The Nkikoh school project is an initiative put forth by the Essungue Ejuma foundation aimed at promoting education in the grassroots by distributing books to children of GPS Nkikoh in honor of late Mama Essungue.
The project constituted three phases: purchase, transportation and distribution. After the books were purchased in Yaounde by the Essungue-Ejuma Foundation, they were sent to the village. The consignment was well received with all the content in tact.
With the transporting phase, the books were transported from Santchou to Melong with much ease, rather transporting the books from Melong to Nkikoh was an uphill task. The high cost of transportation fair, the poor state of roads, the frequent threats from separatists fighters on school resumption, the absence of electricity and a whole lot of others were some of the major challenges notice during the realization of this project.
Nonetheless, the consignment arrived safely.The curiosity, amazement, enthusiasm, excitement of the village extras and a hilarious welcome to the the team is worth mentioning in this report. The turnout was very high as almost every household in the village witnessed the scenario. Most importantly is the presence of the children who were approximately 300.It should be noted that all the children who were present received books. Furthermore, most of these children ranges between the ages of five(5) and eleven (11) years and were merely children from junior and senior primary.
The distribution exercise was spiced with appreciating and gratifying speeches streaming from the chief of the village, head teacher, elites , parents and some of the children. In fact one could see joy and satisfaction on their faces. The chief sang different traditional lyrics , performed liabation and incantation to appease the gods of the land for such a great event. He was overwhelmed with joy and accorded God blessings over the entire foundation.
I would really want to appreciate the foundation on personal note for this timely gesture. Most people in this village are merely peasant famers who are highly stroke by the global crisis couple with the traumatic effects of the COVID19. These parents are really unable to provide for their basic needs. Some have to go extra miles to put food on the table. In fact, they are very low income earners with an average annual income of less than 100 US dollars. The hight of it all is the outbreak of the anglophone crisis in 2016 which has forced most of them to abandon their farmlands to seek refuge in the near by francophone villages. Returning to the village today, brings them back to point zero. Even the food that was prepared for the event was relatively small for the entire population. Non the less the ceremony was a wonderful one. The foundation did a marvelous job, Kudos to the foundation hope to see you in another event . Thank you.
By Ekakoh Vincent, representative of the Essungue Ejuma foundation at the event.