United Action for Children

What will you be expected to do?

Environment:

Accomodation and Food Costs:

**Your actual fee should be based on a conversion of the total CFA amount into a currency of your choice. Please go to http://www.xe.com/ucc/ to determine the exact exchange rate at the time of your departure.

Volunteers will eat their three daily meals at Project Directors house. You will be housed either in one of the volunteer houses or in rental accommodation near the Director’s house. The cost of the rental accommodation is included in the price above.

About Cameroon

Cameroon is known both as the “Hinge of Africa” and “Africa in Miniature” because of the broad cultural and linguistic diversity present in the country. In addition to its German, French and British colonial past, there are over 130 ethnic groups in the country speaking dozens of languages and dialects. Islam and Christianity are both actively practiced, both Muslim and Christian holidays are celebrated nationally, and an array of traditional animist beliefs are also present. Although Cameroon does have its cultural and linguistic challenges, it is worth it to get to know this beautiful country and its proud people.

The Programme:

Jamadianle Primary and Nursery School:
Jamadianle is open to children who are not able to attend regular ones due to high cost. It is staffed primarily by local teachers and occasionally by volunteers. The teachers follow the standard national curriculum and cover maths, English, French, history, general knowledge, civics, health, hygiene and sanitation as well as sport, crafts and cookery.

The Star Project is the expanded version of the original Jamadianle school. Due for completion in 2011, construction is mainly being funded by UAC Netherlands. In the new Jamadianle School there will be 18 classrooms for 580 children. It will be clean and more conducive to learning, with spacious classrooms each having their own computer, our ‘one computer-one classroom’ project. Our new school will be a green environment and we will teach the children the benefits of being green through our ‘one child-one tree’ and ‘one child-one chicken’ programmes which shows them how to plant trees and care for chickens, thus instilling in them the importance of living things.

Remedial Reading:
Learning to read and write is not easy, and some children benefit from getting extra one-to-one tuition to help them realize the goal of literacy. They benefit from reading stories and using their imaginations. Volunteers help to run the remedial reading program with adaptive, fun exercises to help all children at Jamadianle experience the joys of reading and writing.

Computer training in a digital world
UAC provides basic computer training programmes in our cyber café. Vocational unit students and members of the public alike can benefit from relevant computer skills taught by our knowledgeable staff. We currently have an average of 25 people a week being trained in such programmes, which are unquestionably important given the light of the technological age we find ourselves in. These skills will equip our students to adapt to this world in a confident manner.

The Vocational Programme
The aim of the Vocational Programme is to equip rural youths and street children with employable skills and trades that can facilitate their integration into society. With help from foreign volunteers youth receive training in woodwork, electricity and painting as well as English and maths. In the future we also intend to include sewing, cookery and agriculture as other avenues for youths to gain sustainable employment. We are training them for self-employment but these trades will fare them well in their individual walks of life.

School on Wheels
In Cameroon it is estimated that 80% of parents living in rural areas are illiterate. Children from rural areas often do not attend school as their parents cannot afford school fees, and others who do attend do so infrequently. This has resulted in a stark difference in academic achievement between children in rural and urban areas and since 70% of Cameroon is rural it is a big problem.

The School on Wheels programme was established to tackle this by taking the school out to some of these rural communities and teaching classes in English and Maths with the help of our foreign and Cameroonian volunteers. After two hours of productive learning we reward our students with some football and some time to have fun. Currently we operate in Bokova and Bonakanda, two small villages in the Buea area and in the future we hope to expand further into Fako Division of SouthWest Cameroon.

Visa Requirements:

It is possible to obtain a visa for three or six months. If one obtains a three month visa, it can be renewed once if you decide to extend your stay. For a stay longer than six months, it is only possible to ask for a residence permit and some volunteers have stayed for up to a year.

To obtain a visa to come to work in Buea, volunteers need an invitation letter from the UAC management. If necessary we can fax this through on request once you are ready to start processing your visa.

Volunteers are also responsible for making the necessary arrangements with regards to travel insurance, medications and vaccinations. The only compulsory vaccination needed to enter Cameroon is for Yellow Fever.