ASEED Enhances Education of Needy Kids with Books, Financial Help

By Aaron Yancho Kaah*

ASEED, ASSISTING NEEDY WITHOUT DISCRIMINATION

Mbuyonghe Helen- a teenage girl was particularly in good spirits like the rest of the 19 other needy kids and pupils from some 6 primary schools in the close knit mountain village of Belo North West Region of Cameroon. 

On September 4^th 2016 they received assistance of school needs and had their fees paid by an NGO -Action for Social Empowerment and Economic Development (ASEED).

Shortly before receiving her gift of hope as a good will endowment from  ASEED's  Patron, Waindim Timothy Ntam, Helen a pupil, of Government Bilingual School Belo sat dejected and looked slightly older than her age. Her long legs seem to stretch her in to a world of her own. “This pair of worn out blue gown I am wearing and sleepers where offered to her some years ago by a Good Samaritan” Helen said. Barely incapable to answer any further questions, this child had also faced severe malnutrition in the near past.

Explaining Helen's predicaments her head teacher Chiakou Jacinta remarked that her fate was not actually hers.  But what happened? Helen unlike many other kids in this community is a  product of a wedlock teenage relationship “born by a child with a child, " as Jacinta will further explained. “The misery in this family made this child to go through life like a ghost,” Jacinta said.  A misery that saw them fending or living on next to nothing. Yet Helen had a daring will to pursue her education, an unperturbed will that have seen her attending school almost every year without books, fee or learning aid.  

“This rocked on for years and caught our interest,” Jacinta recounted. Jacinta's quest to know more about this 10 year young pupil shocked her to the bones. ‘Helen was not only born out of wedlock but her 19 year old mother who was nursing a set of twin. Because of limited resources and illiteracy within their family lineage it was difficult to survive  ,” Jacinta lamented.

ASEED's BENEFICIARIES

 Most parents in this community dig the soil for corn and beans but the harvest was not enough to source income for emergency needs or good education for their children.When the good news arrived,

  that ASEED will be helping deprived kids in this municipality, Jacinta saw this as a golden opportunity to help Helen and others like her in difficulty , by enrolling them in the ASEED funding project, for the 2016 academic year.

Helen's story provides a   picture of the kind of kids and pupils who bagged home ASEED gifts last September 4^th.  They were  pupils and kids  born of struggling mothers and absentee husbands , or children born of corn and beans desperate farmers, or albinos neglected by family and friends or children orphaned or disabled . Bowing to these gifts, one after the other collected school bags stocked with books pens and pencils as well as test books. These special kids laughed and smile with a look of pure joy in their faces to the cheers of their parents and community members.

Speaking to the invited guest, the parents and beneficiaries and their families, ASEED's Patron, Waindim Timothy Ntam said their initiative which was not only aimed at   fostering academic excellence in Belo Sub Division, but also the wish to extend a hand of love to the needy in memory of his deceased wife and founder of ASEED Madame Waindim Dorcas. Recounting a series of events that led to the donations and the wish of the founder to better the lives of the vulnerable in society, Mr. Waindim added that the task of keeping this good will gesture of his angel wife could only be possible if all hands were on deck. 

MADAME WAINDIM DORCAS : ASEED FOUNDER 

‘You are our force and you must join us to keep this flames alive,” he exalted the audience. Mr. Waindim in a moving and loving memory to the founder of ASEED, explained that the capacity of the deceased to change the world transcends wonders and no matter how hard the road was tough for ASEED to go, he and the other board members were poised “to trod that tortoise path in making a better world for the needy as she wished,” he added.   

While pledging continuous and immediate help to the growing number of albino kids in that community,  ASEED Patron,  promised to establish some ten birth certificates to some underprivileged kids and pupils before the end of this school year. 

The Benjamin of the Waindims, Ian -a form 2 student of Sacred Heart College Mankon, while handing over a distinguished gifts on behalf of his deceased mum to one of the orphans from far away Konene  area called on the beneficiaries to settle for nothing less than good results. “Don’t disappoint my mum,” Ian added to the applause of all. Other speakers like Dr Ngam Confidence and elite of the Sub Division and board chairman of ASEED urged the parents of the pupils and the kids to take up their own responsibilities in ensuring that the gift were fully put to use and that the education of these children was a priority.

WAINDIM TIMOTHY NTAM: ASEED's PATRON 

 “It is now left for you to complete the wish of ASEED" Dr. Ngam ended. The Sub Divisional Delegate for Youth Affairs for Belo, Nsom Genesis while acknowledging that they was a real physical evidence to proof that the beneficiaries merited the gifts , further thanked ASEED  and its founders for making the education of the poor a priority. 

“Our hands and hearts are open to your support each time you think of these needy kids,” Genesis said.

The event was attended by traditional dignitaries, university dons, NGO experts, the elite , media and politicians. Action for the Empowerment and Economic Development is an NGO that was created in 2008 to promote human rights, economic development, and sustainable livelihoods in response to the plethora of challenges faced by exposed youths, girls and women in today’s world.   

*Aaroon Yancho Kaah, Bamenda, Cameroon based Journalist and guest writer