Tag Archive for: ZOETELE

Cameroon: Distinguished guests on their visit to the Zoétélé centre

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On Wednesday, December 7, the new Ambassador of France to Cameroon, H.E. Mr. Thierry Marchand accompanied by Mr. Yann Lorvo, Director of the SCAC (Cooperation and Cultural Action Service), together with Mrs. Virginie Dago, Director of AFD – Agence Française de Développement (French Development Agency) in Cameroon, and also Germain Peyraud and Cyndie Marques of PLAY International and James Mbongo of the Diambars Institute came to visit the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) centre of Zoetelé. Also making the trip were the Deputy of the Sub-Prefect and Mr. Paul Aristide Bomba, Mayor of Zoétélé.

 

 

It was a great honour for the children of the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA) to welcome all our guests. They greeted them with much enthusiasm prior to showing them around the centre, introducing them to the activities they enjoy on site and then demonstrating their rugby skills.

Our Zoétélé centre welcomes 45 children, which provides them with school support, medical care and control, and of course rugby training. Laurette, a young coach trained by Abaa the manager of the centre, led the rugby training session on December 7. One after the other the different groups put their best rugby-foot forward: the 3-9 year olds from the centre who played a relay game, the 10-13 year olds who played touch rugby, then the 10 girls aged 13-16 who made a few passes and played a five-a-side game, and finally the oldest boys who played a game of rugby 7.

The visit was orchestrated by Abaa Louis Paul, manager of the Zoétélé centre, with the help of Sylvie Ledard, our Project Manager who travelled from France, with our volunteer Christophe, for this occasion. Sylvie and Christophe are currently accompanying the PLAY International and Diambars Instituteteams in their tour of SBA centres. The AFD – French Development Agency has initiated an “Academies” program to be piloted by PLAY International and the Diambars Institute. Among the beneficiaries of this program is the Serge Betsen Academy; so this tour, scheduled for the next few days, aims to carry out an assessment of our centres. Through this program, the SBA is supported over the next three years, to the tune of 165 million West African CFA Franc- XOF (just over $267,000).

Our association had already benefited from the support of the AFD through a donation of 26 million XOF ($42,114) within the framework of the “Sport and Development” program of La Guilde. This then made it possible, between 2020 and 2022, to see 50 young children play rugby in the Zoétélé and Jardin Eden centres in Yaoundé and provide them with school support and medical monitoring.

We would like to warmly thank everyone present on December 7, first and foremost our distinguished guests.

We would also like to thank all those who provided support, as well as the media who came specially to cover the event! A big thank you to Yannick Zanga from Cameroon Tribune for his article reviewing this beautiful day; read here.

 

Below are some photos and videos from the rugby training:

   
 

 

Below, photos of the arrival of Sylvie, our Project Manager with her eleven suitcases containing donations from France so that we could spoil the children of the centres over Christmas and a photo with Bélinga, the nurse of the Centre and her assistant, caregiver, Celestine:

 

 

The centre’s three teachers and our nurse were also present for this very special visit. Laurette, tutor for the centre’s exam classes and rugby coach, as well as Charlène, who is also a teacher at the centre, produced a thank-you video:

Translation: Katy Birgé-Wilson

Cameroon: Our children were happy to receive donations of clothes and toys

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Christophe collected the equivalent of 4 suitcases of clothes and toys from those around him. We would like to give a massive thank you to the donors for their generosity as well as Christophe for his support.

 

Thank you to Emmanuel Ayet, Rémy Ayet, Nastasia Cervantes, Julien Pogeant, Christine Breux, Sandrine Gauthier and Pierre Azemar!

Tuesday was the 4th time that Christophe met Merlin, logistics manager of the Serge Betsen Academy, to handover donations. This time, he was also able to meet the little ones from Jardin Eden as well as Christelle and Moise. He also got two new tables for the Jardin Eden centre, that the little ones were delighted to inaugurate.

The donations will be dispatched and shared between the different centres of SBA Cameroon.

Les affaires ont ensuite été dispatchées entre les différents centres de la SBA Cameroun.

