About Us

Marianne, a retired teacher, and Ian, a retired hospice doctor have worked in India, Nepal and Cameroon with AidCamps International.

Nick and Nicky retired after 25 years running their own hospitality business. In 1996 they won the DTI small business UK Award for Business Excellence and in 2003 the Queens Award for Sustainable Development.

Marianne, Nicky and Nick were involved in an AidCamps project to build a school in Bamali in Cameroon NW Province in November 2006. This school was the fourth such undertaking by AidCamps International working in collaboration with SHUMAS (Strategic Humanitarian Services), their partner organisation in Cameroon, and it has dramatically changed the lives of hundreds of children living in the village.

“In 2004 the Bamali school was on the point of being closed, having only 17 pupils in attendance, however the appointment of a new local Headteacher encouraged parents to send their children and numbers rose to 60. The dedication of the teachers ensured that each of these children passed the national exams with flying colours, and the numbers rose again. By the time our group of volunteers had finished the building of three new classrooms, to replace the derelict part of the school, numbers had risen to over 200 and the Head teacher is expecting this number to double by September 2007. The class sizes are huge but the children are really keen to learn and the small team of dedicated teachers work miracles with them.

During our stay in Bamali we spent some time visiting other rural villages, all of which were in desperate need of a school. Buildings that were currently being used as schools, had been badly constructed and were largely collapsed. Many children had been taken out of the schools by their parents who were afraid that they would be crushed by falling debris, and the illiteracy rate was very high.” Marianne

Each year SHUMAS and AidCamps International have to decide which village to support with a new school building, and there are always plenty of applicants. AidCamps International works by enrolling volunteers to pay for, and then help to work on, the construction of these schools (www.aidcamps.org for full details) and the volunteers live as part of the community during their three-week stay.

Stephen and Billian - directors of SHUMAS Cameroon

In November 2006 the village of Ntseimbang was one of the applicants for a new school but it failed in its bid because it could not provide a suitable house for the volunteers to stay in. This is a small, and very remote village of subsistence farmers who were keen to help in the construction of the building themselves. It is for the building of this school that we started this fundraising project. The cost was just £7000 and we raised this sum in three months.

The overwhelming support we have received to date has inspired us to continue our fundraising efforts in order to provide as many schools as possible for the village children in Cameroon.