For thousands of children in Cameroon, just getting to school each day can be an impossible challenge. Children from poor families face hurdles like not having school materials, the right clothing and shoes, or needing to stay home to take care of younger siblings or go out to work to help their family survive. Over the past several years, these issues have been compounded by nearly a million Cameroonians having been forced from their homes by regional violence. More secure areas have found their already meagre resources – housing, health and educational facilities – stretched to breaking point.
Crossroads’ partners for this shipment have for many years worked to establish and equip kindergartens, schools and vocational training centres. Since our first shipment to them in 2010, enrolments in their programmes have multiplied many times over, with earlier graduates doing everything from running small businesses to returning to the schools they had attended as teachers.
This will be our eighth shipment to this group. We will send more school and vocational training equipment to allow them to expand their services to include more of the tens of thousands of young people flooding into their project areas. The leaders have also asked for basic household furniture and goods to assist people with resettlement, gym and sports equipment to provide healthy recreation opportunities for young people (many of whom are unemployed), and hospital beds for clinics and health centres struggling to expand their services to the burgeoning population.
‘One child, one tree’
How do you encourage young children who live day by day in poverty, about the value of a long-term investment? Our partners noticed that students in their schools needed help understanding how a little care each day can lead to a more valuable result over time. So, they started the ‘one child, one tree or chicken’ project, giving each child a tiny plant or a baby chick to take home over the long summer vacation. After nurturing their chicken or tree, the children bring them back to school, and auction off the mature produce to an assembly of parents and teachers! “This unique approach teaches children to take care of livestock and familiarizes them with practical life skills, learning how to protect and respect nature,” write our partners. Crossroads’ shipment will include goods to support the administration of a rich variety of projects in community schools like these.
Ovens and baking utensils from a previous shipment are already having a positive impact on both attendance rates and children’s nutrition at this rural infants and primary school. This shipment will include more kitchen equipment and appliances so that this programme can be extended to other schools.
Women who escaped violent destruction of their home villages with only the clothes on their backs attend a clothing distribution event.
Books from Crossroads’ previous shipments have formed the basis of several school and community libraries.
