Thanks to the generosity of our supporters at Gompels Healthcare, we have been able to fund the construction of an 8-classroom school in Bafut, NW Region.  St Francis Xavier Nursery and Primary School is progressing fast and will, hopefully, be ready to hand over to the community early in 2026.

The school will provide close to 500 places for children to benefit from education from Nursery level through to Year 6 Primary – and should encourage more and more children to go on to secondary school and higher education.  This will help to reduce the primary school drop-out rate in the NW region, which rose from 7.4% in 2004 to 20.5% in 2014 and is still rising. It will also discourage child labour in the area, which is reinforcing the cycle of poverty.

St Francis Xavier school was established, by missionaries, in 2009. It was housed in part of the Catholic church which has since fallen into disrepair.  There is no roof, no window shutters, no doors and only a mud floor, so most of the classes are held under trees.  The area is subject to intense sunshine, torrential rain and tornadoes and children’s work is often destroyed.  There are only 25 benches for 171 pupils to use, there is no toilet and no nearby potable water source.

The need for this new school building is obvious and the community have been excited to participate fully in its construction.  We will be publishing news of the progress of this project over the coming months.