Launch of Nascent's 2010 FFE Program for Cameroon
Across some 50 villages in the North West Region of Cameroon, children now say a fervent grace before meals at lunch time, a strange and welcome development in an area where the term "school lunch" did not exist. Life for these children has also been vastly eased thanks to the construction of toilets in their schools to replace the crumbling structures infested by snakes and rodents that formally served this purpose.
Children give thanks in prayer before lunch in Catholic School Meluf
For the village of Meluf, Bui Division, in Cameroon's North West Region, the New Year and the New Decade began with more pomp and fanfare than anyone in the village could remember. January 21 saw the launch in that village of Nascent Solutions' 2010 McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program intended to enable 22,000 primary school pupils in 50 villages have a free hot meal a day. Nascent Solutions also brought along a donation of 35,000 text books for the schools in the division, a gift of the World Bank Family Network Book Club.
A school toilet before.
A school toilet after the Nascent intervention at Government school Wasi
For the village of Meluf, Bui Division, in Cameroon's North West Region, the New Year and the New Decade began with more pomp and fanfare than anyone in the village could remember. January 21 saw the launch in that village of Nascent Solutions' 2010 McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program intended to enable 22,000 primary school pupils in 50 villages have a free hot meal a day. Nascent Solutions also brought along a donation of 35,000 text books for the schools in the division, a gift of the World Bank Family Network Book Club.
Accordingly, more than 2000 people from Meluf and the other beneficiary villages turned up to welcome an unusual array of personalities who'd come to witness the launch of this project, which is being funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The United States Ambassador to Cameroon, Janet Garvey, was represented by the embassy's Political Officer, Ms Carmella McFoy while the USDA was represented by Ms Debra S. Pfaff, who'd traveled from Washington to take part in the festivities. Cameroon's Ministry of Education was represented by Mrs. Mispa Etoe, a Director in the Ministry's Department of Basic Education.
Speaking during the ceremony at the Catholic Primary School Meluf, the CEO of Nascent Solutions, Dr. Beatrice Wamey, expressed gratitude to the USDA for helping fund the project which her organization had conceived and proposed to the US government back in 2006. She then turned to the traditional and administrative authorities present at the ceremony, who she described as true partners in development that had facilitated the take off of the project in their various localities.
They had not only provided land for the development of school gardens, but had mobilized their communities to become involved in all aspects of the project. The very early result, she said, was the first 1000 kilograms of produce from pilot school farms in less than a year of operation.
Thanks of a Grateful Mayor
The authorities and personalities were also quite enthusiastic in their praise of the project. Mayor Donatus Njong of Kumbo, of whose city Meluf is a suburb, lauded the Nascent Solutions boss for her commitment and persistence in seeking solutions for the poor and for the imaginative ways she has brought these solutions to bear on their problems.
"Five years ago, when she first told me that she wanted to help take care of the widows and orphans left behind by the victims of HIV/AIDS, little could I imagine that it would lead to a ceremony like the one we are having today, launching a project that will benefit schools in 50 villages in all the sub divisions of Bui and affecting thousands of school children, their families and their communities," Njong said.
Nascent Solutions CEO hands over consignment of books to Mayor of Kumbo for the town library and is mobbed by well-wishing beneficiaries.
Nascent Solutions CEO hands over consignment of books to Mayor of Kumbo for the town library and is mobbed by well-wishing beneficiaries.
He told the assembled guests that Nascent Solutions, in less than five years of operations in Kumbo, had become the city's third highest source of revenue. He then went on to enumerate some of the projects that Nascent has carried out in and outside the immediate area of his jurisdiction:
- Nascent Solutions, the organization that Dr. Wamey founded, has not only continued to feed more than 2500 orphans and widows;
- Nascent Solutions has brought medication and medical equipment to about 25 of our health centers, including Tadu and Meluf Catholic Health Centers
- They have brought computer equipment to some of our schools and youth centers, including TTC Tatum and the Catholic Youth Center here in Tobin, which will facilitate communications for us and help our children to keep up with their peers in the developed world
- They have encouraged literacy among those of our people who did not have the opportunity to complete their education by providing books. In fact, the mountain of cartons you see before us today contains books that this organization persuaded the World Bank Book Club to donate to the school children of Bui Division
- They have partnered with some of our highly reputable local NGOs, such as the Women's Empowerment Initiative, to work in the area of women's and children's rights, which my administration strongly supports
- Above all, Nascent Solutions, in partnership with their American sister organization Counterpart International, have re-introduced our long abandoned practice of school gardens, which shall teach our children the importance of agriculture in our development efforts and teach our communities modern farming techniques and practices
"For these gifts, and the many more we can be sure are still to come, I salute our sister and our mother, a valiant daughter of Bui Division, Dr. Beatrice Wamey," the mayor said, referencing Dr. Wamey's early years from childhood to adulthood as a native and resident of Bui Division.
Nascent Promises More... In her address, the Nascent Solutions Chief Executive explained that one of the reasons her organization had chosen to locate the first FFE project in the North West Region was because of the region's rich and strong tradition of community participation in development work. She said Nascent's operations in Bui and Donga - Mantung divisions had met with unqualified success thanks to the enthusiastic support of the local communities and their commitment to work together for the future of their children.
"Look around you and the evidence of community development is everywhere," Beatrice said. "The road you traveled to come here today was built by community work. Most villages in this division have pipe-born water as a result of community participation. The health centers and hospitals, the schools, the bridges, the markets, the churches and the mosques are all the result of community involvement by a society that venerates the common good. Bui Division is a concrete demonstration of the saying that "one hand cannot tie a bundle." By locating the Food for Education program here, we are bringing back a culture that has served the community well in the past and should serve its children better in the future."
She said her organization intends to expand our work to other parts of Cameroon eventually. Bui and Donga- Mantung Divisions are therefore a pilot projects whose results shall guide Nascent Solutions in future programs.
"In conclusion, I'd like to express our sincere gratitude to the people of the United States and their government for the generosity of this project, especially the United States Department of Agriculture, and to the Ambassador and staff of the US Embassy in Yaounde," she said.
She also expressed sincere thanks to the Government of Cameroon through the Ministry of Basic Education, the Divisional Administration in Bui, the traditional authorities, the religious leaders, "and our local partner organizations who have facilitated, encouraged and generally worked hard to make this program succeed."
A Community Festival Speaking earlier on behalf of all the FFE pilot schools, 11 year-old Lenora Yuyar welcomed the guests to her school and thanked the FFE partners for making it possible for the school children to have hot meals in school everyday. She credited the FFE project for enabling her school, Catholic School Meluf, to win first prize in potato farming at a recent Divisional Agro Pastoral Show.
The young Lenora appealed to the donors "to extend this project to other schools and also participate in the construction of classrooms, provision of benches and pipe born water which will help us learn well."
A Community Festival
A Community Festival
The ceremony in Meluf concluded with what turned out to be a real community festival, with choral singing and dance performances by the school children, who were joined by traditional dance groups from the local communities.
In the Village of Wasi in Jakiri sub-division, Nascent Solutions CEO took time out to chat with formerly nomadic Moslem children, who have now settled in the community and have been attracted back to school thanks to the food program and improved facilities.
Rice, beans and carrots have come to enrich a monotonous diet of corn paste and vegetables. For these school children it is a treat for palate and does wonders for t heir health as well.
