Transform Girls' Education With Technical School

My jaws dropped this morning when I thought; “AUMAZO, INC. is turning ten this Sunday May 24, 2015.” Ten years? What, ten years really? Yes! And it is a milestone worth celebrating.

On behalf of the Board and myself, I wish to express our sincere appreciations to your loyal patronage over these ten years. You helped us weathered the recession and together we have seen big changes happen that are still recent enough to be relevant for today.

Since its founding in May 24, 2005, Aumazo committed to empowering girls with high school education in rural communities in Cameroon by building better school infrastructure. Our objective to build a community-based high school that will become self-sustaining has been the center of our focus throughout the years. And our commitment to the long-term success of Aumazo, led us to transform our educational program to a development program.

Our innovative approach resulted in establishing ZOMA Blockyard and Construction Business in 2013. This enterprise is already getting some traction. The machine that we acquired in 2010 produces 1,500 interlocking dry stacked, soil-cement environmentally friendly blocks daily.We use the machine to produce and sell blocks as well as build houses. We anticipate that there will be sufficient funds from the ZOMA Construction Business and the micro-enterprise activities such as agri-business and ecommerce to meet the operating expenses once the school opens its doors.

The first phase of construction, the foundations of the boarding school, was completed in late 2007. In 2011, a group of six faculty members and students at Mount St Mary University visited the school construction site in Cameroon. They met with the village chief and community members and reported that it was an eye-opener and a life-changing experience to all of them. These supporters are still raising awareness and funds to support Aumazo at the University.

In 2012, we completed the library/study building and built concrete slab floors of the entire school building. In 2013, we also benefited from a continued Pro Bono Consulting Service at George Washington University. In 2014 and in collaboration with RM Sovich Architecture firm based in Baltimore, Maryland, we worked on the new school design that is relevant to the rural environment. The same year, we established an ongoing working partnership with the Barrie School in Silver Spring. Recently, we also introduced a grant request to the Orange Foundation and are awaiting response. In the meantime however, we raised enough funds that will allow us to build the muddy track that goes from the main Bankondji village road to the school site. Weather permitting; we expect to complete building of the road in mid-July 2015 for continual access to the school site during the raining season.

Finally, our next step is to raise funds to bring safe drinking water on the school site. If we do, we could temporary use the existing building to welcome our first students next year while waiting for the completion of the whole boarding school.

I am confident that the next ten years will be better than the last ten. Setting achievable goals, our hard work and your undeniable support are a stepping-stone to ultimate success.

Thank you.

Links:

• Better School Infrastructure for Rural Girls

We ended the day yesterday in spendor. Our goal for the day was to raise $3,000 during the GlobalGiving Matching. Your response far exceeded our expectations and we went over and beyond. We doubled the targeted $3,000 and raised $6,610, bringing the amount raised up-to-date to $15,054.27.

I am waking up this morning with the smile that you put on my face on May 13th 2015. The Aumazo Board and I are very grateful to you for making it our Matching Day success story.

The funds raised will allow us to build the kilometer-long track from Bankondji village to the school site to provide year round access by five ton truck. At present, the access road to the school disintegrates into a sea of mud during the long local rainy season and becomes impassable to all automobiles and trucks.

 The average rainfall in the region of Bafang is slightly more than 90 inches a year. About 9/10ths of this falls between April and October, and 64 percent of annual rainfall occurs in almost daily torrential downpours from July through October. This turns the unimproved laterite track linking Bankondji village with the CoReTech (College Regional Technique) Kamarie School site into a sea of mud. The one-kilometer long (0.62 mile) track cuts across an intermittent stream, which becomes a torrent with the rain. It is impossible to get a truck hauling blocks and construction supplies for the school up the track in the high rainy season. Construction of the school facilities is thus impassible during July-October and access is blocked periodically for shorter periods during the early rains.

Aumazo will work with a Travaux Publiques contractor and the community to develop and implement a road maintenance program for the school access road. We hope to start the work in June 2015, so that school construction can proceed during the 2015 rainy season.

Improving the track to all weather status is critical for completing sufficient classroom and dormitory capacity to welcome the first class of 50 students for the academic year beginning in September 2017. Once the school is built and equipped, the road will facilitate access of students, teachers and the community members to the village, town and links to the outside world.

We will keep you informed on the progress of the road construction. 

Links:

• Think Aumazo