12th December 2022 was a joyful day in the village of Sogum.  After years of having to use straw huts as classrooms, the primary school in the village took ownership of three new properly constructed classrooms and a school office, built by SHUMAS contractors and funded by BSFA supporters, Rick and Lisou Hall.

Sogum is an extremely impoverished village, many of whose inhabitants live well below the poverty line.  At certain times of the year, some villagers are forced to forage for food and many resort to cooking and eating leaves off the trees.  Inevitably this means that many of the enrolled pupils cannot afford school fees, uniforms, books or pencils.  It was therefore decided to award the school 50 scholarships, which meant that the poorest pupils had sports uniforms they could wear for the handing over ceremony and they were also given exercise books, pens and pencils to enable them to study.  These scholarships were provided by the Hall family and a 9-year old schoolboy from the UK, Tom Cambridge, who wanted them to have a chance to do well at school.

Rick and Lisou were not able to travel out to Cameroon for the handing over ceremony, but they sent through a message to the pupils :

“We are very sorry that we cannot be with you all today ….. We were both teachers and believe that the opportunity to receive an education is the best gift we can give any child anywhere and that every child should be entitled to it.  For today though, we wish you all a wonderful start to this new adventure and hope that the new school will help its young students to take part in a bright future for Cameroon.”

We are so grateful for their support.