Education Cameroon Project #17662

Grow hope for 150 Cameroon schoolkids

by Cameroon Association of Active Youths

Project Report | Oct 4, 2016
CAMAAY Fall 2016

By Meg Popkin | Project Manager

CAMAAY schools are back in session, and the students have had a very busy and productive fall. The students have begun planting and cultivating their school gardens. Students are planting a variety of crops this fall, and they look forward to having a yummy and nutritious harvest this spring. In addition to growing school gardens, CAMAAY students have started after school nutrition and gardening clubs. These clubs host guest speakers who teach the students about nutrition, sustainability, and agricultural science. The clubs also allow students to enjoy discussions centered around healthy recipes, gardening techniques, and environmental science.

CAMAAY has recently established a partnership with Seed Programs International, a United States-based nonprofit that provides seeds and agricultural expertise to humanitarian organizations working to alleviate hunger and poverty. SPI and CAMAAY plan to work together to provide seeds and training manuals to schools and develop project designs to maximize garden outputs. Together, CAMAAY and SPI will help students grow and cultivate the best gardens possible while learning about gardening, science, and nutrition.

Lastly, there are a few initiatives the CAMAAY plans to launch this fall. CAMAAY volunteer Golnoosh has developed new additions to a computer application that students can use to maximize crop production and the garden's nutritional output. This has inspired the CAMAAY staff to start a new initiation to bring technology to the CAMAAY classroom. Through donations of smartphones, laptops, and tablets, CAMAAY schools will use technology to hone students’ skills. Through data collection, analysis, and computer modeling, students will be able to maximize the success of their gardens. In doing so, students will also learn about cutting-edge technology and how modern tools can be implemented even in traditional agricultural trades.

We also plan on establishing public health surveys to measure the public health impact of CAMAAY’s projects. Public health surveys conducted at each of CAMAAY’s schools will measure the positive impact of CAMAAY’s programs on the health and wellness of its students. The information gathered in these surveys will lay the foundation for a larger research project that measures the efficacy of CAMAAY’s garden projects and education initiatives on the health of the children of Cameroon.

CAMAAY project manager Meg is meeting FNE International directors this November. FNEI partners with communities in developing nations to identify opportunities to advance housing, health and education. FNEI currently works with several schools in Nicaragua. With FNEI, CAMAAY hopes to extend its network and connect classrooms with collaborative projects. Stay tuned to see how things progress!

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Oct 3, 2016
"Moringa, Kaya, and I"

By Catherine Kerber | Project Manager

Jul 5, 2016
A fun idea for our 2016-2017 gardens

By Patrick Chung | Project Leader

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.A virtual volunteer with experience working on school gardens in the US city of Detroit has selected a list of crops suitable for the Cameroon climate and soil that do will one or more of the following:

provide a variety of important nutrients
resist pests
attract pollinators
replenish the soil
retain moisture
offer shade
can be eaten raw for school snacks
can be stored to provide food security year-round
produce seeds that can be banked for the following year.

Three of the crops -- basil, onions, and garlic -- will be used in all gardens to reduce pests, but the children will choose the 4 - 6 they want to grow from the rest of the list. At the start of the school year, we will work with the teachers in each school to have the kids play a simple game to choose the crops to plant in their garden. Each child will pick one of the possible crops to learn about and represent. After all the children have had an opportunity to review the material about the characteristics, requirements, and benefits of their crops, they will form teams by joining with the other children (crops) they would like to make up their garden. They can then use a simple mobile phone app that one of our volunteers is developing to enter their team members (crop choices) to see how each crop choice, individually and in combination with the others, will affect the amount of work their garden will require, how much food and nutrition it will provide, and whether it will help them make money to support the gardens in future years by producing seeds for banking or surplus for sale.

You can receive a free download of our app with the 12 fruits and vegetables we are offering the schools when you donate $25; for a $250 donation, we will research and program the app for 6 fruits or vegetable of your own choosing.

Attachments:

scoringsheet.doc.pdf (PDF)

2 Attachments

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