Our success stories: Djanabou is a 27 year-old girl who is learning to read and write at SBA!

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Djanabou is a 27-year-old Muslim woman who lives in Yaoundé. She wanted to learn to read and write but could not afford to go back to school, so she got in touch with the Jardin Eden center to ask for help.

Nadège, Manager of the center immediately welcomed her in the center and started to teach her how to read and write! The young woman has been attending the center every day for the last 8 months and has made tremendous progress since her arrival!

At SBA, we are proud of offering support for all without exception and we encourage girls to make their dreams come true and to do as well as boys. We believe in the potential of African girls and women and fight for their education and the establishment of a generation of equality. Empowering girls and changing mentalities are crucial.

On the occasion of the #WomensInternationalDay on # 08March2020, we are happy to honor Djanabou and her fight for an access to education.

 

Cameroon: Help us end the stigma about menstruation!

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Because a girl’s period should not be a barrier to education, we’ve decided to distribute menstrual hygiene products to the girls of  our centers. Often girls miss school when they have their period, that’s why we’re actively working on a sustainable project to make our own washable pads in order to change the daily life of our girls. Menstruation is really nothing to be ashamed of, Odile Prevot, our CEO has decided to start talking about it! Let’s read her thoughts here:

“If Rugby is the vector, the excuse or serves as a hook to bring pupils together out of the street, the Serge Betsen Academy is fighting for every single child to be able to go to school.

While in Cameroon and Mali these last few months I got to spend more time with the girls of our centers. As CEO of the SBA I have been focusing particularly on the girls, their education, their role, their future, their problems and how to resolve them.

A number of our girls are missing schools during their periods as they’re unable to afford sanitary products. Some of them are improvising protections using rags, leaves, newspapers. Why? Whilst menstruation is one of the most ordinary individual female experiences, the discussion of menstruation in Africa is complicated due to cultural and social attitudes.

It’s not a new problem, but it’s not going away, and it’s time to take action: a girl absent from school due to menstruation loses on average 2 weeks of learning in every school term.

In 2020, we decided to distribute menstrual hygiene products so that no girls shall be excluded from education, no girls shall be ashamed of menstruation, no girls shall miss class and sport activities due to their periods. Help us break down the stigma!”

 

Partnership: Six IPAG Business School students set the goal of raising € 3000 for the SBA !

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A team of 6 IPAG Business School students all in their first year of Master launched a crowdfunding campaign with the aim to collect € 3,000 (USD 3,380) for the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA). This initiative was part of a Start Up and Business model course.

SBA is a cause they have at heart and especially for Louise and her family who already proved to be a big SBA support in the past. The funds collected will allow the purchase of school items and school uniforms and will also cover payment of school tuitions for the children of the association for the next 2020-2021 school year.

Our thanks go to Louise, Julie, Francois, Quentin, Osman and Nathan for this great support!

To help their campaign reach its target please don’t hesitate to like their facebook page Sba_Ipag, to follow them on twitter @SBA_IPAG and to talk about them around you.

You can access the crowdfunding campaign with the following link:

→ https://fr.ulule.com/sba_ipag/supporters/

Bear in mind that your donations will contribute to a better future for these children via our Education programme. Every contribution is a step forward to the happiness of these children.

Have a look below at the video presenting the project:

Translation by Marc Fayemi

Cameroon: School and exam results for the year 2018-2019

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It is with great pride that we announce our children’s school scores for the year 2018-2019. We are happy to announce that this year saw the highest promotion rate to the next grade for all classes (86.67%) and a great success rate of 94.44% for the BEPC. 79.17% of our children got their Baccalauréat. We are so proud of our children and so thankful to our partners, without whom this would not be possible.

👏 Congratulations to all our students from the SBA who passed their exam.

Video: The charity’s new presentation

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Thanks to our partnership with the Le Vestiaire Agency, we have created a new video to present our projects and actions in Cameroon.

You can check it out here: Présentation SBA 2019

 

Partnership: Spend a night at a hotel with your partner and support the Serge Betsen Academy!

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The Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) supports the SOLIKEND initiative, a new hotel reservation site based on a unique solidarity concept.

“Book your hotel and support charities. 100% of your fees for your stay will be paid to the charity of your choice.” The concept is explained in this video (in French):

An original and meaningful gift card for Valentine’s Day:

The SOLIKEND X Serge Betsen Academy gift card allows you to offer a stay in a superb selection of 2* to 5* hotels across France.

