Introduction
Better Breed Cameroon is a not for profit youth-led association which operates, most of the time, out of Buea. The association strives to complete at least four major projects per year. The nature of some of these projects are fixed while some vary. The four major projects carried out this year were the: Sama Randy Youth Write Essay Competition 2018, Better Read Better Breed Reading Caravan, Breeding Spaces and the Better Hope bursary. Detailed in this report is a description of each of these projects.
About Better Breed Cameroon
Better Breed Cameroon is a youth-led, youth-development-focused association founded in January 2013. It is a non-profit, apolitical association with motto, “Breeding the change we need.”
Better Breed Cameroon’s members believe in the adage which goes, “It is easier to rear a whole child than to fix a broken adult” and thus work towards and advocate for more and better investment in Cameroon’s young people believing that youth development and empowerment are the most sustainable forms of development.
The association which is officially registered with the office of the Senior Divisional Officer of Fako Division as No.072/G.37/D14/Vol II/SAAJP, operates from its seat in Buea with members all over the country contributing ideas, time, and funds for the quarterly projects aimed at raising a more conscious, civic-minded, better capable, and skilled Cameroonian youth population set to lead and serve in future. As of this year, roughly 500 Cameroonian youths have benefitted directly from the variety of Better Breed Cameroon’s projects ranging from career development workshops, reading caravans, youth essay competitions, annual bursaries covering tuition for needy youth and more.
Projects
Sama Randy Youth Write (SRYW) Essay Competition
Essay submissions for this year’s edition were required to end with the statement, ”This is what Cameroon needs now.” The aim of the theme this year’s competition, was to encourage undergraduate students of higher education institutions in Cameroon to think broadly and write freely on what they think Cameroon, as a nation, is in need of. Entries of any style and theme were welcome.
The competition was launched in December 2017 and the deadline set for January 2018 and later extended to February 2018. Submissions were graded based on intellectual originality, proper citation where necessary, the strength of arguments, spelling, grammar and compliance with rules of submission. All submissions were made via the association’s e-mail address, betterbreed@gmail.com. The panel of judges comprised Mr Collins Fonsho, Mr Divine Mbutoh and Ms Helen Nde. One hundred and thirty entries were received and the best four essays were selected by the judges.
The first three winning essays were written by; Njie Martha Eyole, a final year student in the University of Buea’s Department of Bilingual Letters, Anita Ngwe Chofor, a student at ISEM BCG Douala, pursuing a Higher National Diploma in marketing, and Brenda Ndome Haddisson, a third year student at the Institute of Management, Information and Technology in Douala, for the first prize of 100000FCFA and a job with Makonjo media, second prize of 75000FCFA and third prize of 25000FCFA respectively. A fourth honorarium prize of 150000FCFA was awarded to Ambomatei Miranda in view of how competitive the best essay submissions were.
The cash prizes and medals were handed over to the winners in an award ceremony at the Makonjo media office, which partnered with Better Breed Cameroon for this year’s edition.
Better Breed Breeding Spaces
In January 2018, a breeding spaces event was held at Jongo Hub, Molyko Buea. This initiative launched in 2017 offers interactive trainings, workshops, or ‘town halls’ with the aim of undoing negative socialization or building recognizably needed skills in Cameroonian youth effectively ‘breeding’ the character traits and skills we need.
Better Read Better Breed Reading Caravan
The Better Breed reading caravan was a campaign aimed at building in children 9-11 years old, an interest in reading for curiosity’s sake. Each reading session was thus designed to be interactive and fun. To have these sessions hold as often as possible thereby increasing impact, a call for volunteer readers was sent out. The huge response we received indicates a strong desire amongst Cameroonian youth to give back to their communities.
The event of this year was divided into three parts; defining purpose, mapping vision and writing a letter of intent. Participants were required to design vision boards which comprised written and pictorial representation of where they saw themselves in ten to fifty years’ time divided into short and long term goals. Also, each participant was required to construct time frames for goal achievement which would be followed up by through the year.
The event of this year was divided into three parts; defining purpose, mapping vision and writing a letter of intent. Participants were required to design vision boards which comprised written and pictorial representation of where they saw themselves in ten to fifty years’ time divided into short and long term goals. Also, each participant was required to construct time frames for goal achievement which would be followed up by through the year.
The reading caravan held from the 23rd of February 2018 to the 23rd of April 2018, During this period, over a hundred books were given out, reading sessions were held in eleven schools in five regions in the country; South-West region, North-West region, Centre region, Far-North region and Littoral region.
Better Hope Bursary
The aim of this year’s Better Hope bursary was to fulfil the commitment we took last year of sponsoring two teen mothers in the 2018/2019 academic year after a successful completion of a yearlong vocational course of their choosing in the 2017/2018 academic year, whose expenses we paid. Unfortunately, due to insecurity we were unable to fulfil this pledge to reintegrate them into their academic discipline of choice this school year. However we are following up with one of the teen mothers who managed to pass her GCE A levels while learning the trade we sponsored her in. We have promised to assist in her future academic pursuit as soon as the regional situation permits it.
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In addition to these quarterly projects, the association undertook other activities to contribute to Cameroonian youth development. From August 2018 which is considered the start of scholarship season, Better Breed Cameroon made available to the public videos and blog posts from alumni of different scholarship programs demystifying the scholarship and application process and how best to go about preparing an outstanding application.
In our usual fashion, we continued sharing national and international opportunities for Cameroonian youth on our website, www.betterbreedcameroon.org, and our social media pages. Also, we regularly featured Cameroonian youth, such as Stacey Fru and Babila Emmanuel Tafon, on our website who are making a difference in their community to inspire other youths in our ‘Youth of the Month feature.’
The year was closed with the launch of the Sama Randy Youth Write Essay Competition 2019.
A luta continua, victoria e certa