Empower Higher Education for Scholars in Cameroon

A few months back, the Covid-19 pandemic created an enormous scare and shut down many of our traditional channels of education and operations. This placed quite some strain on our resources and programs. With determination to sail through the tides with our heads up, we embraced distance education technology, took basic hygienic measures, upgraded our Internet bandwidth accommodating more students taking online classes at our center while also hosting some of them for long periods of time. We also empowered units of Open Dreams Across Cameroon at the regional levels to reach out to those in grave situation and provide mentorship and educational support, reviving and sustaining hope for the future. The field operations were very successful. We forged partnerships with other organizations and the working atmosphere has been excellent this far.

We continue to support high-achieving low-income Open Dreams Scholars, assisting them with mentorship and cost related to establishing passports, taking tests, paying university application fee, travel and feeding for those moving to the Open Dreams Center to complete their applications or take standardized tests etc. Over the past three months, 21 Open Dreams Scholars have been awarded scholarships to study their dream programs in some of the top universities across the world. In all, scholarship funding for their programs from institutions exceeds $400,000.

We have also stepped up social programs, reaching out to IDPs and providing training to empower young girls and aspiring dreamers to a level where they can then continue with the relay baton. Over 50 people who fall in this category have directly benefited from skill-acquisition programs through our scholars.

Last April 2021, we hosted two major national tech events, which brought budding tech geniuses from secondary, high schools and universities to pitch their projects, gain training and also gain some seed funding. The events were organized by Open Dreams Scholars with the full support of Open Dreams. We also deeply participated in many other external events including the World Environment Day Events, Commonwealth day celebrations etc where we contributed in some way (financially, materially and academically) to make the day colorful.

At this point, almost all of our dedicated 2020 Scholars have got scholarships. We are opening up space to recruit more scholars for a summer boot camps that run from July 19th 2021 to August 30th 2021. This time, we are targeting the hometown of Open Dreams in Cameroon - Bamenda, where operations were suspended last year and our center when into hibernation due to the fragile social climate in that area. Hence, we shall run the boot camp in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon and the regional headquarters of the North West, Bamenda. Besides that, we are also following up and participating in other parallel programs run in Yaoundé and Buea in partnership with other organizations, one of them a holidy reading camp. All these programs are empowering the youth and helping them realize their dreams to become successful citizens, in line with the SDGs.

These achievements would not be possible without your constant support. Thank you for standing by us and for making it happen in the lives of many young dreamers. We count on your support to assist in human capital development and building resilience for rapid reactions to global challenges like the Covid-19 pandemic.