Kindness Shaye is a 28 year old single mother of three children, aged 12, 10 and 7. She was physically abused by the father of the children who finally abandoned them and, because of the intense violence of the political crisis in her home village of Ndu, she fled with the children to the town of Bamenda. She took odd jobs like vegetable-picking and housework to enable her to pay rent, feed her family and pay school fees but her income was insufficient to meet her needs. Her situation became worse when her sister sent her two children to live with Kindness when the crisis intensified in Ndu. When our partner SHUMAS’ staff visited her, they found her in an appalling state. She and the five children were living in one old and dilapidated room with a leaking roof. The children were all at home because she could not afford the school fees: two of them were sick but she could not afford to take them to hospital. She could not afford to pay the rent on the room and she could only afford one meal a day for the family.

Kindness was given a place on the 3E project (Economic Empowerment for Education), where she received psycho-social support, counselling and was trained in small business management. She was given start-up materials to the value of 50,000 CFA (£65) and the children were given school materials (books, pens and pencils). Kindness started a business frying fish and plantains and is now making a daily profit of 2,500 CFAs (£3.30). She and the children can now afford to eat three times a day, her children are now back in school because she has been able to pay the first instalment on their fees and she is able to save 2,500 (£3.30) per week. She has paid her rent for three months in advance and her landlord has made all the necessary repairs to the roof. Kindness’ situation has really improved: she is look much healthier and far happier and she is very grateful for this opportunity to earn a living again and to get her children back into school.

Please donate £65 if you can – and help more widows or lone mothers like Kindness to get their children back into school.  Every penny donated to Building Schools for Africa goes directly to the project and we will try to give each donor feedback on which families have received help.