Round Cameroon with a Backpack and a Blog

Postcard from Takija Nursery School

When a community asks Self Reliance Promoters’ NGO (SEREP) to help them with a project, the first thing SEREP asks is “What can you do yourselves?” So SEREP Managing Director Wirkom Fred Mbiydzenyuy has been working with the village of Takija to build a nursery school using builders from the village, bricks from the clay all around, and support from the entire community.

Salle Wiylanynys (right) talks to Laurel about the school under construction that he’s standing in front of.

Takija is one of the only villages around here that does not already have a nursery school, so its smallest children fall behind their peers when they enter primary school. Salle Wiylanynys has two nursery school-aged children (five year old twins), and wants his kids to have the same opportunities most other children have. “It is the hope of all Cameroon that children will have nursery school, and that is why we want to send our children here,” he tells us. He’s been selected as Takija’s community representative on the project, making sure that it meets the village’s needs and that any problems are spotted and addressed right away.

When we came back into the village center, children ran up to us shouting “Cheese! Cheese!” and burst out laughing when we showed them the pictures we’d taken. The village head and elders brought us into a tiny room where they welcomed us through a translator, thanking us for coming to see their work and telling us how pleased they are about the progress they’ve made with GlobalGiving donations. A very elderly woman who called herself the village mother declared “I am so happy to finally see this nursery school coming to pass in my village. I only hope I will live to see it completed!”

The residents of Takija are using as many free materials as they can put together, but they can’t get tin or plaster without funding. Fred is planning to redouble his fundraising efforts so that Salle’s youngest children will be running around a bright new nursery school soon!