  • Donations for the Jardin Eden centre:

   

   

 

  • Distribution of the donations at the Zoétélé centre:

 

   

  • Distribution at the Bafia centre:

  • Distribution at the Eau Claire centre in Bangangté

 

Distribution des donations au centre Eau Claire

Translation: Katy Birgé-Wilson

Cameroon: Our rugby project for kids is gaining momentum!

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50 toddlers (26 girls and 24 boys) from the Jardin Eden centre in Yaoundé and the Zoétélé centre, now play rugby in a well-equipped and safe environment. They are all insured and proudly wear the chasubles and belts created by Herode, a local seamstress. They use the official Touch Rugby game belts and tags. Their coaches also benefit from abundant equipment, provided by the equipment manufacturer, CitySport run by Pierre Ndébi, allowing them to vary the exercises and to introduce their students to the fundamentals of rugby.

 

Rugby for Kids training  Rugby for Kids training

Rugby for Kids training  

   

 

Through this program, all these children, whose families have great financial difficulties, play rugby on a weekly basis, discover its structure and its values, and are able to share a snack together. By following this program, they also have access to after-school tutoring and health checks in our centres.

It is thanks to Sport & Développement (French program of the NGO La Guilde, supported by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD)) that these 50 children from the Cameroonian SBA, aged between 2 and 13, that “Rugby for Kids” exists.

We warmly thank the NGO La Guilde and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) for their support and trust, as well as Herode for using her talents as a seamstress to make the outfits for our little champions and Mr. Pierre Ndébi from City Sport Cameroon.

Translation : Katy Birgé-Wilson

Cameroon: School results for the year 2019-2020

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We are very proud to share with you the academic results of our children for the school year 2019-2020. It was a very odd year; due to the pandemic schools and our centres were obliged to close for several months. However the results turned out clearly higher than the national average because our children knew how to remain serious and they continued to study, motivated by the managers of the centres.

Regarding the baccalaureate (general and technical), the SBA success rate reached 70.37% (the national rate is 47.22%).  The SBA pass rate for the BEPC is 90% (the national rate is 60.86%).  Finally, the general success rate (all classes combined, exam success and entry to the superior class) reached 86.03%.

We warmly congratulate our young people on their successes and we take this opportunity to thank our donors and partners who made it possible for our children to study in good conditions.

You will see below some souvenir photos of the young people whilst studying in our different centres during this complicated year.

Les jeunes de Bafia travaillent Soutien scolaire individuel à Bafia

Cours de soutien scolaire au centre Eau Claire  Jeunes de Zoétélé qui étudient

Les petits et Nadège au centre Jardin Eden

Translation : Katy Birgé-Wilson

Cameroon: It’s back to school for the 2020-2021 school year!

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Due to the health crisis, the school calendar has been severely disrupted in Cameroon. So it was only on Monday 05 October 2020 that our children and their classmates were able to return to school. We wish them a good start to the school year and are determined to give them all the support they need to make this new year a success.

Thanks to the generosity of our partners and donors, our children were able to return to school well equipped. Distributions were carried out with joy in all the centres at the start of the school year. Often, on these occasions, small parties around a snack were organised. At the Eau Claire centre of Bangangté 125 children were happy to receive their treasures and to share a good meal together. At the Zoétélé centre, a ceremony was even organised by Abaa in the presence of the second degree village chief and a few parents, in order to distribute the school supplies and to provide scholarships to support education.

Distribution at the Eau Claire centre in Bangangté Distribution at the Eau Claire centre in Bangangté

ceremony distribution in Zoetele ceremony distribution in Zoetele

Distribution school supply and school bags in Bafia  Distribution school supply and school bags in Bafia

Distribution at the Jardin Eden centre Distribution at the Jardin Eden centre Distribution at the Jardin Eden centre

All the children at the Serge Betsen Academy (SBA), whether young or old, now proudly carry a well-stocked backpack.  These pretty “Victor bags” named after our donor Victor Obadia were made by Clarisse, a seamstress from Yaoundé, close to the SBA.

