Cameroon: our SBA driver, Merlin

You may probably have seen him before on our pictures, standing next to our students or the SBA team.

Let me introduce Merlin, the official driver of the SBA for our travels in Cameroon.

Merlin 

Or maybe should we say “Colonel VIP Prestige”, like the name of his taxi.

During travels in Cameroon, the SBA team prefers working with a full time taxi driver, to manage the always busy travel and meeting plans.

Merlin, taxi driver in the city of Yaounde, had previously worked for Elisabeth, President of the association. This is why she introduced him to us and we appointed him as our official taxi driver for his great pleasure.

Merlin has 4 children (3 to 10), including Merveille, in the arms of Jenna, and Lionel, in the arms of Lionel …

As we already mentioned, it is quite common in Cameroon to name a child according to a person encountered, or to honour this person. There are for example four Elisabeth in Bangangté. Merlin first encountered Lionel 3 years ago … and know Merlin became our “Colonel VIP Prestige”!

Thanks to SBA, Merlin and his family also benefit from primary care and school material for the children.

 

Cameroon: Academic results 2016-2017

We just received the results of the 2016-2017 exams from the participants of our centres. Here they are by diploma:

Baccalaureate (general and technical): 64% success

Probatoire (equivalent to Baccalaureate in 1ere): 47% success

CAP: 50%

BEPC: 50%

Exam for entry in 6eme: 100%

CEP (exam for entry in primary school): 100%

 

Regarding intermediate levels, 93% of the children get to the next level.

We are very proud of these results and of our teams, especially reading this article. According to the information published in the Cameroon press,

2017 exams reached only a 46% success rate in the country, compared to 52% in 2016.

Cameroon records 46 % success at the Baccalaureate in 2017, with 45356 admitted for 104296 registered at the Baccalaureate Office of Cameroon (OBC). Results were down compared to the provious year, where 54348 students passed their exams (52%).

The Centre Region arrived at the first place of the OBC rating with 48,99% success. It is followed by the Littoral (48,71%) and the Adamaoua (48,29%).

The English-speaking part of the country enters the OBC rating with 44,14% for the North-West and 41,16% in the South-West.”

We will keep on track next year !

 

Event: Summer 6 Stations Tournament, July 2017

For the first edition of the Summer version of the tournament, the organising team (Yann Delaigue, Stéphane Rouault, Francis Ntamack et Cedric Debrosse) chose to support Serge Betsen Academy and Rugby French Flair associations.

We enjoy the visibility offered by this event, during all this crazy week! One week allowing all these Veterans to get together over the oval ball and to share other activities with the public, especially the kids. They even walked on the water!

   

For more information about the Summer version of the 6 Stations Tournament, take a look at photos and videos on Facebook … Seeing is believing!

Unfortunately, the crowdfunding platform did not work as we expect. But we will be back for the Winter version with new ideas to collect funds and support our projects.

Testimonial: Adeline, major of the “Eau Claire” promotion

We feel intense emotions sometimes, especially when opening our mailbox and reading:

“Hello,

My name is Tchounga Tchoua Adeline. I am 18 and I was in the first promotion of the centre “L’Eau Claire” in Bangangte.

I am currently studying international business in a Cameroon’s university called IUG.

I would like to thank the association for supporting me up to this stage of my life. I will be grateful for the rest of my life and I would like to ask you to keep on doing this way, as you cannot imagine how much people you help. Words don’t come easy to tell my joy, so I can only say THANK YOU !

I am sending you my transcript of notes for this year, as a proof of my implication in pursuing my studies and because it is also my way to thank you.

Thanks again and hope to see you soon.”

It is not always easy to build the SBA, being turned down from partnership demands, managing the distance, but all the difficulties disappear against this kind of testimonial.

Thanks Adeline and congratulations for your academic year.

Donation: LaptopService provides SBA with PCs

LaptopService has always supported SBA and keeps doing a lot for us.

Following the construction of our new centre, they decided to make a donation of 10 new computers, in order to replace our old equipment.

