May 2020 – Serge Betsen Academy

Thank you: During this challenging and difficult period we have been fortunate to be supported by many of you!

May 18, 2020/in News /by Mailys Finel

We would like to sincerely thank all those who came and helped our children during this period of crisis. Our first thoughts go towards the managers of our centres who are managing the food distribution and also to Christelle, our volunteer from the Jardin Eden centre who is generously handing out afternoon snacks to the children living close to hers.

We would also like to thank all our sponsors who continue to be alongside us despite the challenging context. We would like to take the opportunity to thank Carole who organised a fundraising through Facebook for her birthday. Thanks to Carole and her friends, two Cameroonian designers were able to make 282 reusable masks for the children of our centres.

Finally our thanks go to our new volunteers Brice, France, Claire, Kathryn, Florent, Marc and Arnaud who have recently dedicated some of their time to do some translation and research works for the SBA.

We’re happy to see the SBA family growing!

Cameroon: Besides Covid-19 our children are still at risk of multiple other threats

May 13, 2020/in Actions, News /by Mailys Finel

Odile Prevot wishes to share her concerns on the multiple threats looming over the future of our children and their families. Africa’s population is young with 60% of Africans aged below 25; Covid-19 is a severe threat but the continent is still most affected by HIV, malaria and malnutrition, with around 2.5 million victims each year despite the existence of treatments.

SBA children live with less than $1,8 a day and while exchanging with one of our manager, he reported that “for some children being in lockdown means nothing, lockdown measures are for wealthy people. For us we have to work to get food”. This is the reason why we at SBA need you. It is to feed and treat the children. Last week the Eau Claire centre took care of 5 children who contracted malaria, one of them with a severe fever. He managed to get through it but how many will not? The World Health Organisation (WHO) is warning: “The number of Malaria deaths in Sub Saharan Africa may reach up to 769,000 in 2020, hence doubling the number reported in 2018. Such a high mortality rate was not recorded in the past 20 years”.

We should absolutely not forget that malaria is still a day to day threat in Africa and kills even more than Covid-19.

Please help our children against malaria by making a donation!

Cameroon: Help us feed our children and save lives during the pandemic!

May 2, 2020/in Actions, News /by Mailys Finel

During this COVID-19 pandemic, the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) families living in desperate conditions are especially vulnerable. Our new priority is therefore to fight hunger by distributing food to these families.

After implementing further hygiene procedures in our centres and educating our volunteers and the children, the SBA board took the decision to close all centres in order to limit the spread of the virus, and to protect our children, their families and our team. Only the Eau Claire infirmary is still open in order to help those who are sick in the village.

We have disinfected all the centres and set up an emergency food assistance scheme. Since our centres closed on March 18, each child has already received two bags of food, with essential items making us the meals normally served in our centres.

Our goal is to cope with food insecurity by organizing at least one round of food distribution per week in our centres. The managers of our centres will always try to diversify the food they offer depending on the supply available in the village markets.

If you would like to help us, the best way is to make a financial donation so that we can distribute more food to the SBA supported families. You can either make a one-off donation for the amount of your choice, or become one of our sponsors by making monthly donations.

EVERY $1 YOU DONATE PROVIDES 6 MEALS TO OUR KIDS!

Help us fight children hunger now!

Please find here some photos of our food distributions:

Distribution of food at the Eau Claire centre: