At the end of January our General Secretary, Odile, travelled to Cameroon.

An emotional journey, especially in regards to those in Bangangté, when she witnessed the final renovation of the school in Fatgo’o.

Thanks to the donations from the Foundation Sisley-d’Ornano, we were able to renovate the kindergarten class of the school in Fatgo’o and dig them a well.  The later will be completed by the end of April.  Odile’s visit to the site allowed the local officials, parents, future partners, and the television station Vox Africa to be present for the ceremony celebrating the new construction.

The Vox Africa coverage can be found here:

-At the 15’51” mark: http://www.voxafrica.com/barao-afrika/video/?v=0_hu44rgcz

– http://www.voxafrica.com/info/video/0_pc82edzv/cameroun-le-succes-de-lassociation-serge-betsen-academy/

Odile’s visit was also beneficial as she signed the purchase of land not far from the school in Fatgo’o in order to relocate our centre L’Eau Claire in 2017.  The administrative steps are in order and the act of sale has been signed. The demarcation should take place on 18 April.  We hope to start work this summer on the site.  Our SBA rugby men will help clear the site, which will allow them to earn a little money while helping the SBA.

You can see pictures from the trip at the following link: https://goo.gl/photos/X5eW6d9P3iDGtkd29

During her trip, Odile was able to meet with several enterprise heads in Yaoundé, both French and Cameroonian in order to find internships or jobs for the young adults of the SBA.  The clinic l’Université des Montagnes has agreed to summer internship for Roselyn and 8 CVs have been left with a building company in hopes of placing some of our resourceful students from the SBA Etoudi centre in Yaoundé.

Among other new projects put in place during Odile’s visit was a new partnership signed into being with a Cameroonian association, Arbre à Musique.   So now the children from the SBA centre Jardin Eden will share the premises with Arbre à  Musique. Its founder, who is originally from Cameroon, helps children flourish thanks to music.  Along with music it is a very enriching program that also offers extra assistance to students passing their BAC with remedial courses and support from professors of the Lycée of Yaoundé.  This is not a rugby centre, but one based on music and art with our resident artist, Christelle.

Odile also visited our Bafia centre where we offer housing to some children as you can see on the Vox Africa report.  If “life is a long quiet river” as some say, then life in Bafia can be the complete opposite.  Life in Africa shows us certain realities: famine, distress, lack of supplies, lack of clothes, incest, disease, shortage of electricity… many of these things that we take for granted in the West and that we at the SBA cannot ignore.  At our Bafia centre we share 528 meals per month, host 6 children, pay for Jacky to be trained as a seamstress so she can come work at the centre in 18 months, pay for rent for a female student and her disabled mother, as well as tuition and medical care for all the children of the centre.  Our success at this centre is due to our Chairperson in country, Dr. Ngamy, and our Centre Director, Jean Cyrille.

This visit Odile was unable to visit our centre in Zoetele, but was able to meet with the director, Abba.  In February a rugby tournament was organized and the SBA was honoured.  In November our Rugby manager and volunteer, Lionel, will travel to Cameroon to work with the rugby teams.

Overall it was a very successful and productive trip!  Odile enjoyed being back with her ‘children’.