Thanks to this donation, filling a real need, we equipped our new center of “L’Eau Claire”.

 

This donation also benefited to Adeline, 18, member of the first promotion at “L’Eau Claire”, who has been our best student at SBA for years. Pursuing his studies at the university, she needed a PC to work in better conditions.

Huge thanks to Sylvain, Julien and all the team of LaptopService !

Media: Fair-Play talking about us

When launching the new magazine Fair-Play at the beginning of the year, Serge Betsen had the opportunity to meet its director.

This new bi-monthly magazine is dedicated to the Rugby world, people and players. It also brings visibility to the women involved in this sport, those often left in the shadow. As you know we at the SBA do not compromise in this area!

In addition to all these values that we share, an association is selected by the editorial team for each edition, in order to collect £ 0,50 for each sold copy of the magazine.

Obviously, we kindly invite you to buy this magazine, supporting our association and others in the future, but also for the quality of the articles and original stories.

Enjoy reading it like Serge !

Event: 10 km Race, Great Newham, London

On July 2nd, 10 brave athletes meet the double challenge of running the 10 km of the Great Newham London Run and collect more than £ 1800 for the SBA Cooperative.

Thanks to all the athletes and friends of Renault UK, Victoria Oil and Serge Betsen Academy, who had the honour to finish the race in the iconic Queen Elisabeth Olympic Park.

Congrats !

Thanks for the £ 1800 collected for the creation of our cooperative, the SBA Coop.

 

Event: L’Assiette d’Or, Château de Janvry, June 2017

 

Following our encounter of André Gréjon at the diner “Enfance et Ovalie III” at Issy-les-Moulineaux, and also at Rungis on January 31st, he proposed us to be one of the associations benefiting from the 2017 edition of “L’Assiette d’Or”, together with our friends of Kampuchea Balopp.

“L’Assiette d’Or” is an event created in 1995 by Andie’s Factory, bringing all the Chefs together for a very busy day.

All the guests come to relax and enjoy this day in the country side.

“L’Assiette d’Or” gathers more than 500 cooking professionals each year.

Guests and partners compete for “L’Assiette d’Or”, shooting on clay targets at the Ball-Trap in the shooting area set up for the occasion.

The Castle of Janvry (France – 91) and its wide estate offer privileged places for setting up the Exibitors’ Village and the Flavours’ Village in a beautiful environment.

Thanks to this great event, the Kampuchea Balopp and Serge Betsen Academy associations could collect more than 3.600 € (1.800 € each). This will allow to support the organisation of the SBA kids’ parties.

Many thanks to SBA Ambassadors Stéphane Rouault and Vincent Deniau, who supported Jenna, the representative of the association.

Huge thanks to Andréa and André Gréjon for the invitation and the organisation !

Event : Beach Rugby, La Grande Motte, June 2017

June 10th was the day of the traditional Beach Rugby of La Grande Motte, organised by SBA’s friend Philippe Herranz.
This year, Serge Betsen Academy has been honoured to be the association which benefited from this event.
A dedicated SBA team was created on purpose. And what a team !
Serge Betsen, Martin Devergie, Sébastien Kuzbik, David Genot, William Accambray, Philippe Herranz, Didier Chouchan and Yannick Saladié

On the pitch, Cadet (youth), Women and Senior teams have succeeded one to another. The SBA team gave its all but lost the quarterfinal.

A 3.000 € donation has been offered by the organising team to support our projects, especially the organisation of the second SBA inter-centres tournament in 2018.

200 Classic All Blacks t-shirts have been offered in addition. They will be sent to Cameroon in the next coming months.
Thank you very much for your support !

More photos available here !!!

Tribute to Francis, rugby player, centre Etoudi

It is with great sadness that, upon our return from Cameroon, we learned of the tragic death of Francis.  He was one of our founding players and a regular at the centre in Etoudi.  Always laughing and the envy on the field.  Our thoughts go out to his children and relatives.