Building Schools
Email this to a friend!
N.B. The costs of our school rebuilding projects do vary a little, according to location and state of dilapidation, 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 communities. 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, in the certain knowledge that the money goes solely to the building of specified schools.
Schools constructed and opened in 2010
2010 was a momentous year in our school building programme. We managed to fund the construction of TWELVE schools!! This meant that the SHUMAS Buildings Manager really had his work cut out to get everything finished in time for the opening ceremonies, particularly as the rainy season in 2010 was unusually long and caused huge disruption to the transportation of materials to all the various sites.
Nonetheless, it was a fantastic achievement and we would like to thank all our donors who made it all possible by giving so generously. There are now thousands more children learning in clean, dry, hygienic classrooms rather than in squalor.
Marianne made a whistle-stop tour of 16 schools in three different regions, during her trip to Cameroon in 2009. She attended the openings of seven of the new schools funded this year and also made a short trip to the SHUMAS Biofarm, which is progressing very well indeed. It was gratifying to see that a number of changes recommended following our initial Impact Assessment last year, have been incorporated into the new school building programme and they are proving very beneficial - particularly the involvement of the women's groups in keeping the schools clean and in good repair and the greater involvement of the Inspectors of Basic Education.
CBC Bamessing
This is one of the schools funded by the Boxing for Africa fundraiser. Two of the organisers of the Boxing for Africa event visited the school in 2009 and took film of the children having to sit underneath old broken benches in the classrooms when it rained. They will be visiting again this summer and will see at first hand the three brand new classrooms, new benches, toilets and clean drinking water - and some VERY happy children.
GS Mambain
This school was also funded by Boxing for Africa, and the new well with hand-pump was funded by the Wild Affair. It is the first school that BSFA has funded in the West Region and we are delighted to say that the community really did work extremely hard on the project, completing it in record time. It has absolutely transformed the village and has inspired other nearby villages to apply for help from SHUMAS.
GS Nkartsen
Three new classrooms, a new deep-pit latrine, a clean water supply and a school farm have been funded by a brilliant event called The Wild Affair (see our Fundraising page). The village of Nkartsen is very small and remote and the whole community are extremely proud of what they have managed to achieve. They have now started to collect together materials to construct a nursery classroom.
GS Nseh Makop
When we first visited this school it was being held in a crumbling building that had been abandoned by another school. The community is very poor and would never have been able to dream of having such a school without our help. It is an excellent example of community empowerment through Participatory Development. When the classrooms were officially opened, the children poured into the building singing "This is the day we have been waiting for". This school was also funded by The Wild Affair.
IPS Vekovi
The old school at Vekovi was amongst the worst we had ever seen when we visited in 2009. The walls were collapsing in every direction and, in the dry season, the children were moved outside to use grass huts instead. The school is of a different design from our othe primary schools in order to withstand the high winds that are common in this part of the Cameroon Highlands.
GTC Mbah
This is the first technical school that BSFA has helped. The pupils here will learn skills in either building, electrical wiring or home economics in addition to the usual secondary school curriculum subjects. It is hoped that the building students will be able to help with the construction of more classrooms. Perhaps the electrical wiring pupils will be able to install some solar lighting one day! (See Norman Phipps' project on our Volunteering page)
GS Ngali
The community of Ngali had already constructed solid foundations for four new classrooms when it applied for help to SHUMAS. It is the first school in the district of Pinyin to benefit from a SHUMAS project - we anticipate that it won't be the last.
The three schools above were all funded by Clymac.
IPS Bamali
This school has been totally rebuilt through the efforts of Lambeth Academy in London. Three more classrooms and a Head Teacher's office/staff room were opened this year - making a total of six classrooms at the school. The Head Teacher, Mr. Ibrahim, is extremely proud of his school and boasts that the pupil numbers have risen from 89 to over 350 in just two years.
The four schools pictured below have each benefitted from six classrooms, a Head Teacher's office, a new toilet block, clean drinking water and a school farm. This major project, which was funded by a large corporate donation, has totally transformed the villages of Dzeng and Bamdzeng and really empowered both communities to take charge of their future development needs.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 09 March 2011 )
