Teach Thelma sign language and change her life

Dear donors,

Thanks to you and other wonderful people like you, Thelma's education is secured for another year in Buea School for the Deaf. This was achieved through the combined effort of:

• 20 individual donors like you in GlobalGiving

• The Erasmus Student Network of Lapland (A Finnish student organization) who raised funds during social events

• Thelma's mother, Stephanie, who paid her school materials
• Buea School for the Deaf, who patiently admitted Thelma without full payment of the school fees so she won't miss any class
• Blogs and newspapers such as SLfirst magazine who published our article with Thelma's story. ( http://slfirst.co.uk/community/education/born-deaf-and-fighting-for-a-chance-in-cameroon/

Thank you again, you were part of an amazing team, and it was worth it.

It's been a great year for Thelma in school for the Deaf. She is totally integrated and has many friends. While last year she was having difficulties, as she was learning sign language for the first time, this year she has proven to be one of the best pupils "We don't really grade or compare between children, we do individual progress evaluation, but if we would, she would be the first or second in her class. She is extremely good, most of her exercises get a 10/10 score"  says Frida, Thelma's teacher.

It was through Frida that we got to know more about how Buea School for the Deaf works. "I was a teacher in a Government Primary School, I never knew sign language. They put us through a 4 day crash program before starting and then we work together with a deaf teacher in the lower classes. Every week we have two classes on Cameroonian sign language, and these are mandatory to all staff, no matter how long you’ve been here." With small classes of 6-10 students, the school provides an environment for learning that might be better than standard education for the hearing in Cameroon. "I love it here because we have enough time to concentrate on each child"

We were excited to hear all of this, and we hope to continue working with the School and further our partnership, help find more deaf underprivileged children and pay their education, and also make the school more sustainable. GlobalGiving just gave us the opportunity to be part of the GlobalGiving Ambassadors program: we will be coaching other organisations what is GlobalGiving about and how to make the most of it. We already extended our invitation to the School, these are the kind of organisations we love to help. Maybe in the future it is them directly raising funds for Thelma and for other children in their situation.

Putting together your donations with ESN lapland's,there are funds left after paying for Thelma's education. This money is going to support Stephanie's, Thelma's mother, to expand on her business. Stephanie is a young and hard working single mother who's been in our program for more than 2 years, she got pregnant of Thelma when she was 15 and has never received support from the father. Really making it out of poverty is not a matter of days, not even years, but she has been improving gradually and steadily. We invited her to our last training on Business management with more than 30 other girls like her and she developed her business idea with us (How to expand on her trading of vegetables, she also has the goal of eventually paying the fees of a technical school). Like her daugther, she was among the best in class. She has the condition of gradually contribute more and more to Thelma's school fees, this year she paid all materials, next year she will contribute approximately 100 dollars of the fee. We aim to slowly phase out, to guarantee that the family environment can provide for her education all the way to university, no matter what happens to Reach Out. But we can guarantee you that as long as we are here we will ensure she never lacks the opportunities every child deserves.

Thank you for being an amazing person and transforming the life of this child, you will always be part of her success.

This is the end of this microproject, but you can keep connected to us through our main project https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/make-an-impact-girls-education-cameroon/ and our facebook page to see all our activities: www.facebook.com/reachoutcameroon

THANK YOU