It is also a strong gesture for our charity as 100% of the card amount is donated to the Serge Betsen Academy.

 

How does it work?

  1. Order your gift e-card (from 50 € – equivalent of USD 56,5) on this page.
  2. The gift card will be sent directly to you by e-mail: all you have to do is print it out or forward it to the recipient.
  3. The card allows the recipient to book any of the partner hotels (more than 70 hotels) and is valid for of 2 years on all SOLIKEND offers; you can redeem it on one or more occasions.
  4. At the end of your stay, 100% of the amount of the card is transferred by the hotel owner to the SBA.

Solidarity guarantee: When the card expires (after 2 years), any unused amount left on the card will be transferred by SOLIKEND to the SBA.

Find out here more information. 

 

For any questions, the SOLIKEND team is at your disposal on +33 (0)5 59 43 85 05 or by email at: contact@solikend.com.

 

Translation by Katy Birgé-Wilson

Partnership: The ‘Recycling Rugby’ campaign reached an astonishing € 50,000 in less than 4 years.

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In nearly 4 years the Recycling Rugby  campaign collected and donated € 50,000 to our association. You can help them reach another milestone in 2020 for the benefit of our children in need.

Take the opportunity and have a look at the Recycling Rugby  new items!

Luxury bags, week-end getaway bags, toilet bags have been added alongside the usual and popular items made with recycled rugby balls.

Don’t wait and place an order via the facebook page. As a reminder 100% of the profit is donated to the SBA!

This partnership is the fruit of a long lasting and solid friendship between Lionel and Serge. Lionel’s engagement to the SBA children cause has been witnessed during his trips and initiatives like this intervention he made to a group of French young people to talk about ecology, charity work and to raise awareness about the issues that underprivileged children face in poor countries.

Recycling Rugby bag

 

Translation by Marc Fayemi

Cameroon: Celebrating the festive seasons in our centres

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Our various centres celebrated Christmas, each in their very own way this year, with great joy. Bright Christmas tree for the little ones of the Jardin Eden, Get together and dance the night away for the rugby players of Etoudi and their coach Moise, same thing at the Bafia centre and a generous dinner a Bangangté, which was embellished with beautiful decorations to celebrate Christmas and the start of 2020.

Our little ones really worked hard to decorate the place and they shared a good dinner filled with joy.

Thanks to you, friends and donors of the SBA, these children and their families contemplate the future with serenity. The education that they receive gives them hope and confidence.

Eau Claire Center during the Festive Season  Eau Claire Center during the Festive Season

Christmas and New Year Party at the Bafia Center  Christmas decoration at the Bafia center

Christmas dinner at the Bafia center  Christmas dinner at the Bafia center

Christmas dinner in Etoudi  Christmas dinner Etoudi

Christmas dinner Jardin Eden  Christmas dinner Jardin Eden

Christmas dinner Jardin Eden

Mali: TV report

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Our study trip in Mali is already on the new bulletin of Nieta TV.

Watch it here (in French) to find out more about the objectives of our visit:

 

 

Mali: Study trip in Mali

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Serge Betsen and Odile Prevot went to Mali for a study trip in early January to meet rugby players from Bamako, discuss with their coaches and possibly duplicate the Serge Betsen Academy in another country on the African continent.

Rugby matches in Mali

Rugby matches were organized in Bamako on the occasion of the visit of Serge Betsen and Odile Prevot who quickly realized that rugby was bringing lost of joy in Mali. Transposing the SBA to Mali would mean sharing our passion and the values ​​of rugby to the country’s youth and carry on using our sport as a vector for development.

It was also an honor for Serge and Odile to meet Arouna Modibo Touré, Minister of Youth and Sports of Mali, in order to discuss about the transposition of the SBA in Mali. Together we want to strengthen the African rugby, share the passion and values ​​of this sport which means so much to us and make it a real vector for development!

Arouna Modibo Touré, Serge Betsen and Odile

Finally, all the SBA team would like to thank very much H.E. Mahamadou Nimaga for enabling us to discover his country from Washington DC. Thanks to him, this trip in Mali was a real success!

Mahamadou Nimaga and Odile Prevot in Washington DC