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Bringing Quality Education to Children of Lefeh

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By Maxim Dongmo (YES 2013-2014, Cameroon, placed with PAX in Salt Lake City, UT)

On October 12, 2020, I paid a visit to Les Moineaux bilingual primary school, where we had created a library. I had the opportunity to meet the students, teachers, and the new director of the school.

When I first visited the CEENEL orphanage and school in 2014, I was shocked by how decrepit the place was. Having just returned from my exchange year, I decided I wanted to take action and help the community. 

Our first projects centered on the orphanage, to which we donated clothes and food. But we later realized our charitable acts were not particularly effective, since the center would receive such donations from several other sources. Our attention then shifted to the education of the kids. If we wanted to change the lives of those children, we had to give them the tools to do so. 

In 2016, we launched the English Language and Culture Promotion Program and created the Les Moineaux school library to reduce the cruel lack of quality education in the area. We designed the project to bring pedagogical, mental, and material support to the 160 students at the CEENEL Center. That year, we were able to provide the library with a computer and 53 schoolbooks in math, English, French, and computer science. To improve the communication skills of the children, we offered them six months of free English classes, given that the school had no English teachers at the time. 

On February 27, 2020, we added another computer, a set of 160 notebooks, diverse teaching material (chalk, pens, rules, staplers, etc.), 93 books in English and French, math books, several dictionaries, and novels from American authors. Today, the library counts over 144 books, two computers, and over 100 notebooks (plus one computer and a printer offered by a third party). When talking with the director, I was amazed to hear about how helpful the library has been to the children whose parents could not afford to buy schoolbooks. 

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Les Moineaux library at the CEENEL Center

The school has ambitions to be among the best, if not the best, school in terms of quality education in the village. I am very excited to share the results of last year’s national examinations:

  • 90% success rate at common entrance exams; and
  • 83% success rate at CEP/FSLC.

Taking into consideration the pandemic (which completely stopped classes for several months), the location, and type of the school, the results were impressive. I am particularly proud to have noticed the constant improvement in general school performances. In 2016, we were at 50% average success rate. However, the director assured me it would have been 100% at all exams if it hasn’t been for the pandemic. She and the pupils promised to get the 100% success rate they are targeting, and I was excited to hear from both the founder and the director how incredible school life has been with the library. The founder said: “We can only pray for more projects like these in our community, and your alumni group are always welcome here. You made such a great difference in the life of our children and we can’t even start to thank you for the support.”

On October 12, I got the opportunity to meet Perez, the nephew of the late founder of the center. He is now a university student majoring in computer science. During my visit, he told me about his motivation for choosing his major. He used to love technology, and getting a computer at the center was a great turn in his life. He could finally use a computer often and learn about programming, which is his obsession now. I am super happy with the contribution we were able to make in his career choice. He is a visionary, and knowing we were able to boost his talent is a great victory for us. 

I am particularly thankful to the U.S Department of State, iEARN SchoolNet, and the KL-YES program for the incredible support and opportunities they offered to us. I am also grateful for all the donors who contributed to the fundraiser we launched in December 2019, to my alumni association and country coordinator for all the support and guidance, and to the CEENEL Center itself for taking such good care of the library and working so hard to improve the lives of the children. 

Although we are happy with the work done so far, we have further ambitions. Because quality education is an ideal, we aim at bringing more and more improvement to the school and eventually to implement the same project in various other communities. We envision a Cameroon where education is accessible, cheap, flexible, and of excellent quality, even for underprivileged children. It might be a colossal work, but we are not alone. And together, there is no limit to stopping us.


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