School profile

Project basics

 * Title: THE BITAME LUCIA NURSERY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL NKOLFOULOU, CAMEROON
 * Management: Cameroon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child (CAPEC)
 * CAPEC Education Project
 * Period: February 2009 – Present

Contacts

 * CAPEC - Cameroon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child
 * BP 20646 Yaoundé - Cameroon
 * Office Tel: +237 22 03 01 63
 * Mobile: +237 77 75 16 06
 * Email: info@capecam.org capecam20@yahoo.com
 * Website: http://www.capecam.org

Introduction
When school resumed last year 2008/2009 academic year, a good number of children at the Nkolfoulou village and other neighbouring villages such as Baaba, Ntinga, Nkabo, Eboko and Essebi were still loitering around and not going to school. Cross sectional surveys and focus group discussions carried out by the CAPEC team, revealed that some of the children were orphans and others were from low income families and could not afford to pay school fees, buy books or uniforms in other to give these children education. The CAPEC Board of Directors decided to create a school in the village and enrol all of these children for Free. By February 2nd 2009, more than 25 children were identified from the community and the Bitame Lucia Nursery and Primary school opened with the assistance of our two volunteers, Ted Cunningham from the United Kingdom and Michael Clausen from Denmark.

Origin of the school name
Madam Bitame Lucia is a Co-Founder of CAPEC. A teacher by profession, she has dedicated her life in assisting children in rural communities get basic education for close to 30 years. With her meagre salary she gets from her government job, she is assisting more than 60 children in different villages in the South West Region of Cameroon. She is also an Author and has written several books for primary and secondary school students which have appeared on the National Booklist in Cameroon.

Mission and aim of the school
The project aims to tackle one of the many problems that affect children in our community. This area is mainly rural and children face a lot of difficulties obtaining basic education. Literacy rate in this area is very low. Even though the government created a government school in Nkolfoulou, it has not supported it with adequate infrastructure and teachers. Several parents have therefore preferred to use their children in the farms. Our Mission is to provide education to the children of the rural area of Nkolfoulou, so they would not be deprived of education based on their locality or family financial circumstances. CAPEC’s wish is to put up a structure which will guarantee low cost fees for poor families create jobs and become self reliant. CAPEC attempts to bridge the gap between rich and poor by offering good quality education for the most underprivileged. 100% of CAPEC's pupils are defined as economically disadvantaged; in which case buying things like school uniforms, shoes, and school supplies can really strain the family budget.

Volunteers and Visitors
Since we started early this year, a number of volunteers and visitors have been to the school premises to visit, teach and donate educational materials to the children. Some of the volunteers are Ted Cunningham from the United Kingdom and Michael Clausen from Denmark. Our two present volunteers are Caroline Lafin from Germany send by our partner organisation, DED and Indre Lampsatis also from Germany. As regards visitors, we have hosted U.S based Dr. Taminang .F Walter, Founder/Executive Director of Keng Foundation. He donated books and mosquito nets to the children. Another visitor who donated clothes to the children was Mrs Belinda Braun from United Kingdom. Recently Ms Lormann from Germany pays our school a visit in her capacity as Program coordinator for the Young German Volunteer Program known as the ‘Weltwarts’ for Cameroon. She came to visit CAPEC School and also to have a meeting with CAPEC staff and also to see how the DED volunteer teachers at the school is doing. We are still in need of volunteers to teach different subjects and also extra-curricular activities like sports, gardening, outdoor games etc. We need to get linked to volunteers and schools in different localities who can assist our school by undertaking fundraising to support the construction of the school. Our parents are very poor. They live on less than a dollar a day. Many parents would rather buy food for their families than donate money to construct the school. So we wish to make a passionate appeal to you to consider assisting us in the fundraising process so that we can expand the school with new buildings so that in the end, we will be able to serve over 2000 pupils.

Partners
So far, partnership has developed between the CAPEC School and Clifton Primary school in the UK. The children first task was to write about their families both in Cameroon and UK .The staff in the UK planned a visit to our school next year. The project is being coordinated in the UK by the Head teacher Mrs. Polly Bennett and in Cameroon by the Head teacher Aicha Agbor Friday.If your school is interested or if you know of any school which could be interested in linking with us, please do inform us.

Donation from donors and friends
We are thankful for the financial contribution from Busuu.com, an organization based in Spain - who got their wonderful name from a language in Cameroon which is almost extinct. The language is spoken by 8 people and they are found in the North West Region, in the village of Furu-Awa, a bordering town to 5 Nigeria. Busuu.com is an online community which helps thousands of users from all over the world to improve their language skills, but also makes a small contribution to the fight against poverty in Cameroon. The organization has been awarded with the European Language Label and has decided to donate the 1500 euros to CAPEC. The donations will go along way to help in construction of one classroom. We appreciate the contribution of the German Development Service (DED). The financial contributions enable us buy school materials and office equipments. We are also grateful for the two families who are sponsoring children in our school. Our sincere thanks also go to the staff of Sata International Airline (Portugal) for their wonderful donations of school materials and clothes.

Our appeal
The school is owned by the Cameroon Association for the Protection and Education of the Child (CAPEC) and Manager by the Board of Director and the Nkolfoulou Community. Because of the school’s yearly growth and the limits imposed by its current poor and temporary infrastructure, CAPEC desperately needs a new permanent schoolhouse. In order to be safe and able to learn optimally, the children need to have a decent building. During the wet season, torrential rains interrupt the lessons, and during the dry season, heavy winds blow dust and sand into the structure. The school presently has walls made of ‘Karaboat’ (local jargon used to describe poor quality wood) which are not solid. Currently, CAPEC has purchased land up to 3000 Sq Metres to contain all needed structures such as Library, a computer workstation, vocational training centre, staff room and a school hall. Once the school is built, it will have a multitude of uses; a school for children during the day, a meeting place for community organisation and adult classes in the evening. The adult classes include teaching the rural women new farming methods, bookkeeping skills and better hygiene techniques. The school has no electricity or other means of power, lacks a toilet, and has no access to clean portable water. Parents cannot afford to purchase school uniforms, books and pupils often come to class unkempt and poorly dressed. The school which attracts several local and far-off students promotes positive attitude towards work. On discipline, the pupils are encouraged to make independent choices while being made aware of the consequences of their choices through counselling. In effect, the pupils are made responsible for their actions. We will be glad to have your esteemed organisation assisting us in the construction of this school.

You can choose to help us build the school in many ways. Look at the categories below and see what suits you or your organisation.
 * 1. Classroom(Nursery and Primary) 14
 * 2. Toilets 6
 * 3. Headmaster Office 1
 * 4. Library 1
 * 5. Office, accountant 1
 * 6. Office, secretary 1
 * 7. Leisure room 1
 * 8. Computer room 1
 * 9. Vocational Training room 2
 * 10. Kitchen 1
 * 11. Play ground for Nursery 1