Akumalam.org

Dear friends,

Update: A Library Takes Shape with Books for Akumalam Community

Upon arrival the building was not completely constructed, thus we help the workers and contractor to complete the project according to our schedule.

This project was an effort to build a community library and Core Collection of books to serve the remote Akumalam area in the Bamenda province, Cameroon. Funds were raised from friends and supporters of the Dorfschulprojekt e.V. (Village school Project www.akumalam.org) registered in Germany.

A 3 room building (ground and first floor) was raised close to the Akumalam school and church. The piece of land was donated by the church community. This building would serve the Akumalam primary school, the community, and neighbouring schools. A total population of ca. 600 person will have access to this library.

Stocks so far are 200 books in the kindergarten, primary and some general knowledge section. Funds/Equipment are required to stock the library with appropriate materials (books for secondary, technical, ….), magazines and other useful audio-visual materials to provide information to the surrounding community which has no access to free information.

Funds Raised: 7,000 Euro (for building and 200 books)

Project Length: 16 months

Project Coordinators: Anye Chifen, Kai Atzert, Celestine Azieh (community chairman), Zama Peter (contractor), Henry Fru (Volunteer)

Results:

• Constructed a Library (size: ca. 100 m2)
• Employed a librarian & part time teacher
• Donated 200 books
• Shelves
• benches
• writing materials

Where children are first generation learners, where their homes have never seen different kinds of book before, this simple project will light up the lives of children with books, story cards, and experiments – this is another one step to improve and motivate education around Akumalam.

Background:

In January 2010 we introduced the ACL project. With the support of friends and supporters, we undertook this ambitious project. As of last April, we had a total of 200 books – donated and bought from donations.

The books include volumes intended for primary, secondary and higher-level school children, as well as an encyclopedia, a dictionary, maps and stationery. There are also toys for children available.

In rural areas where courses of study rarely vary year-to-year, libraries serve as crucial sources of knowledge but remain extremely scarce. The village school project hopes that community library will not only supplement the basic curriculum offered by village teachers but eventually help the larger community to become more literate.

With the establishment of the library, we employed a librarian and part-time primary school teacher. As she continues to supervise this project we can be rest assured that she has taken an enormous step in fulfilling the dream of improving the standard of education in her village.

As she said: “This is not my project, it belongs to all of us.”

We want to thank you all for supporting the project, we hope you will continue to support this work – we need more books, benches and shelves.

Miyaka,

Anye + Kai + Ed Jong

Dear all,

On behalf of the Village School Project we would like to thank you for your generous donation,; books, materials, cash….

Your commitment helping to build the library in the Akumalam community has been sincerely appreciated. Many Thanks from the pupils and village community.
Each year our association continues to advance its mission of promoting education. Through our diverse projects since 2005 we have seen many lives changed for the better. In particular the Library School Project is gaining great success in the last few months after handing over in March 2011.

Facts:

The construction of the building was financed 100% by Dorfschulprojekt e.V. The building was handed over to the community in March 2011. Final construction works were finished in July 2011. Diversity of books, classroom text books and writing equipments were supplied in April 2011. Additional books will be shipped soon to the library. We have been able to recruit a library assistant and the library has been operational since July 2011. The library assistant also works as a part-time teacher at Akumalam village school.

This project is only possible because of thoughtful contributions from people like you. Your generous donation will be used purposely for the purchase of books and other required materials – thank you.

We plan to raise the library to a recognisable standard, where the children, pupil and women of Akumalam community would use these books for a common use – to improve their level of education.

As you know, the cost of running all these activities does not go away. We hope for your continuous support.

As a reminder, our association do not have registered members, all donations are from friends, colleagues and friends of friends. Thus, with this limited budget we have, we do not allocate any donation for administrative purposes.

Thank you all,

Kai, Ed, and Anye

Dorfschulprojekt has rendered enormous services in various villages of social development and its Orphan Support Program is one of many such programs. The Orphan Support Program (OSP) of our association has been extended to Chomba (about 30 km from Akumalam) since April 2010.

OSP helps in identifying the families in needy situations. It focuses on assisting children who have lost their parents or/and guardians and enables them to continue their education without any financial hinderance.

We pay the school fees and offer the guardians financial allowance to support the children.

In the Chomba village, we recently offered 60 orphans with stipends, sufficient enough to bear the expenses of their education and their basic amenities of life.

Join this program, sponsor an orphan 50 Euro / year.

This program was initiated by Kai Atzert.

Thanks to all our sponsors and Babenhausen sports club (Andi Humbert)

Most of us have never really been thirsty. We’ve never had to leave our houses and walk 5 km to fetch water. We simply turn on the tap, and water comes out. Clean. Yet there are a billion people on the planet who don’t have clean water. ”

In 2009, we provided the Akumalam community and school with drinking water supplies. During our visit in April 2011, we realised maintenance for this project is highly required, i.e. repairs of the water supplies.

Target: Mechanical stabilisation of the well walls, replace the manual pump with an electrical pump.

The power supply (electricity) will be provided by the local community. The total cost estimate was provided by the local technician upon our visit in March 2011.

The maintenance for the Akumalam water supply was approved in August 2011. The funds for this repairs was provided by Leybold Optics GmbH, Alzenau.

Plan:

• Down payment – 40% (August 2011)
• Supply of materials required (August 2011)
• Maintenance work (September 2011)
• Final assessment by Mr. Henry/ Mr. Ngufor (September 2011)
• Second payment – 50 % (October)
• Delivery of pictures to Dorfschulprojekt – October 2011
• Final payment – 10 % (upon delivery of pictures)

Cost estimate (Akumalam water supply)

1) Electric water pump 425,000 fcfa

2) 1 trip of Sand 60,000 fcfa

3) 18 bags of cement at 5,500fcfa each 99,000 fcfa

4) Aggregate 20 wheel barrows at 4000fcfa each 80,000 fcfa

5) Labour (digging of well) 150,000 fcfa

6) Labour (moulding of 8 rings) 25,000 fcfa

7) Electric cables and connetions 12,000 fcfa

Total 851,000 fcfa

This task is supervised by Kai