Volunteer : Théophile, Maths Teacher at the Bafia centre

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Théophile is a maths teacher. Three years ago, one of his students told him about the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) and since that day he comes to the centre every weekend to help our students:

“I try to assist them with their problems, to facilitate their understanding of the lessons and I put my knowledge at their disposal.” He adds: “I chose to teach and I like helping the children of the centre. I take great pleasure in teaching here because the students are welcoming and available. I come to the SBA Bafia centre because I like it”.

What he also appreciates: the mutual respect (vertically and horizontally) between the children of different ages and the teachers. Here the atmosphere is friendly and good natured.

Translation by Katy Birgé-Wilson

Théophile

Partnership: The Wasps Legends Charitable Foundation awarded us a new grant!

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Huge thanks to the Wasps Legends Charitable Foundation for awarding us a grant worth £2,500 during its virtual gathering. Even during the coronavirus lockdown, we can still count on the Wasps family!

It is an honor to be supported by the Wasps community along with other great charities. We are proud of using rugby to make a positive impact on the life of Cameroonian kids!

This grant will be used for the campaign of malaria, as we had during Covid19 more malaria cases with the kids than never before. We still don‘t know if it is due to the fact that more kids and families in general come to our clinics because they trust us and especially the nurses or, if it is because the drugs for malaria are missing due to the frontiers being closed and no medication is coming from Europe or the US.
Through this campaign of malaria, we want to cover our 5 centers.

Thanks again to all the Wasps Legends for your generosity!

For those who want to read more about the amazing efforts made by former Wasps players, please read their article here.

Volunteer: Christelle, contributing artist at the Jardin Eden centre

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Christelle has two hats: that of a law student and that of a self-taught painter.

Four times a week, when she is not working in her workshop, she attends law school. During her free time, she’s off to the centre of Jardin Eden to lend a helping hand to Nadege with the children.

Christelle helps the children to develop their creativity by introducing them to drawing, painting and animated songs! She teaches them the basics: primary colours, geometric shapes; and asks them to use their imagination because “children are fine creators”.

She has been working with the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) since 2013 and endeavours to convey her love for the Cameroonian culture. In her works, she loves to represent rural women, musicians playing drums, griots (who are traditional performers who sing stories and tales) and fields. She wishes that the children living in towns also know the traditions of their ancestors! And indeed, the creation of the vegetable garden of Jardin Eden and the lessons around the germination of seeds are part of the same approach!

Christelle would like to warmly thank our donors and sponsors: “We work hard with the children to make our donors proud! Each child and each manager goes above and beyond to become better! A big thank you to all of you!”

 

Translation by Katy Birgé-Wilson

Volunteer: Nadege, Manager of the Jardin Eden centre

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Nadege started working for the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) in 2010. She first got to know the wives of two expatriates; they were involved in a project for a children centre. These two ladies then approached the SBA and this is how the story between Nadege and the SBA started in Yaoundé.

Nadege is a housewife and she goes every afternoon from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Jardin Eden centre to look after the children aged 5 to 11. Drawing, colouring, painting, mathematics, French, English … the children do not have time to get bored!

Through games, songs and after-school tutoring, Nadège wishes to convey values to children such as: “respect, sharing, love, the taste for work and the fellowship between children and adults”. And she adds: “the children bring me lots of pride, serenity … I love to see them smile, grow and flourish. Their progress is my pride!”

From the bottom of her heart Nadege thanks the donors: “The children here are special, they don’t have much but they do wonders with the little they have! Please continue to help our little ones and our young people, they work so hard!”

Translation by Katy Birgé-Wilson

Volunteer: Jean-Cyrille, Manager of the Bafia centre

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Jean-Cyrille Monthe is in charge of the Bafia centre but is also a Senior Education Advisor.

He was born in the capital Yaoundé but he fell in love with the Bafia region (some 130Km away, to the north) and decided to live there. In 2007, he discovered the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA), and since he has worked hard to help children develop and gain self-confidence through after-school tutoring and sport.

Jean-Cyrille was keen to create a Large Family where mutual aid and sharing are the key words! His typical day: “It’s a day of coaching and advice; children are not alone!” As for rugby: this “slightly wacky sport” allows his students to learn team spirit, solidarity and creativeness!

It is with great enthusiasm and emotion that he thanks all the volunteers and donors of the SBA for their involvement and support.

 

Translation by Katy Birgé-Wilson

Volunteer: Abaa, Manager of the Zoétélé centre

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Abaa discovered rugby at the University of Yaoundé. Following an ill-treated injury, he put his career aside to promote the practice of rugby in rural areas! This is how he came to choose Zoétélé, his mother’s village, to share his passion for rugby with the children.

