Some children and girls internally displaced by the ongoing armed conflict in the two Anglophone regions have been equipped for the 2020/2021 academic year which kick-started last Monday.
A ceremony to hand over some didactic materials and scholarship awards took place over the weekend in Buea.
Didactic materials like pens, books, school bags, buckets as well as sanitary pads and scholarships awards worth over half a million were handed to the beneficiaries of an initiative dubbed One Girl One Dream of the Welisane Foundation.
According to the founder, Mokwe Welisane Nkeng, the One Girl One Dream initiative seeks to ensure IDP girls and vulnerable children achieve their dream despite the predicaments that surround them.
“We are here to support the girls for the 2020 academic year because we know education is very important for children in general and the girl child in particular. So our objective is to ensure that we support the girls with their school fees, didactic materials and also give them counselling and mentorship as they commence the new academic year.” The media personality cum gender advocate said.
While chairing the donation ceremony, the South West Regional Delegate for Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Ediage-Sona Lucia Dipita hailed the initiative which she described as timely.
“They brought some didactic materials to children returning to schools and here we have several IDP girls who don’t have anything to begin school with. So this donation has brought smiles on their faces.” The Regional Delegate told News Upfront.
The initiative which was in its third edition benefitted IDP children and girls in Buea, Yaounde and Nkem Nkem from nursery school to university. During the previous editions, the initiative assisted in paying the tuition fees and didactic materials of close to a hundred IDP girls and children in Kumba and Yaounde.
The Welisane Foundation is an organisation that seeks to address issues that effect and block the girl child and women from advancing in the society and to reach her utmost capacity and ability through formal or informal education, capacity building workshops, networking, and advocacy for sexual and reproductive health rights as well as socio-economic empowerment.
