The completed classroom block at EP Bagam was finally handed over to the community in September – just in time for the start of the new academic year.

The three new classrooms provide much needed space at this overcrowded school so that another 90 children will be able to realise their dream of getting an education.  The majority of the children who have taken up these new places at EP Bagam are from families who have been displaced from the English speaking NW region because of war.  They have left everything from their former life behind, including their language, and are now living in a French speaking region.  They have not been able to access any education for the past nine years so they have a lot to catch up with and have been attending our Neighbourhood Learning Corners for the past few months in order to do just that!  We have been able to provide them with uniforms, school bags, books and pens etc so that they can fit in easily and quickly with their classmates.  All the children are so happy to finally be at school.

Being displaced and living in abject poverty has a profoundly damaging effect on young children: many hundreds risk being permanently excluded from education. This not only damages the children themselves, but it also damages community development far into the future.  We are determined to help as many children as possible overcome these difficulties and find a place to go to school, so that there will not be a ‘lost generation’ in Cameroon.

The pupils at EP Bagam at the handover ceremony – waiting to take their new benches into the new school.