January 07, 2009

Why do we need a vehicle?

For security reasons, for the past two years we have often used private vehicles for transportation which was very expensive. Public transport is time consuming because the vehicles do not leave unless they are full and overloaded. To make it profitable drivers put too many people inside and children, bags, heavy bags wit potatoes, beans, corn, containers with palm oil, kerosene, live animals, etc. go into the trunk or ont he top. There is no way one can safely carry science lab equipment in such conditions. In addition, drivers often go too fast on bad dirt roads. It will be cheaper, faster and more secure to have our own vehicle like all other non-profits in Cameroon, with which to carry books, school or building supplies or whatever else we need.

We chose a used Toyota Hilax pick up truck (photograph attached). We need to raise about $8,000 to purchase one. A Swiss NGO, MIVA, provides the second half of the money needed for purchase. It will cost about $2,800 for one year for gas an maitenance.

Our Success Stories


VERDZEKOV DIVINE LUNGLA

Born on the 12th of August 1980 in to the family of Mr./Mrs. Jaff Lucas Verdzekov, I went to Presbyterian Primary School Nseh in Nso in Bui Division of the North West Region of Cameroon. After seven years of primary education, I was admitted at the Government Secondary School Tatum in 1994. Two years later, we were blessed with Mrs. Pavla Zakova – a US Peace Corps Volunteer who came in as a biology teacher. Together with other teachers in what can only be described as a supportive caring and dedicated staff environment, I was schooled through the interactive teaching approach made possible in small classrooms until 1999 when I graduated after writing the G.C.E Ordinary Level certificate exams.

Dark clouds started looming around my educational part, as my parents were not ready to single handedly financed my higher education. As subsistence farmers and with six of us to carter for, it became clear that that my educational career was going to end prematurely. However, Madame Pavla will always stand out for me because of her accommodating approach to education “assisting good, needy and intelligent students”
With the creation of Educare-Africa to help ameliorate the conditions of teachers and students in Cameroon, I was fortunate to be selected amongst her beneficiaries. Even though the assistance I got from Educare-Africa did not cover all my expenses, it is thanks to it that I completed from Government High School Kumbo with an Advanced Level Certificate in History and Geography. Through re-application and subsequent assistance from Educare-Africa, I later went to the University of Buea Cameroon where I did Women and Gender Studies together with Sociology and Anthropology for four years and came out with a double degree with an average of 2.97/4 in the above disciplines in 2007.
After graduation from the university, I volunteer for Community Education and Development Services (CEDS) Bamenda – a woman focused N.G.O. There I served as a program coordinator in charge of Advocacy, Networking and Lobbying till November 2008. At the moment, I am currently working as a Social Welfare Officer with the Diocesan Family Life Office for the Diocese of Kumbo specifically providing assistance to single parents and people living with HIV/AIDS on several incomes generating activities and other survival strategies.
It is still my wish to further my education through the Masters and PHD Levels to be able to better serve my nation. My field experience working with women and in particular the less privileged in mostly remote areas of the North West Region of Cameroon are now the contributing factors behind my desire for further knowledge within the disciplines of Women and Gender / Sociology and Anthropology. These are the desires of many good, needy and intelligent students in Africa and Cameroon in particular.

Educare-Africa Center

Why did we decide to establish this Center?
In 2007, two rooms in the house that we have been using for the past four years were already rented when we arrived so we were forced to use a larger parlor, which was without ceiling, very drafty and had many leaks. That was a hint that we needed to look for our own place.

What do we plan for the Center?
- Educare-Africa office, of course
- Public library with public internet services
- A dormitory for 12 outstanding female students
- Computer lab for teaching students, teachers and th epublic
- Several guest rooms
- Housekeeper, who will live on the ground and take care of things, work on the farm, garden, etc. with our students' assistance. Couple dogs for security and great company.
- Farm, vegetable garden, fruit trees, poultry, some animals to raise food and generate some funds to keep the place sustainable;

Who will benefit?
1) Hundreds of students, teachers, community,
2) Our former students who may be teaching at the computer lab;