Building Schools

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N.B. The costs of our school rebuilding projects do vary a little, according to location and state of delapidation, but are approximately £3,500 per classroom.

The benefits of education go way beyond the obvious advantages of improving life chances. In Cameroon, as in most developing countries, life can be very precarious and education can be the key to a person’s very survival, and a route out of poverty.

In our travels we have seen many severely disadvantaged comunities. Getting the means to provide sustainable help for them can be very difficult. However, 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.

In just a few months in 2007, Building Schools for Africa raised the money to rebuild the school at Ntseimbang. This was opened in November 2007.

In 2009 further upgrading was made to G.S. Ntseimbang to make it more weatherproof and secure and a clean drinking water supply was also provided - funded by a private donation from a supporter of BSFA.

We have experienced such great support in the past two and a half years, we are proud to say that we have been able to fund all the projects listed below.

Four new classrooms, a toilet block and a piped drinking water supply at the Government School (G.S.) Roh Meluf - funded by the Liz Earle Beauty Company, Isle of Wight, UK. This school was opened in June 2008 and since that time the number of pupils attending in each class has risen significantly. However overcrowding has decreased because nearly all the year groups have their own classrooms now, which makes both teaching and learning more successful. The new Headteacher declared that discipline and exam success have improved significantly during the past year.

Three new classrooms, and a toilet block at G.S. Menjung - funded by Clymac UK, and opened in June 2008. The village of Menjung is small and remote with very poor access by road which made the construction of these new classrooms a difficult project to undertake. We are pleased to report that numbers of children at this school are steadily rising and that in 2009 the final year children enjoyed 100% success rate in the Common Entrance Exam (required to move onto to secondary school), where only 20% had passed in 2008. Seven out of the twelve of these children have actually taken up places in Secondary School - the first ever from this village.

Three new classrooms, a water supply and a toilet block at the Islamic Primary School in the village of Bamali. This was funded by the children and staff of Lambeth Academy in London. The school was opened in October 2008 and the Academy has continued its support of IPS Bamali in order to refurbish two of the original delapidated classrooms to the same high standard as the new ones, and to construct a Headmaster's office.

 

Four new classrooms, an office, a toilet block and a well at G.S. Quebessi were funded by a large corporate donation and opened in October 2008. The numbers of children attending this school has increased significantly since the rebuild and the benches to accommodate the extra children were provided by the pupils of the Dixie Heights High School in Kentucky, USA. A new Headmaster has recently been appointed at the school and he has introduced a very successful Pupil Government which encourages the children to take an active interest in the running of the school.

The following schools were built during 2009 and opened in December. The trustees of Building Schools for Africa attended each of the opening ceremonies and loved being part of the huge celebrations.

Seven classrooms, an office and toilet block at Catholic School (C.S) Ndzevru - funded by the Riverside Church in Lincolnshire UK. This was an enormous and exhausting project, both for SHUMAS and the community and the opening was a grand occasion. Peter Harding, from the Riverside Church, came out specially: it was his first time in West Africa and he loved every minute.

Three classrooms, a toilet block and water supply at G.S. Fungeh - funded by Clymac UK.. Fungeh is a tiny community living in a very remote area. At first, the children were too timid to enter the classrooms - but they soon overcame that! The installation of clean drinking water was also a cause of great celebration and should dramatically reduce the incidence of water borne disease in the village.

Three classrooms, a toilet block and water supply at G.S. Njap - funded by Clymac UK.. We were so pleased to have Martin Lynch from Clymac come to the opening of this school. This is another extremely remote village and this beautiful new building means so much to them.

Three classrooms, a toilet block and water supply at G.S. Njinikejem - jointly funded by Clymac UK and Sheffield Springs Academy. SHUMAS enjoyed maximum participation from the community with this project. The opening was attended by the Regional Delegate for Basic Education and was a very prestigeous occasion which was featured on the National TV news over Christmas.

Six large classrooms and an office for the Government Bi-Lingual Secondary School at Kumbo. This is the first secondary school we have undertaken to fund and will provide education for up to 500 children who never had access to education over the age of 12 before. The Paramount Fon of Nso (one of the most prestigeous Chiefs in Cameroon and the Cameroonian Patron of Building Schools for Africa) was instrumental in initiating this project. He attended the opening ceremony and conferred the status of Shei or Yah on each of the trustees of BSFA

Three new classrooms, a toilet block and water supply at G.S. Mbande - funded by a private donation from supporters of Building Schools for Africa. The old school had been in a desperate state with part of its old accommodation burnt to the ground and the remaining classroom reduced to three walls and half a roof. It, too, is in a very remote location and the project was extremely difficult to complete - but the villagers are delighted with it.

The refurbishment and re-roofing of two classrooms at G.S. Achaillam - funded by various donations to BSFA funds.Everyone in the village is delighted with its new accommodation: the PTA have been exemplary in their support of the project which has proved such a success that the local council are now undertaking to construct a further two classrooms in the coming months.

Every individual or company which donates money for the rebuilding of one of these schools is provided with a full feasibility study of the project, together with a complete breakdown of the costs involved and the level of community participation that has been promised. Each year, the trustees of BSFA travel to Cameroon to see the schools which have been built and to collect information about other schools which need our help. We provide feedback to our donors in the form of a report illustrated with photographs, and a dedicated short dvd of the school which they have funded and the village in which it is located.

SHUMAS works closely with the communities where these schools are rebuilt. They ensure that each community commits to the project by providing whatever local materials (such as sand, stone and planks) as are available. They must also make all the necessary mud bricks (approx 2,000 per classroom) and provide all the unskilled labour for the project. In this way the cost of the project to the donor is kept as low as possible and the community have a real sense of ownership of their new school.

Information about our early-stage impact assessment on BSFA schools will be posted on this page as soon as possible.

 

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 March 2010 )