Councils

Before I came to Cameroon, Knowledge for Children started trying to work with Councils. The idea was that Councils have an interest in the education in the schools in their municipality and they have a budget for education. So they should be able to contribute financially to our programs for schools in their own region.

This has always been a difficult issue. Most mayors are used to NGOs bringing them things, not NGOs asking them to help. Besides that, a mayor is a chosen position. According to some Cameroonians, that means people who are now mayors had to spend a lot of money for campaigns to get to that position. Once chosen, they need to get money back and that means they don’t give it to projects. I don’t know if it is true, but I am afraid in some cases it looks like it!

In the past two years, we tried different strategies to approach councils. We tried to invite Mayors to book donations, we tried to work through the Deputy Mayor in charge of education and more.  In the end, I think the Lord Mayor has to be convinced about the importance of our work. But how to get the Lord Mayor to understand this differs per Council. There are also some Councils where the Mayor is not very welcoming. They forget about appointments or refuse to receive us. We decided to leave them; if people are not ready it is their problem.

Signing with the Lord Mayor (left) and the
Deputy Mayor in charge of education

Last week, we finally signed a partnership agreement with the Nkambe Council. In the next three years, they will support eight schools. They will pay almost € 2300 per school. The community will still contribute their percentage. The support of the Council really helps us to be able to do everything we need to do in the schools.

The Lord Mayor of Nkambe really values education. He told us in our very first visit that he used to be a teacher. He always wanted to become a head teacher. He never made it to be the head teacher, but now he is the Lord Mayor and can still support education. And of course I am happy he does this by supporting Knowledge for Children so the children of Nkambe will Read Today and Lead Tomorrow!