Field Report GG1530060, Cameroon, Africa 

Field Report  GG1530060  by Ibrahim Yaouba  Rotary Club of Kumbo, Cameroon, Africa 

The field visit began on the 13th September 2014 and lasted two days with a stop in Bamenda due to bad roads at this time of the year.  Three members of the Rotary Club of Kumbo, the host club for the project, Ibrahim Yaouba, Edward Lailam and Divine Ntani took off for this field visit in order to get fresh and real situation of the progress of this GG on the ground

After a long journey, we arrived Befang on the 14th Septerber after noon, we were welcomed by IDF coordinator Mme Oussematou Demani and president Joseph Tafrie, Head Teacher of the school (P.S Befang) and some technicians. We sat for a brief meeting before taking are tour round the school to visit project site.

Activities on the ground:

• 3 classrooms and 1 office are under construction, while 15 out of the 60 benches previewed for the project have been assembled already while the rest will be assembled soon

• Some changes were made in the course of the project: 1 classroom has been added to host the nursery section and also 1 office for the teachers
• Other materials have been bought and kept and will be used to complete the buildings
• The training has been halted due to schools shut down but will resume as soon as the political unrest is over

Proposal

We discovered that the wash hand station for the project could be replaced with some equipment for the nursery sector now that they have a classroom which was not included in the original project. The school has a wash station from the latrines that were constructed by Rotary in a related grant. However this is still a proposal until approved by Rotary.

Training:

The agric or farming training will take place soon and shall include as beneficiaries the PTA of the school amongst may be six community health workers and why not some members of the community. This will however be at the discretion of IDF. The general targeted beneficiaries are the training of trainers which will go a long where to sustain parents in sponsoring their children to school as well as increase family income and improve living standards within the community

Future projects of the school:

• We also discovered that a library and a computer (ICT) center are needed in the future. This will go a long way to help the children get in to the global world technology by seeing, touching and operating a computer which is still a luxury in most rural communities in Africa
• The meeting ended at about 3 pm with Ibrahim making a closing statement as follows
• First of all thanked IDF and P.S Befang team for the warm welcome
• He also took some time to brief the people present on Rotary and the objectives of the project and the wish to see the children enjoy the structures put in place judiciously
• The PTA should be educated on the importance of maintenance of the buildings while children thought how to manage them with care for sustainability
• The Rotary Club of Kumbo was also happy to hear WASH solutions are implemented within the school curriculum since the previous Rotary project of latrines and a wash station.
• Most importantly Ibrahim advised IDF on the importance of communication with both the host and international partners during project implementation, any changes should be communicated in advance before implementation while regular contacts with Rotary will be excellent for a more successful project and the future.

Observations:

• Kumbo RC observed with satisfaction the ongoing activities of this project on the ground
• We will be ready to help in the PTA training on the management and sustainability of the buildings during handing over if need be
• We encouraged the ICT and library aspect of this project,
• IDF is also planning a training on income savings for parents to pay fees for their children with ease and provide other school needs for their children (this is also a good initiative)
• The training can start as soon as IDF is ready

Done in Kumbo, September 16, 2017

by

Ibrahim Yaouba

President Kumbo RC 2017-2018