Building Schools
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N.B. The YouTube clip above was made specifically for the fundraising for the Ntseimbang school - but gives a good impression of the state of rural schools in Cameroon. The costs of our school rebuilding projects in the future will vary, according to location and state of delapidation, but will be approximately £10,000 for a three classroom school.
The benefits of education go way beyond the obvious advantages of improving life chances. In Africa and most developing countries, life can be very precarious and education can be the key to a person’s very survival.
In our travels we have seen many badly disadvantaged children. Getting sustainable help to them can be very difficult. However, as we work in conjunction with a UK registered charity, AidCamps International (www.aidcamps.org ), we are able to send funds directly to our partner NGO ‘Strategic Humanitarian Services’ (www.shumas-cameroon.org ) in the certain knowledge that the money goes solely to the building of specified schools.
Since 2003, AidCamps International and SHUMAS have built five village primary schools in the villages of Bangwe, Mbokui, Mogni, Bamali and Tsenka, and recently two independent volunteers with AidCamps paid for the refurbishment of the school at Kitchu.
In 2007, Schools for Africa raised the money to rebuild the school at Ntseimbang. This was opened in November 2007.
Through us, the Liz Earle Beauty Company (Isle of Wight, UK) has funded the rebuild of the primary school at Roh Meluf and Clymac Ltd (Loughborough, U.K.) has funded the school at Menjung The reconstruction of these two schools started in January 2008 and they were opened in June.
Two more schools are now under construction, and we hope they will be opened in the autumn. These are Islamic Primary School in Bamali (Lambeth Academy in London have undertaken to fundraise for this school) which has no roof and is in danger of collapse....
... and the primary school at Quebessi ( Corporate funding provided) where 400 children use classrooms in a dilapidated state of repair
It is also hoped that the village of Mbokjika, where the children have to use the church as a school at present, will have their new school building (funded by AidCamps International) opened in November this year.
The Story of Bamali
Once Schools for Africa and SHUMAS have built a school, we aim to make sure that the life of the school is sustainable by ensuring that the village takes responsibility for its running and upkeep. The Parent Teachers Associations are central to this continued success.
The Catholic school at Bamali was failing and was about to close before it was rebuilt in 2006: pupil numbers had fallen to 17 and the village did not support the school at all. A new head teacher was installed and applied to SHUMAS for new classrooms - numbers of pupils started to rise in anticipation. AidCamps International volunteers funded the building of three new classrooms and the refurbishment of the old classrooms, and pupil numbers are now in excess of 300. A sewing machine was installed at the school in order to provide trade training for some of the older children who had been school drop-outs, and a vegetable garden was developed which is maintained by the school children and the PTA. Bamali school is now making and selling school uniforms and is also selling vegetables from their garden to villagers. The money raised from these activities has been used to employ an extra teacher. Other income generating projects are planned, which will be aimed at the disaffected youths who missed out on their schooling. We are hoping to use this as a model for all the schools which we undertake to rebuild, and have supporters who are fundraising for the sewing machines and vegetable seeds.
Last Updated ( Friday, 18 July 2008 )
