Educate Vulnerable Children

Education in Cameroon, although constitutionally guaranteed, falls short in execution. Undeniable disparities hinder educational access for poor, disabled, indigenous and refugee children, particularly disadvantaged girls. Issues ranging from sexual harassment, unplanned pregnancies and early marriages to domestic chores and socio-cultural biases proliferate a trend in which fewer girls attend primary schools than boys. Incongruences between male and female education in Cameroon exacerbate the growing movement of students leaving the country to study and live elsewhere that has been termed the “brain drain.” Rectifying this gender discrepancy can boost individuals’ capacities for financial autonomy as well as improve the state of the nation overall. Less than 50 percent of Cameroonian girls attend primary school, and the average adult has only 5.9 years of education under his or her belt. There are many, however, who are working to change that.

The unprecedented effects of the on-going crisis plaguing the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon for more than five years now has greatly affected the entire distressed population making them desperately in need of humanitarian assistance for their survival. Hostilities of this crisis has forced majority of the population to be displaced. A majority of the displaced population are women and children amongst whom are unaccompanied and separated children. Thousands of children displaced to the Littoral, West and Centre regions struggle to access schools, due to poverty, social exclusion and financial constraints. As schools gradually return to normal in some areas in the Northwest and the southwest Regions of Cameroon, so many children have been unable to return back to school due to lack of school fees and needs.

Our Approach

Mi Niña has been conducting baseline studies and so far has reached out to many internally displaced out of school children. Results of Mi Niña’s findings indicate the parents and caretakers of these children struggle to meet their basic needs and enrolling their children in schools is farfetched. For some who have managed to enrol their children in school, they still find it hard to pay the children’s school fees/provide them with school needs.

Each of these children is an individual in his or her own right, with feelings, emotions, talents, aspirations and potential which could contribute to national development. Mi Niña’s interest is to join Government efforts to educate all children and youth for the national prosperous future by focusing to internally displaced and vulnerable children.

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To promote and encourage the education of the less privileged

Educating the girl child

The girl child shouldn’t be regarded as a commodity to be bought for marriage, they should be regarded as valuable contributors in nation building. Consequently, they ought to be in school and not at home.

We remain fully committed in empowering and nurturing the dreams of children most especially the girl child.

Join us now! Together let’s fight against gender discrimination especially in the domain of education.

Join us in this movement

Success Stories

As part of our objectives, it is to promote and encourage the education of the less privileged children. Here is Agnes and Hannahlia all displaced from Bole Bakundu, Southwest Region of Cameroon, who finally resume school after 5 years of social exclusion and financial constraints. They continue to suffer loss as all their parents could ever work for, got burnt due to hostilities of the current Anglophone crisis.

Mi Niña is currently facilitating access to formal education by paying school fee and providing school need to 30 children for her project titled Educating Internally Displaced Impoverished Children.

This was made possible all thanks to the LUKMEF Small Grants program for local civil society organizations towards innovative community-based actions.