Victor school bags

It is notably thanks to the BIC group, to Mr. Arnopoulos of the ARNO group, to Icrafon following the efforts of Victor Roussel, Secretary of DROP (Doualla Rugby Old Papy’s) and to the other generous donors of the Ulule campaign created by a team of students at IPAG Business School, that our children have the necessary school supplies for the school year and that our centres are equipped with books and supplies.

Icrafon Victor Icrafon Victor

The BIC group gave us 1200 pens of each colour (blue, green, red and black) as well as a few boxes of pencils and felt pens which were distributed to our various centres. And to complete this collection, we were able to purchase other supplies useful to the centres thanks to the voucher of 120,000 FCFA (= 183 euros) that Mr Arnopoulos donated, as he did the previous year.

BIC donation BIC donation

For our rugby training, we were able to renew our stock of equipment thanks to the generosity of our donors in France and in particular to Hubert and Christophe. Hubert sent boxes containing 41 jerseys and 24 shorts for our rugby players as well as children’s clothing and toys.

Rugby equipment from Hubert Rugby equipment from Hubert

As for Christophe, he took care of transporting other boxes of rugby equipment to Yaoundé.  These were packages filled with sports’ vests, rugby polo shirts but also books that Christophe left in Etoudi. He arrived during a rugby training session so that our players and Moise had the joy of meeting him and thanking him in person.

Christophe and the rugbbymen of Etoudi Christophe and the rugbbymen of Etoudi

As for our infirmaries, we also stocked up on Laborex medicines and paramedical products offered by the DROP. In September, Victor, DROP’s Secretary came to train with our Bangangté rugby team. On this occasion, he handed over the school supplies offered by Icrafon as well as the Laborex medicines offered directly by DROP. Victor went to great lengths to enable us to receive these donations and we thank him very much.

Donation of medicines from the DROP

A huge thank you to all the donors for allowing our children to return to school well equipped!

 

Translation : Katy Birgé-Wilson

 

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

 

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.

Cameroon : Trip in April 2015

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Pictures : here !!!

On April 18th Serge Betsen, Lionel Quenardel a SBA volunteer who is a professor of EPS at Diderot Massy, and Jenna our SBA project leader arrived in Cameroon.  Serge and Lionel stayed one week, while Jenna stayed for over a month to assist the Cameroon SBA directors.

Upon our arrival the centre L’eau Claire, we were greeted by the Bangangté rugby team, Djibril who is the centre’s director, and Elisabeth the SBA’s president in Cameroon.

We were pleasantly surprised as we were greeted with the local Haka in Medumba, the local language, which was performed by the rugby players!  The originality of this Haka had its charm, but also instilled some fear from the performers!

 

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Cameroon: Lionel, our ambassador visits the centres

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Lionel Quenardel, volunteer in the association for several years, came back from a week in Cameroon after visiting the centers of the SBA with his girlfriend and a friend.

Flaskback on his journey.

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Zoétélé: Volunteers from V2R renovate the centre

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For some of us, this year was our third visit to Cameroon, for some others it was the fifth one.

This time we went to Zoétélé to renovate the rugby centre of SBA. Everything went well, the building was not in such a bad state but it needed to be refreshed. Some children of the centre even helped us. We were really moved by their welcome with their dances and songs; they taught us how to dance!

Leaving the village was a really emotional moment, as we had to say goodbye to the children after they thanked us for the work we did through traditional dances, songs and a short play. They came to our hotel to wish us a nice trip back to France; we took some pictures together. Like every year it was moving to leave these children we got attached to so quickly.

Of course we would love to go back to Cameroon in the future because it’s an intense trip that makes us grow and that increases our awareness of many things. We have the chance to support children who needs help, to meet new people, to see a new culture… We will also always remember the tournament and rugby training in Zoétélé school, because it is great to see children being so much involved in this sport, whereas they live in a football country and in such difficult environment…Congratulations!”

The youth of Perpignan

Tag Archive for: ZOETELE