SHUMAS Education program By Ndze Elizabeth Berinyuy P.O. Box 5047 Nkwen Bamenda Tel: (+237) 77 75 56 30 Email: [email protected] Website: www.shumas.org
Jan 14, 2016
SHUMAS Education program
By Ndze Elizabeth Berinyuy
P.O. Box 5047 Nkwen BamendaTel: (+237) 77 75 56 30
Email: [email protected]: www.shumas.org
Program Overview
1. Introduction2. The Problem3. Objectives of the program4. SHUMAS intervention strategies
– School construction– Scholarships– School environmental project– Water and Hygiene– Women empowerment
5. Challenges6. Future Plans
IntroductionEducation 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
The problem
Children living in rural communities in Cameroon face a number of problems which include:
Lack of study space for (underprivileged) childrenNo opportunity for education for out of school
childrenLack of sensitivity to emotional needs of these
childrenLack of interest in poor parents about the
education of their childrenLack of water and toilet facilities in schoolsIncrease in child birth and maternal mortality due
to ignorance
Objectives of the ProgramTo 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
Intervention StrategySHUMAS 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
Who are the beneficiaries
Underpriviledged (of single parents and from very poor parents)
Children infected by HIV/AIDS
Orphans
Women groups
School constructionConstruct 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 toiletsSHUMAS equips classrooms with 4000
benches, tables, didactic materials and in some cases first aid boxes
St Joseph Catholic Comprehensive College Lassin
(Nkor Noni)
Situation before Situation after
Goverment School (G.S.) Nkartsen
Situation before Situation after
Catholic School (C.S.) Mali
Situation before Situation after
Overcrowded classrooms with bare and dusty floors
Overcrowded classrooms
Dusty classroom floors
Islamic Primary School (IPS) Vekovi
Situation before Situation after
Government School (G.S.) Nsek-Makop
Situation before Situation after
Toilets constructed in schools where no toilet
facility existed
Skeletal toilet (situation before)
4 compartment toilet constructed
Equiping of classsrooms and provision of didactic
materialsSHUMAS 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
Classrooms equiped, didactic material and first aid boxes
provided in schools
New benches provided in schools
Didactic materials and first aid box
Scholarships This program started in 2009 These scholarships are awarded to
underprivileged childrenOur 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
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
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.
Sample school environmental project
School tree nursery School garden
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 illnessesAll 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
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
Stand-tap and buckets provided to schools
One of the stand taps on campus
Drinking pales for each classroom
Women empowermentSHUMAS has a cooperative of women called
FIOH (Future in Our Hands) womenWhy 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 justThe basic reason for this is poor literacy and
poor earning capacities of the rural woman.
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.
Challenges Insufficient operational cost e.g payment
of salary for staffLimited and obselete working facilities
like computersPoor road networks to enclaved areas
especially during the rainy seasonResources are limited as the number of
applications are always too manyInsufficient funds for the scholarship
scheme as the number of applications double each year
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