrovia

Laye Gono, 20, who spent three years to study and acquire his professional skills at the Saah John’s Arts Training Center in the Liberian capital, now runs his own ‘African Arts Creative Center’ and sells artworks to shops at hotels, beach resorts or cultural centers where they are offered to tourist and visitors.

Not only is he making his living and income by selling the paintings but also by providing his services to businesses and individual clients. It enables Gono to earn his daily livelihood and to take care of himself and his family in a country with a rising unemployment rate. Gono’s art center is not just his business and passion but also an academy for five youth students, whom he teaches and trains in an effort to enable them to become professional street artists and work as self-employed entrepreneurs.

A visual story by EFE/EPA photographer AHMED JALLANZO