MTN Foundation sends back 500 Buea orphans to school

Over 5000 others nationwide also to benefit from the Foundation’s largesse this academic year 

From Che Bruno Azenyui in Buea 

Buea Pupils display gifts donated by MTN Foundation

Over 500 pupil orphans in the South West region who might not have had the opportunity to begin school this academic year, will now confidently join their mates thanks to a gesture by the MTN Foundation. The orphans have benefitted from didactic material in a Back-to-School gesture by the telecommunication giant, MTN.

The orphans, drawn from six orphanages and one primary school received the donations in an event that began at the MTN-built CBC school Dibanda, Mile 14, in Buea sub division.

Handing over the donations to the beneficiaries, the corporate social investment coordinator of MTN Cameroon, Thierry Lobe Ekambi said the gesture was in line with the Foundation’s mission of ensuring quality education for every Cameroonian child.

“For a couple of years now, we have been supporting orphans and vulnerable children annually. Our target this year is to ensure that we touch at least 5500 school pupils across the country,” he announced.

The Foundation donated gifts ranging from school bags, exercise books, pens and pencils to chalk to the beneficiary school pupils.

Appreciating the gesture, the head teacher of  CBC Dibanda,  Nan Chianan said the donation is proof of the  MTN Foundation’s determination to stand by the school at all times.

“Let me also use this opportunity to re-echo our appreciation for the six classrooms, three offices, dinning shed, water system toilet and more which you constructed here in 2009. This illustrates your deep concern for the education of children in Cameroon,” she added.

Some of the difficulties still encountered by the school, according to the head teacher include the absence of lighting facilities, a school bus, residential area for teachers and staff infrastructure, all of which she said did not prevent them from recording a hundred percent in the Technical and General Common Entrance as well as First School Leaving Certificate exams this year.

After noting the challenges faced by the school, the MTN Foundation moved to the Handicapped and Orphanage Training, Production and Ecstasy Centre, HOTPEC, Buea  where similar donations were made to six care-givers’ associations in the region. The assistant director of the centre, Mugri Beatrice while  welcoming officials of MTN, described the gesture as a stitch in time, coming at a time when the general cry of all care givers in the region is back to school.

“If parents with three or four children have difficulties in sending their children back to school, how much more of orphanages like ours with more than a hundred children ?... we believe the stress has been relieved by the MTN Foundation,” she said.

The chief of service for persons with disabilities and elderly persons in the South West region, Simplice Aristide Peiho who represented the regional delegate for social affairs, while saluting  the gesture pleaded with the MTN Foundation not to relent its efforts in reaching out to vulnerable children.

Hear him: “ He who gives to the needy lends to  God... investing in children is sowing hope for the future... a word of thank you is our humble way of echoing Oliver Twist that we need more... it is either we protect our children for tomorrow or we end up protecting ourselves against them tomorrow.”

As regards the criteria of selecting the beneficiary orphans, the corporate social investment coordinator said : “we simply go closer to the associations and groups that cater for orphans and vulnerable children and we take care of the children they cater for. Our objective is not just to lavish the kids with gifts but to ensure a positive impact of the presents in the lives of these kids.”

The MTN  Foundation’s Back to School caravan is expected to visit all the ten regions of the country. According to the media relations officer of MTN Cameroon, Paul Henri Mbongo, the MTN Foundation  has as mission to ameliorate the living conditions of Cameroonian communities. Its sectors of interest include health, education, science and technology, environment and community development, he  said.