The reopening of Seat of Wisdom College Fontem

A Concept Note on:

Rehabilitation and Reopening of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College Fontem, Southwest Region, Lebialem Division, Cameroon

Office of the President,

Seat of Wisdom College Ex-Students Association

(SWESA) USA.

Background

Statistics from the 1965 enrollment of students into the St. Joseph's College, Sasse, Buea, Southwest Region, Cameroon showed that a significant proportion of these students were from the current Lebialem division. This supported a demand for the creation of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College Fontem in 1966 by the Focolare Movement, an Italian religious group within the Roman Catholic Church. Since then, thousands of children from within and without this rural community have benefited from cheap and moral education provided by these missionaries. From 1966 TO 2016, Seat Of Wisdom was an elite secondary and high school in Cameroon offering coeducation to boys and girls. Statistics from the Cameroon General Certificate of Education Board (GCE Board) show that Seat of Wisdom was amongst the top 5 Secondary/High Schools in Cameroon prior to the war, frequently registering 100% pass rates at the GCE Ordinary and Advanced Leve.

The English-speaking region of Cameroon including Lebialem division where Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College is located has since 2016 been hit by a political crisis, characterized by sporadic violence fighting and destruction of property. This has resulted in internal displacement of civilian populations. Our lady Seat of Wisdom Colleagues was not spared from this crisis: some buildings in the school campus were either partly burnt down or windows destroyed by unidentified gunmen; students were physically assaulted during this event and even told to evacuate campus immediately or will be killed during the next encounter. This incident forced the closure of the school. The Foculare missionaries, most of them foreigners who were managing this educational establishment, were similarly forced to leave Fontem and Cameroon unprepared because of insecurity.

During this period, some of the abandoned buildings in the school campus have been destroyed by bushes, rains and insects. These buildings need complete refurbishment. The campus is also now infested by large reptiles and animals, not conducive for any human living. Addressing this will need the services of the pest control company.

The Urge to Reopen this School to Address the Dare Educational Needs of these Children

As mentioned above, this political crisis forced the students to leave the campus and school shut down without any alternate source of education. This closure has completely disrupted the education system in Lebialem division resulting in many children: 1) being completely out of school for the past six years, 2) parents who could afford to take their children out of the division, enrolled some of them in substandard schools in French speaking region Cameroon. This has resulted in several mental, social and reproductive health challenges among these out of school children with very bleak career futures. It is now evident that most of them cannot measure with their peers in regular educational systems.

As result of these, various stakeholders of this institution including Ex-Students, parents, village and community associations have had multiple meetings with the Foculare missionaries who have agreed to reopen the school at the resumption of the Cameroon school year in September 2023. This is supported by the fact that though the crisis is not yet completely over, the situation is now more conducive and most of the parents and children have returned to the village without school for the children. It should be noted that there are no public schools as well.

Our Financial Plea to Everyone

We the Ex-Students of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College are pleading for your financial support to assist in the rehabilitation and reopening of this institution.

Construction, maintenance, and management of this college has over the years been due to financial subvention from the Italian based Foculare Missionaries. As mentioned, they have agreed to return and ensure the reopening of the school, however, it will be gradual with very little human presence and financial subvention at this time. We thank them so much and we are sourcing funds from other benefactors to prepare the campus and ensure full resumption of this school in September 2023.

Apart from funds needed to rehabilitate the buildings, provide security and animal and pest control, the current crisis has further impoverished lots of parents in this locality who have very bright children at home who can’t be admitted back in this school because of lack of school fees. Hence, we intend to also provide support in school didactic material and scholarship to kids from these poor homes.

Current Estimated Needs Include:

1) Security (Fence, night/day watch, security cameras, alarm systems): $10000

2) Renovations (Roof/building repairs, water pipes, electricity, etc): $8,000

3) Hygiene/sanitation (cleaning/disinfection, animal/pest control etc): $2000

4) Didactic material/teaching supplies: $3,000

5) Scholarships to needy students: $15, 000

6) Salaries to teachers: $14,000

Total $50,000