Build a future for children in a conflict zone

The second term presented both challenges and opportunities as the school authorities developed new strategies to sustain their charity school project. The month of February experienced a slow start, characterized by low attendance as a significant number of school children were kept home by their parents due to security concerns. In an attempt to express their agenda on National Youth Day, the non-state armed groups involved in the ongoing Anglophone crisis in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon declared a ghost town on the day of the celebrations. Consequently, many parents choose to keep their children at home out of fear. Nonetheless, this lockdown did not prevent the pupils from both schools from participating in youth day activities alongside other institutions, where they engaged in singing, traditional dances, and arts and crafts competitions. These activities encouraged creativity among the pupils. Furthermore, all class six students from both the Hope Alive Foundation (HAF) and Mardis are actively preparing for their end-of-term examinations as they transition to secondary education. They are currently undertaking mock examinations in preparation for the Government Entrance Examination, scheduled for July. While other classes will observe the Easter break, the class six pupils are expected to remain in school to adequately prepare for the Government Common Entrance Examination into Form 1, as well as for the First School Leaving Certificate awarded at the primary school level. Successes were recorded in early March, as several teachers participated in in-house training pedagogy programs designed for nursery and primary schools in Cameroon, facilitated by a pedagogy expert from the Sub-Divisional Delegation of Basic Education in their respective regions. Notably, attendance in February increased to 180 pupils from nursery to primary six at HAF and 230 pupils at Mardis, highlighting the need for additional classroom space to comfortably accommodate the growing number of children. There is also a pressing need to increase the number of teachers in both schools to ensure one educator per class from nursery to primary six. With the assistance of your generous donations through Reach Out, our charity school project has the potential to significantly impact the lives of vulnerable children in the Anglophone regions, thereby shaping their futures for the better. ''We express our profound gratitude for the financial support that Reach Out NGO has extended to us to facilitate the care of two teachers''.