Schools For Africa

Building a Future for These Communities

Our Progress to Date

TWENTY FIVE SCHOOLS ALREADY FUNDED!!

Five schools, at Ntseimbang, Menjung, Quebessi, Bamali and Roh Meluf, were opened in 2007/8 and are now running successfully.

Another seven, at Njap, Fungeh, Mbande, Njinikejem, Kumbo, Ndzevru and Achailam, were opened in December 2009. More information and pictures on our Building Schools page.

C.S. Ndzevru

G.S. Achailam

G.S. Njinikejem

G.S. Mbande

G.B.S.S. Kimbo

G.S. Boju-Njap

G.S. Fingeh

Building work has already started in order to replace or renovate the crumbling structures at the following eleven schools - all funded by supporters of Building Schools for Africa. Hot News! These schools are now completed and just await painting before they are officially handed over to their communities in September this year.

IPS Bamdzeng

IPS Dzeng

CS Dzeng

CBC Bamdzeng

CBC Bamessing

G.S. Nkartsen

G.S. Nseh Makop

G.S. Mambain

GS Ngali

GTC Mbah

IPS Vekovi

Construction will start in the autumn on two more schools funded by BSFA supporters

GS Buh

PS Tinechung

Building Schools for Cameroon

"Education is the door to freedom, democracy and development" (Nelson Mandela)

Our aim is to raise money to build schools in rural Africa through our partner NGO Strategic Humanitarian Services (SHUMAS), Cameroon.

In addition to clean, hygienic and well-constructed classrooms, we aim to ensure clean drinking water and sanitation facilities are available at each of the schools we support, in order to help improve the health of the children.

Donate Online

Secure On-Line donations to Building Schools for Africa can now be made through JustGiving.

£10 will buy a set of wall charts for a classroom.
£25 will buy a set of text books for a teacher.
£80 will buy a sewing machine.
£350 will help us build toilets for a school.
£500 will help us install clean drinking water.
£3500 will pay for the building of a new classroom.

Help Us Build a School

Each year, SHUMAS, our partner organisation in Cameroon, receives hundreds of applications from rural villages asking help to rebuild their local schools. From these they ascertain which communities really are in need of help and then visit sometimes as many as 100 villages per year, to determine which schools are 'top priority', because of the state of delapidation of the buildings. These are the schools that we are raising money for.

Building Schools For Africa started fundraising in April 2007. To date, we have funded the construction of 85 classrooms at 22 schools, and there are more in the pipeline. It costs so little to build a village primary school in Cameroon, and each school improves the lives of thousands of children.

Will you help us?

Latest News

Building Schools for Africa is now a charity (registered charity number 1127661).

Percol Coffee supports Building Schools for Africa

We are so grateful to Percol Coffee for providing the funds for the reconstruction of the Government School at the village of Buh in NW Cameroon. Percol is a renowned Fairtrade company and every jar sold from their Africa range of coffee produced a contribution towards the new school construction. Huge thanks to Percol and to coffee lovers everywhere!

Clymac comes up trumps again!

We continue to be enormously grateful to Clymac Ltd for its generous donations to help our work. Another three schools have benefitted from these donations in the villages of Mbah, Vekovi and Ngali - all in the NW Region, which remains one of the most deprived parts of Cameroon. Pictures to be posted on our Building Schools page soon.

Our Trip to Cameroon 2009

Ian and Marianne spent ten weeks in Cameroon this year. It was an opportunity to really get to know the work of our partner SHUMAS and to gain a greater understanding of the complexities of working in a developing country in Africa.

Ian spent the first month undertaking attachments to various medical centres whilst Marianne led a group of volunteers from AidCamps International who were completing the construction of a school in the village of Teloh (see our Volunteering page for more details)

Nicky came out to join us for two weeks, together with Peter Harding, who was representing the group (Riverside Church, Lincs) who funded the reconstruction of the school at Ndzevru. Together we attended a number of openings of schools that BSFA has funded: it was a joyous time with plenty of celebration.

Peter arriving at Ndzevru

The majority of the last four weeks of the trip were spent travelling thousands of kilometres to visit a total of 26 dilapidated and desperately needy schools that are on SHUMAS’ top priority list. We took hundreds of photos and miles of video footage of these schools – and our task now is to raise the money to help with their reconstruction!

We also undertook an‘early-stage’ impact assessment on the schools BSFA has already funded. Many of these details from this exercise will shortly be posted on the What We Do page, but some of our most significant findings from the exercise were

a) just how difficult it is for SHUMAS to travel to these remote communities. The roads are atrocious and the going is tortuously slow even in the dry season: when it rains they are simply impassable.

b) how disempowered many of these communities have become through their isolation, and how difficult it is for them to accept that they can help develop their own communities, with the help of SHUMAS. This means that SHUMAS sometimes has to make many trips to these remote villages in order to encourage them to fulfil their commitment to the project.

Travelling in Cameroon is challenging!

Our school building programme is just a part of SHUMAS’ integrated approach to rural development – but it is a significant part. The communities’ pride in their new schools was palpable and the number of children now attending these schools has been increasing year on year.

The final few days of the trip was spent in Yaounde. We had very successful meetings with the British High Commissioner and various Government ministers, in an attempt to raise the profile of the work of SHUMAS and to gain some support for exoneration from tax on building materials and importation duties on a vehicle. We felt very encouraged that some help might be forthcoming: this would mean that more building materials could be bought for the money raised by our supporters and maybe an additional vehicle could be purchased to help with the huge transportation difficulties.

A major project for 2010/2011

The trustees are delighted to announce that we have managed to secure funding for a major building project in the neighbouring villages of Dzeng and Bamdzeng. This project will provide a total of four primary schools and will also include the refurbishment of the local medical centre and the provision of solar-pumped clean drinking water for villages. This is a major project, which will be spread over two years, and will greatly enhance the lives of thousands of subsistence farming families in the NW Province of Cameroon.

A Wild Affair and Boxing for Africa were two spectacular fundraising events held last autumn. Enough money was raised at these events to fund the construction of FOUR schools .... and still have some left over to go towards another. More details on our Building Schools page.

Boxing for Africa - a night of celebration!

Everyone concerned with the running of these two events really worked their socks off to make them so hugely successful and all the trustees of Building Schools for Africa would like to thank every one of them from the bottom of our hearts. Have a look at the video which Justin Addleton (one of the boxers) made at CBC Bamessing, one of the schools they have funded, following a visit to the village last August.

THANK YOU to everyone who has promised us help in the future. We will make sure that the money you raise will help to provide a bright future for the children of Cameroon.