“The New School Infrastructure provides conducive environment for studies”

By Mesumbe Nelly

CHILDREN OF BANGEM e.V an NGO led by an elite of Muakwe based in Germany-Bavaria has constructed and donated a 53million and above worth school infrastructure to the village community to help improve learning of students in the area. The construction of the school with support from friends in Germany is just one of the many community development activities the NGO has been carrying out in KupeMuanenguba.

At the official handing over ceremony of the school to the community and government authorities in MUAKWE  Sunday March 2, 2025 ECO OUTLOOK Bangem reporter, Mesumbe Nelly caught up with the initiator of the project Prosper Nokwe for a chat.

(Excerpts);

1) Please can we know what prompted you to embark on this school construction project.

I come from Muakwe village and schooled here under very perilous conditions. So I thought wise to give the means I could afford, I should do something to improve the schooling conditions of the children here so they could have a more better schooling condition than the one I and my other school mates had here.

2) Q This must have cost you a fortune

Yes, honestly this has cost some approximately Fifty three million fcfa and the project is still going on. So we are not completely finished.

Q 3) Is this project self sponsored or you got some assistance from development partners.

We are an NGO based in Germany-Bavaria and we raise most of the funds ourselves. Of course this means contacting others to support our development project.

Q 4) A big problem with schools in our rural areas is that of staff. Getting qualified and steady staff is a big challenge. Have you thought of that?

Actually my organization, CHILDREN OF BANGEM e.V we provide just the structures. This is a government school and it is left to the delegate of basic education here to see how he can support this school with more teachers. The school lead requested if we can support with payment of part time teachers. Unfortunately we don’t have funds for something like that. I am pleading with the authorities here to see how they can endeavor to provide more teachers for the school.

Q- 5) Can we Know more about your NGO and some other activities you have been carrying out here in Bangem and KupeMuanenguba generally?

 First of all, I got myself engage in projects here in Muakwe 2001 when friends of mine in Germany visited me and my family here and ask what they can bring. And I told them to come and see for themselves the school what support they can give to the school. It was the a school campus with straw buildings.

After their visit and return, we were able to raise about 2500 euros with which a wooden structure of the school was built. Some 20 years after, the wooden structure was virtually wearing out. So we had to now raise funds to put up a more permanent structure that you see here today. The size of the building today is the same size of the wooden structure that has been converted.

About my NGO it started during our football team called VETERAN in Germany. Traditionally we sit with our wives from time to time for a cocktail, sharing some drinks. So when my team mates wanted to engage me to organize one I accepted and during our sharing I told them in 2013 about the Muakwe School project I had supported before and that we are dinking that evening for this project. And they all accepted. That’s how the name COCKTAILS for Cameroon was born. So our NGO CHILDREN OF BANGEM e.V later emanated from that.

 We are engaged in many other activities like the provision of books since 2014 to school children not only in Muakwe but this entire community. And this has continued since then.

In 2017 we helped support families in Muakwe and the surrounding villages right up to Muangwekan. The numbers of recipients increase yearly. We give textbooks and exercise books yearly since 2014 to pupils/students. To ensure sustainability, the textbooks provided are returned at the end of the school year for those who got promoted to the next class.

These books are then given to the next generation of students. The year where some textbooks are taken out of the curriculum means we have fewer books to give out.

Generally we are focused on sustaining development and cooperation through charitable and productive socio-economic activities in the bid to transform the lives of disadvantaged, have-nots and the less privileged populations in both rural urban poor communities of Cameroon.

We have support for individual kids who are orphans worth 100,000 fcfa every year in this area.They are 37 in number for now.

We also supported Bangem hospital container with of beds and working on other projects to better help the hospital.

Q 6) Any future plans?

 Of course, we plan to continue improving on the school infrastructure project put on solar panels to help the school have constant energy supply. Given the challenges with electricity and security, we also   bring solar energy on the different streets so people don’t move in the dark at night.

7) Impact of the project in the community.

It has brought a return to peace in this community. We all know the conflict that brought activities to a standstill in the English speaking region and for quite some time the authorities here did not know how abate the situation. But the coming of this project helped to bring the youths together who stood their grounds to ensure peace returned. Today everyone is happy that peace now reigns.

Also children here will develop self-confidence because of the modern infrastructure they enjoy back home and the enabling environment. So even when they go for higher education in big cities like Yaounde they will not have any complex.

THANKS FOR TALKING TO ECO- OUTLOOK.