Samuel is 9 and does not know the whereabouts of his parents or any family for that matter. He was brought to Buea some months back from Tombel by a complete stranger who found him stranded, running from the war that has enveloped the South West and North West regions. Samuel is in class 6, enrolled into the Government Primary School Soppo, by his benefactor, a struggling woman who finds it difficult to meet even the basic financial requirements—the least of which is a five thousand francs PTA due.
It is daunting enough that a child would have to contend with the mental trauma of not knowing where his parents are, but add to this the lack of basic needs, his situation becomes a painful injustice. He is in a class of over 100 students, the majority of whom, like him, are internally displaced, with ever more heartrending stories, facing even more painful challenges. The school teachers in charge of class six explain that Samuel and many of his classmates lack basic didactic material to help them catch up with the class—workbooks, exercise books, pens and pencils. The class is a small room, hosting more than 100 students. Students are squeezed into groups of four to five in one desk; studying here is a struggle. The school is in need of desks for the children.
When Onyama and Koge came up with #DreamEducation#, an initiative (coined and substantiated by Kwoh Elonge) to promote the back to school campaign that arose from the effects of ongoing Anglophone crisis, they did not imagine this range of need. And so as Laura and her team moved from the Presbyterian Primary School Buea Station, to the Government Primary School in Soppo, the stories, each more pathetic than the next, not only forced her to tears but also to action.
The #DreamEducation# initiative is an ongoing educational project started by Onyama and Koge with the goal of making education much more accessible to children affected by the anglophone crisis. What is impressive about the project is that it has a solid year-on-year plan for the children that have been selected to benefit from the initiative. The goal is to see them, at the minimum, through primary school so that they can gain the basic literacy skills—reading, writing, arithmetic. It also contains a mentorship programme. This programme goes beyond the photo opportunity initiatives that have marked so-called back-to-school charity programmes in which people are more concerned about being seen performing their charity.
Beyond the children who are in urgent need of help, there is also the schools that are lacking in capacity to adequately handle the hundreds of affected kids who cannot make the minimum financial obligation to ease the teaching-learning process. These schools are in need of benches, workbooks for students and other material to help optimise the education of these kids. The Presbyterian Primary School, Buea station for example has made enrolment free for many of the affected children. It is like an enlarged charity programme but one which can only be sustained if the children and institutions benefit from such initiatives as the #DreamEducation# programme.
Unfiltered partners today with Onyama Laura and Koge to make an appeal to the public for help of any form that would enable these children better access education.
We need you HELP.
Written by Kwoh Elonge (For Unfiltered)