In 2009, he met for the first time the coaches of the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) who were offering training for rugby coaches. In 2013, he became rugby coordinator in Cameroon for the SBA and it was the year 2018 in which he assumed the role of manager of our new school support centre in Zoétélé.

During rugby training and after-school tutoring sessions, Abaa wants the centre to become a place of expression for these children. He also wants to convey values such as respect, sharing, going beyond oneself, altruism and living together.

His word to donors? : “Please, continue to support us as you do and give us strength, we have work to do!”

Translation by Katy Birgé-Wilson

Volunteer: Djibril, Manager of the Eau Claire centre in Bangangté

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Djibril has worked for the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) for over 10 years and is now the manager of the Eau Claire centre in Bangangté, a city in the West of Cameroon. Born locally, he works hard day after day allowing children to have access to after-school tutoring lessons in the best possible conditions. Keen on welcoming the children in the best possible way, afternoon snacks and meals are provided twice a week to allow children to study on a full stomach!

Very involved in the community and his city where he knows everyone and is known from everyone too, Djibril was also project manager for the works carried out on the Netah nursery school, supported by the SBA. He regularly pays visits to the children of the school and notably led a discovery and initiation rugby session in March.

On the sporting side, he is in charge of the Bangangté rugby team. He is however more familiar with combat sports and swimming, but still Djibril gives a lot of his time and energy to encourage his young people to flourish in this sport.

Djibril would like to “warmly thank the volunteers and donors for the help they provide” and adds: “Thanks to your support, the academic results are excellent and we can see the pride on the faces of our young people when they hold their diploma in their hand”.

Translation by Katy Birge-Wilson

 

Djibril

Volunteer: Josephine is doing research to help us launch new SBA projects.

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A big welcome to Josephine, our new volunteer!

Josephine was at the Lycee Rochambeau in Washington DC. Holding her French Baccalaureate since Friday afternoon! CONGRATS, she is doing an internship at the Serge Betsen Academy USA until the end of the month alongside our CEO, Odile Prevot before starting her Bachelor in Political Science at McGill in Montreal. Using her analytical skills, Josephine is working on our new projects.  Stay tuned to find out more!

Josephine’s help is much appreciated and we would like to THANK her on behalf of all the SBA children.

Partnership: Our Rugby project for Kids has received a “Sport & Development” grant!

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It is with great pride and joy that we can announce that our project “Rugby for Kids (girls and boys)” is one of the winners of, and as such has been awarded funding by, Sport & Développement (Sport & Development), a programme of the ONG La Guilde (The European Guild), supported by AFD – Agence Française de Développement (French Development Agency).

At the Jardin Eden centre, the end of 2019 saw the budding start of an initiation to rugby carried out by Moise our coach at Etoudi and this try was successfully converted. This programme will be able to take on a new dimension thanks to this “Sport & Development” grant of 20,000 € ($ 22,680). 50 kids will indeed be able to discover rugby, respect, team spirit, healthy competition, avoid the “girls-boys” stereotypes and benefit from a structured education and medical care. We are so happy for these children and their families who, thanks to this programme, will have an easier daily life and a better future.

This programme will be set up in the Jardin Eden centre of Yaoundé and the centre of Zoétélé starting from August 2020. It will benefit 26 girls and 24 boys, aged from 2 to 13, from deprived families. They have hoped to play rugby for so many years, watching their big brothers and sisters of the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) and their dream will come true sooner than expected!

The  kids will play rugby once a week, in a way designed as a safe awakening activity and will discover the fundamentals of this sport and its values. They will benefit very early on from a structured education on the rugby field but also on the benches of our centres during after school tutoring classes. They will be able to participate in these classes every afternoon from Monday to Friday at the Jardin Eden centre and on Saturdays and Sundays at the Zoétélé centre, throughout the whole year.

They will also have access to basic health care. They will go through an initial medical check-up, organised in August 2020, and then will carry on having medical monitoring throughout the project. In addition, on training days the children will enjoy a snack and will be taught hygiene rules.

We would warmly like to thank the ONG La Guilde (The European Guild) and AFD – Agence Française de Développement (French Development Agency) for their support and their trust, as well as Michèle Quenardel, our volunteer for all the help given to our team in responding to the call for projects.

We can’t wait to get the little ones from the SBA playing! Do not forget to follow the set-up of the #Rugby4Kids project on our social networks, because this project will make happy players and maybe we’ll see the emergence of mini Serge Betsens!

Translation by Katy Birgé-Wilson

 

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

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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!