Proposal

The Pellé Foundation is seeking your financial support to the proposal presented thereafter. Detailed information about the Pellé Foundation is available at http://www.pellefoundation.org

Title of the proposal

Breaking the circle of poverty in Cameroon through reduction of the number of boys and girls from resource-poor families dropping out of school prematurely.

Aim and specific objectives

The ultimate aim of the Pellé Foundation is to break the chain of poverty in resource-poor families in Cameroon by promoting sustainable education. This will be achieved through the following specific objectives:

1. Financial assistance
2. Assistance in finding post-graduate studies and job opportunities
3. Assistance toward capacity building and strengthening

Background and Rationale

Recent UNDP reports on human development in 173 countries showed that Sub-Saharan Africa region had the lowest index value of human development. Of the 40 countries with the lowest human development index values, 33, including Cameroon, were from the Africa continent. The report also ranked all these African countries with the lowest human and income poverty index values. With the economic crisis, there is a decrease in school completion rates in Cameroon, and many students are leaving school prematurely due to the very limited financial means of their families. In 2002, the World Business Almanac reported that primary school enrolment that approached 99% in the early 1980s in Cameroon had slipped back to only 62% by the late 1990s. The phenomena has being worsened by a pandemic of HIV AIDS conjugated with associated opportunistic diseases, including a number of parasitic infections in humans that are now back to where they were in the 1950s.

Some 40,000 people die from malnutrition and hunger related causes every day. Every year, almost 12 million children die before they reach the age of five from preventable causes. Much of this human suffering is due to lack of knowledge, sometime associated with non-rational use of the existing preventive and control measures.

In every major city in sub-Saharan Africa, the poor constitute the vast majority of the inhabitants. They often live in slums where basic human needs and comforts are lacking. It is common for children, parents and grandparents to live together in a “single room”. These children don’t have access to a good school and sustainable education. When they “survive” they continue with their own children to live the same type of life they went through with their parents. For these people, poverty has become like a genetic factor that perpetuates itself from generations to generations.

The Pellé Foundation believes that this chain of poverty can be broken through sustainable education. Educated children from poor families will have a great chance to find good jobs and live a descent life with their own children. Even if it happened that some of them might not take care of their poor parents, at least they will get out of the circle of poverty.

Beneficiaries

1. Financial assistance is given especially to girls and boys from resource-poor families, with emphasis on those who have lost one or both parents.
2. Other beneficiaries are students assisted in finding post-graduate studies and job opportunities.
3. Training institutions receive capacity building and strengthening assistance.

Methodology

1. Beneficiaries of financial aid are selected through an existing Caritas team in Cameroon. Aid is granted once a year and up to 4 years or until graduation. Performance at school is important for renewal of aid. For a good turnover of beneficiaries, aid is stopped if more than one academic failure occurs.
2. Through contacts, networks and accessible databases, and linkages with specialized NGOs, the foundation assists graduated students find Ph.D. and other post-graduate trainings and job opportunities.
3. The foundation also looks for external assistance, training materials that are redundant in Universities in the developed countries, to improve the educational infrastructures in Cameroon.

Duration and milestones

1. Financial aid:
   • First phase: by 2004, aids given to at least 10 students in Universities in Yaoundé every year.
   • Second phase: from 2005, aids extended to other University centers.
   • Third phase: from 2008, aids extended to high schools in Cameroon and maintain an average of 50 aids per year.
2. Post-graduate studies and job opportunities: Simultaneously, a network for informing students of postgraduate training and job opportunities will be improved throughout the duration of the project.
3. Capacity building and strengthening: This activity will be carried out throughout the duration of the project.

Expected outcomes and impacts

• Reduction of the number of students leaving school prematurely due to poverty.
• Increase of school completion rates in Cameroon.
• Promotion of networking and the use of new knowledge.
• Sustainable education and empowerment of poor people.
• Reduction of poverty in the country.

Recent budgets and information on the feasibility of the proposed grant activity

The budget was $100 for the academic year 2000-01 and $500 for 2001-02. Two students received aid in 2000-01 and seven students in 2001-02. In 2002-03, the foundation raised $2250 and granted aid to 17 students, including 2 from high schools. By the end of the 2003, seven had graduated: 2 Bachelor and 5 Master degrees. On the Strengthening Capacities component, 2 Gilson pipetmans of $423 were attributed to the Université des Montagnes (UdM) in 2003. On Networking and post-graduate opportunities component, Ph.D. positions were identified and 3 Cameroonian students obtained full scholarships for Ph.D. studies from international institutions and Universities in Kenya and Belgium, in 2001-2005. The table below captures the Pellé Foundation’s track record:

Budget requested for three year period

The foundation is seeking funds to assist 50 students each year. We are looking for sufficient financial support to raise our aid to $500 per student per year for 3-4 years.
The level of funding requested for 3 years is $75,000.