Official visit to the Notre-Dame-des-Apôtres Region – 3 KUMBO

We visited the Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys Center, a vocational training centre in Kumbo. The centre offers courses in sewing, pedicure and manicure for young girls and in hairdressing for young girls and boys. The goal is to help them to become more independent, take charge of their lives and support their parents and siblings. Many students at the centre are orphans, the oldest in their families and responsible for taking care of their siblings.

The centre was created alongside the OK Clean Water Project, with the goal of helping young people struggling during these troubled times in the region. Sisters Cécile Buote and Marthe Falie have greatly contributed to the centre.

We also had the pleasure of visiting the Annex of St Peter’s Catholic College in Meluf, which was created by Sister Noreen MacDonald with the help of her friends and family in Canada. Since last year, only faith-run schools can be opened in this region of Cameroon. There have been efforts to move facilities in the Diocese of Kumbo closer together to prevent children being kidnapped on their way to or from school. During our morning visit, we were greeted by 230 excited high school students.

Sisters Marthe Falie and Augustine wanted us to see firsthand the good that the Marguerite-Bourgeoys scholarships are doing for young people’s education in a region where public school is banned and dangerous. Even though the school fees for Catholic schools have been halved since 2016, parents are still struggling to afford them.