Education Cameroon Project #42334

Empower Higher Education for Scholars in Cameroon

by Open Dreams

Empower Higher Education for Scholars in Cameroon

Project Report | Jun 16, 2023
New Partnerships

By James Akaba | Country Director, Open Dreams, Cameroon

Dear GlobalGiving Community,

For the past four months, part of our focus has been on building new partnerships. This was thanks to the credibility we have build over time, the impact we are creating on the ground and the potential of the human capital we are developing together. More specifically, we had the following new partnership engagements to promote our shared vision:

- Enko Education with the mission to increase access to the world's leading universities through high-quality international education, partnered with us to reach more high-achieving low income students in Cameroon for their scholarship scheme. The scholarship winners will enjoy mentorship from Open Dreams and Enko Education. This comes to add to other partnerships with the UREGA Foundation, the Jumbam Family Foundation and lots more with similar missions.

- We partnered with Hope for Cameroon (HfC), an International NGO led by Open Dreams Scholars and partners, to run our first Summer Academy in Douala, the Economic Capital of Cameroon. This program will target mostly the Internally Displaced Persons as a result of the ongoing war in parts of Cameroon.

- We partnerered with the Information and Communication Technology University (ICT-U) in Yaounde, Cameroon to work on supporting young creative minds as they work on tech startups (incubation). This partnership targets secondary/high schools and university students.

- We had a great engagement with the High Commission of the United Kingdom in Cameroon to foster climate action through our partner organization, Game Changers. We also discussed collaboration in many areas in line with the SDGs.

- We build more university partnerships and over 20 of our students have had scholarships thanks to such productive partnerships.

As we look forward to organizing our summer academy for the 2023, there are a lot more great things to write about, but for now, we just want to take a moment to thank you for your support over the years. We hope you continue to stand by us as we work on changing lives. Teamwork makes the dream work.

Best Regards,

Open Dreams is one of the safe spaces for girls

One of our graduate scholars at work

Discussing internship plans and impact research

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Dec 27, 2022
2022 at Open Dreams ends on a high note as we prepare to wrap up our first decade of operations

By James Akaba | Country Director, Open Dreams, Cameroon

Open Dreams Buea Hub

December 2022 marked a high moment for the Open Dreams Community. More than ever before, several Open Dreams Scholars from abroad and partner organizations joined the Open Dreams Community in Cameroon to mark the Aviva Day in 9 hospitals in 7 locations in Cameroon, spending in all over $4,800 on cash gifts and items for families of Children born with congenital defects who tend to stay longer at the neonatology units of the hospitals. Through the Aviva Day, Open Dreams Scholars cultivate the spirit of love for and giving back to the Community. The 2022 Aviva Day also saw the institution of the first Aviva Scholar by the Director of the North West Regional Hospital in Bamenda - Cameroon. The Aviva Scholar is expected to carry out research in neonatal mortality in a bid to contribute to promote human development. More information is available here - https://www.open-dreams.org/projects-2.

In the same month of December 2022, University Early Admission Decisions were released. Like never before, we had students admitted into 4 Ivy League Universities in the USA and more admitted into top universities in the USA and other countries in the World. This indeed was remarkable.

Our 2022 Summer Academy ran in Bamenda - Cameroon and Yaounde Cameroon with our centers exploding with several program facilitators introducing very new areas of studies among them financial literacy. For the first time, we also rolled out our digital learning platform, Project Moon. As one of our peak moments in the summer, we won the Rising Star Award at the International ACAC conference at the University of New Mexico. This year, we have strengthened our graduate mentorship group, running more mentorship webinars than ever before. We also have more institutions partnering with us to promote access to education - one of our biggest partners through the HALI Access Network is the Rise Program which focuses on promising leaders between the ages of 15-17, who can potentially address some of the world's greatest and emerging challenges. Through these partnerships and our growing engagements, we are now able to support more students and work with more institutions in Cameroon; We now own more technological devices as well. As we move into our next decade of operations, we hope to expand our capacity through establishing more facilities of our own among them infrastruture. We are so grateful for your support this far. Hopefully, we continue to have more support so together we can do more. Team work makes the dream work.

Thank you for your support. We wish you the very best for the season.

Happy 2023.

At the Neonatology Unit - Douala

The Open Dreams Family at the Yaounde Hub

Open Dreams Family at a hospital in Yaounde

At the Open Dreams Center in Yaounde

Open Dreams Bamenda Hub

Open Dreams Douala Hub

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Aug 31, 2022
Yes Another Level at Open Dreams

By James Akaba | Country Director, Open Dreams Cameroon

Hello Team,

Each day of this quarter of the year has been one of celebration. The foundation we have laid over the years and the financial investment are now paying back in several folds.

Last summer alone;

- 43 Open Dreams Pre-scholars successfully completed a costly month-long Summer Academy in two cities of Cameroon - Bamenda and Yaounde. Videos of thier ceremonial moments are attached.

- 202 Pre-scholars have signed up for the online mentorship program - we are proceeding with a new platform, Project Moon to provide more tech-based mentorship;

- More than 30 members of our community spend the summer participating in internship programs abroad;

- So far, slightly above 20 Open Dreams Scholars have travelled already on fresh scholarships this year;

- We have been involved several community-based programs which empower refugees;

- We have increased the number of laptops at the Open Dreams Center and are looking forward to expanding our operations in Bamenda where we scaled down due to the war;

- We are covering the cost of SAT for over 15 Pre-scholars who are IDPs, High-Achieving Low-Income students;

- We have directly supported several scholars who scholarships but needed to establish passports, pay sevis fee, interview and visa fee, covid-19 test, buy fly tickets, pay for insurance and ground movement;

- We continue to host scholars all the time at our center in Yaounde and provide for them daily;

- We have expanded our program to provide mentorship to students who have French as their first language and those who have the GCE Ordinary Level - this has added over 150 more people into our mentorship community.

These are some of the many engagements we are into. It is thanks to you support that we are building community resilience and assisting in the realization of many dreams.

We hope, as the results are visible, we will continiue to do more together.

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