School attendance for refugee children

We help refugee children and their families

 

Following a harrowing report by Dr Herz (German ophthalmologist, in Cameroon for 40 years), we launched a campaign in 2019 to draw attention to the suffering of the many civil war refugees. The hospitals that Bon Secours supports with donations in kind are located on the border of the Anglophone civil war area. In Nkongsamba, Bafoussam and Douala, many people are looking for a place to stay. Children are suffering particularly badly. Many children find shelter with relatives or are left to fend for themselves as orphans. Only a few refugee children can go to school. Those who flee must first provide for the bare necessities, and education appears to be a luxury. Without schooling, the future prospects of refugee children are constantly worsening. The older they get, the more difficult it becomes to catch up on what they have missed. And those who have interrupted once are unlikely to start again.

The likelihood is that the refugees will spend their lives living socially at the bottom of society, married off very young or otherwise victimised. We all know that this is not only a problem in Cameroon. Human rights organisations around the world are advocating for more urgent attention to the schooling of refugee children beyond primary school age. The danger of a "lost generation" growing up is very great.

German ophthalmologist hopes for donations for the children of civil war refugees in Cameroon



"In over 40 years here in Cameroon, I have not seen such misery."
  
 Everyone who comes is treated, with or without payment. Thousands of refugee families are stranded in Nkongsamba fleeing the civil war. Many employees of Dr Herz's clinic have taken in refugees, mostly relatives, and their children. Dr Herz tries to support her employees. Sometimes there is food, sometimes school fees for the many new children in the village.
Frau Dr. Herz und Georg Schorn in der Manna Eye Clinique in Nkongsamba
Dr Herz and Georg Schorn at the Manna Eye Clinique in Nkongsamba      
"I'm not as fit as I used to be, I'm a bit older," says Dr Herz, "but someone has to do something! It is very fortunate that our clinic is not located in a civil war zone. One of our staff members sends eleven children to school. Among them only three (!) of her own. Of course, our clinic helps pay the school fees. But the children also need clothes, notebooks, books and have to be fed. We hope and pray for peace."

Thanks to many donations, we were able to enable over 800 children to attend school in 2019.
In 2020/2021 konnten wir jeweils bis zu 700 Kindern helfen.
We are very proud of this.


Hope & Life, Dr Herz (Nkongsamba), Heike Neulist-Foaleng/Cameroon Training Academy (Bafoussam) and the teacher Madame Mbeven (Dschang) are our local partners. They manage projects on site and ensure that school fees are paid and that uniforms, books and school materials are given to the children. We have had a large part of the school uniforms sewn by tailors. This is cheaper and the local tailors have work and wages.From this school year on, the children will be examined by doctors from the Bekoko health station. Severely traumatised children will also receive psychological care.


Donation account
Bon Secours Kamerun e.V.
Keyword: Refugee children
Raiffeisenbank Voreifel e.G.
IBAN. DE77 3706 9627 5743 0310 18
BIC. GENODED1RBC


Final report 2019

FLÜCHTLINGSKINDER ZURÜCK ZUR SCHULE / CAMPAIGN GETTING REFUGEE CHILDREN BACK TO SCHOOL
 

Travelogue by Angelika Weber January/February 2019.

Ms Weber regularly travels to Cameroon for the basler Mission 21 . Her report describes the current situation in the west of Cameroon.  

Report by Anni Lechner, who worked at Mary Health of Africa Hospital in Fontem until the end of 2018.                       Read here.