Safe Center for Vulnerable Children in Douala

Every day the AGAPE Association works towards achieving its very challenging goals.

One of the goals is to educate the young people under its care and to make sure that they succeed in their studies.

Initially, these youth were faced with many difficulties, and here we are referring to school work only. They were: unable to attend classes everyday and on a regular basis, unable to read, count, and write, and unable to stay focused from the beginning to the end of an exercise or activity, just to name a few.

It was indeed very challenging and we knew it was not going to be an easy ride. In spite of this we never doubted our ability to make it.  Our first challenge was to send all the children to school and thanks to the many donations received we were able to do just that. We knew it would be important at a later stage to hire a home teacher, or a teaching assistant to supervise them while they do their homework.

This was to help them better understand what they were doing and to know that there will always be someone to assist, support and most especially motivate them to continue to put in more efforts. We did not want them to become discouraged. Sending a child to school is very important but more so is providing support and mentorship.

Some children dislike studying and keep away from subjects which they find difficult. As was the case for many of the children, they believed they were studying for their parents or for the Agape Center. They were not disciplined, were not going to school and did not come to the center every day as expected. One always had to go after them to get their homework done; they were not motivated at all and even refused to study. Their results were always very poor.

We were very patient with them and kept on encouraging them and talking to them about the importance of school. By building a relationship based on trust we were able to make the children understand that whatever we do was for their good and the good of their families.

We taught them that nothing was obtained without effort and that they should never let go or give up, even if their goals seem very difficult to achieve.

Thus they were able to reverse the trend, becoming more disciplined, more regular at school and at the Agape center. They went from a situation of low grades to average students and their work improved as well.

Their academic performance is improving. Last year the success rate stood at about 75%, while this year it is 100%, with distinctions such as honor rolls for the more brilliant among them.

Without doubt, we each learned something more, that hard work pays. We will most certainly keep working even harder to make sure that there is continuous growth.

Links:

• http://www.agapecentre.org
• https://www.facebook.com/AGAPEAssociation