SHUMAS Education program By Ndze Elizabeth Berinyuy P.O. Box 5047 Nkwen Bamenda

1. SHUMAS Education program By Ndze Elizabeth Berinyuy P.O. Box 5047 Nkwen Bamenda Tel: (+237) 77 75 56 30 Email: shumas_ngo@yahoo.com Website: www.shumas.org

2. Program Overview 1. Introduction 2. The Problem 3. Objectives of the program 4. SHUMAS intervention strategies • School construction • Scholarships • School environmental project • Water and Hygiene • Women empowerment 5. Challenges 6. Future Plans

3. Introduction • Education is the key to unlocking a country‘s potential for economic growth (UNESCO) • Investment in education could result in raising income, improving health, promoting gender equality, mitigating climate change, and reducing poverty • Education is also the key to women‘s rights, self expression and civic engagement etc

4. The problem Children living in rural communities in Cameroon face a number of problems which include: • Lack of study space for (underprivileged) children • No opportunity for education for out of school children • Lack of sensitivity to emotional needs of these children • Lack of interest in poor parents about the education of their children • Lack of water and toilet facilities in schools • Increase in child birth and maternal mortality due to ignorance

5. Objectives of the Program • To contribute towards the achievement of the universal education for all by giving the opportunity to every child to be able to complete at least basic elementary (primary) school as enshrined in MDG number 1 • To provide basic literacy to all the underprivileged children so that they can understand various schemes being run by the government and how they can benefit from them

6. Intervention Strategy SHUMAS contributes in solving these problems in the following ways: • Construction of school infrastructure • Rehabilitate and equip dilapitated infrastructure in rural and peri-urban schools • Construction of toilets and stores • Scholarships • Provision of scholarships to underprivileged children • Provide voluntary training to women groups through workshops • School Environmental Program • Establish and provide equipments for school gardens and school farm • Water and hygiene • Provision of drinking water to schools • Provision of wash hand facilities and drinking pales • Women empowerment • Skills upgradation, enhancement of income through these skills and curtailment of expenses from health etc

7. Who are the beneficiaries • Underpriviledged (of single parents and from very poor parents) • Children infected by HIV/AIDS • Orphans • Women groups

8. School construction • Construct classrooms in both private and public schools nation wide at primary and secondary level • SHUMAS has constructed and rehabilitated over 600 classrooms in nine out of ten Regons nation wide • We also construct head teachers‘ offices in cases where none is existing • We construct toilets and wash hand facilities in these schools • SHUMAS has cnstructed 87 toilets • SHUMAS equips classrooms with 4000 benches, tables, didactic materials and in some cases first aid boxes

9. St Joseph Catholic Comprehensive College Lassin (Nkor Noni) Situation before Situation after

10. Goverment School (G.S.) Nkartsen Situation before Situation after

11. Catholic School (C.S.) Mali Situation before Situation after

12. Overcrowded classrooms with bare and dusty floors Dusty classroom floors Overcrowded classrooms

13. Islamic Primary School (IPS) Vekovi Situation before Situation after

14. Government School (G.S.) Nsek-Makop Situation before Situation after

15. Toilets constructed in schools where no toilet facility existed Skeletal toilet (situation before) 4 compartment toilet constructed

16. Equiping of classsrooms and provision of didactic materials • SHUMAS provides benches and tables to some of the schools that are constructed • Didactic and first aid materials to schools that do not have • We also provide tables and chairs for teachers in classrooms where none exists

17. Classrooms equiped, didactic material and first aid boxes provided in schools New benches provided in schools Didactic materials and first aid box

18. Scholarships • This program started in 2009 • These scholarships are awarded to underprivileged children • Our funders include Martin Lynch the founder of the scholarship scheme, Market Makers and others from Building Schools for Africa • Priority is most often given to the girl child

19. Why underprivileged children? • Underprivileged children live with their parents and this is their biggest problem • Orphans can easily get free food, education etc, but poor children living with their parents can NOT easily get • This is because children from such background think it‘s the duty of their parents (Poor) to provide for them • Orphanages in the cities are overflowing with genuine donations, but these poor children are not getting even two meals a day • We are thus making efforts to develop an alternative platform where these poor children can also get some donations

20. School Environmental Project • SHUMAS incorporates the aspect of environmental protection and conservation in schools • We offer training to students on the establishment of native school gardens • We provide garden tools to schools to ensure the sustainability of such projects • Women groups in these communities are fully involved in these projects as they assist the students in forming their ridges while assisting in teaching the students different methods of cultivation.

21. Sample school environmental project School tree nursery School garden

22. Water and Hygiene in schools • Another acute problem in rural schools is the lack of water in school premises • Students/pupils spend precious time carrying water to dampen their dusty classrooms • Pupils often suffer from water-borne illnesses • All these problems and many others lead to poor performance of students/pupils in schools, hence increase in the rate of school drop-outs; which have many other repacautions on the children

23. Water and Hygiene in Schools • SHUMAS construct stand taps in schools • We provide wash hand facilities in these schools • We also provide buckets that are used to collect water from the stand-taps to drink or water from the rain which could be use to dampen their floors; water their school gardens during the dry season

24. Stand-tap and buckets provided to schools One of the stand taps on campus Drinking pales for each classroom

25. Women empowerment • SHUMAS has a cooperative of women called FIOH (Future in Our Hands) women • Why women? • Women living in rural areas have no say in family matters, important decisions taken in their families and communities • The situation in urban areas is marginally just • The basic reason for this is poor literacy and poor earning capacities of the rural woman.

26. Women empowerment • The aim of our cooperative is therefore to make the rural woman literate and financially independent. • We provide basic literacy and vocational training to women in groups • We teach them about the nitty-gritty of loans, advances, record (book) keeping etc.

27. Challenges • Insufficient operational cost e.g payment of salary for staff • Limited and obselete working facilities like computers • Poor road networks to enclaved areas especially during the rainy season • Resources are limited as the number of applications are always too many • Insufficient funds for the scholarship scheme as the number of applications double each year

28. Future plans • SHUMAS plans to reach out to many more communities in need nation wide • SHUMAS plans to start a rural electrification program in communities where schools are being constructed • Subsequently, we plan to institute computer program in these schools, this will support the government‘s initiative of adding computer studies in the school curriculum in Cameroon • Reinforce its income generating capacities