Help to raise valuable donations for the Children’s Resource Center

IMPROVING ON THE RESILIENCE OF CHILDREN IN THE RESTIVE BAMENDA TOWN THROUGH LIFE SKILLS AND DIGITAL SKILLS.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The PCC is seeking 74,525 euros (48,900,000 FCFA) for the establishment of a digital child-friendly skills -building Children’s Resource Center – CRC for children in Ntamulung – Bamenda, and for the PCC at large, to help children key into technological advancements and build foundations adequate for mental and motor skills that will enhance their sustainable growth and resilience, thereby preparing them for the evolving social and economic world. Through its Children’s Resource Center Program, PCC will contribute to the realization of a safe and nurturing environment for everyone, by equipping children with skills and Christian values necessary for them to enhance local and global integration and growth. The PCC, through its children’s “Sunday School” program, engages children in educative programs, Biblical and social programs that help in their growth. PC Ntamulung will host this program, providing a safe space capable of accommodating 50 children per session, and also get skillful tutors to see them through.

Introducing children to Information Technology aligns them with global needs and connects them appropriately to available child-friendly knowledge and skills, thereby laying a foundation for social and emotional intelligence, valuable for their progress in live. This project is needed more so, due to the stifling effects of the “Anglophone Crisis” in Cameroon that has resulted in the shrinking of civic space, heightened insecurity and a severe disruption of family life, communal life and education for many children. Many have experienced displacements, family separation, mental health challenges, and school dropout. This situation was further compounded by the recent Covid-19 pandemic from which Cameroon and the world at large are yet to fully recover. The Center is also intended to serve as a safe space for communal learning in case of future disruptions as the crisis is far from over. This project, at its core, will also implement spiritual and psycho-social counseling that will benefit both children and parents. The center will be a pilot center for best practices mainstreaming new evangelism and child development that will eventually be scaled across other PCC communities nationwide, especially among our national network of Sunday School teachers.

BACKGROUND OF PCC

The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC), is a reformed denomination in Cameroon and a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. It is the largest English-speaking church in Cameroon with a current membership of over 2 million Christians. Its mission like any other universal church is to proclaim the Good news of God through Jesus Christ in word and in action. The proclamation of the good news includes: preaching of the word, teaching, healing and liberating the people of God from sin (Luke 4:18-19). The ultimate intention is to fulfill the mission of the church with deep commitment to human dignity and basic human rights, and the moral ethical obligations. The PCC, in view of its mission of growing the faith of Christians considers very strongly, the importance of human wellbeing in areas of good health, education and livelihood which is much in line with the biblical teachings and ministry of Christ. (John 21:15); Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes Lord; you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my Lambs.” (NIV) In this light, ever since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis, PCC has intensified its humanitarian Actions through its departments.

As part of its efforts to achieve its spiritual mission in a holistic manner, the PCC has carved out its congregations into 3 movements namely: the men department, the women department and the youth department. Sunday schools, which fall under the youth department is made of children below 16 years. At this stage, the children are groomed and trained with the rules of the church and also good behaviors of a child of God. The Presbyterian Church in Bamenda – Ntamulung, plans to extend a hand to the children by building and enhancing their digital and social skills through information technology and life skills programs in a bid to help them cope with challenges growing up in a difficult period and also connect them better to global knowledge in preparation for the future world of work, life and communities.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Due to the anglophone crisis in Cameroon, which has badly affected the North and the South West Regions of Cameroon, More than 3,4000,000 children are being deprived of education, time to play together, safe and peaceful family time and adequate nurturing parental attention due to the increased stress levels, social disruptions and casualties of the asymmetrical war (OCHA CAMEROON, 2019). Dropout rate increased in the last years due to the ongoing civil unrest, which also left development lapses for children and psychosocial gaps in parenting.

RATIONALE

1. There is a high need for every child to be literate and also acquire some skills even while out of school. Recently, digital literacy has become integrated in the global definition of literacy. Unfortunately, there is a digital gap between developed and the developing countries which has distanced many Africans from lots of political, social, economic and educational resources and opportunities. If intentional efforts are not made at all levels to bridge the gap, it will only get wider as the internet becomes increasingly, the meeting point for exchanges and opportunities. This project proactively addresses this concern, early enough in the lives of the children.

• This project will go a long way to support parents to empower their children in this period of the crisis by engaging additional forms of learning such as non-school, life skills and peer-learning.

• There is need for improved parenting and child counseling as parents need more exposure on dealing with child development challenges in an evolving world and amidst various crises. Parents also need counseling on parenting.

• There is also need for safe child-friendly spaces for children and for after-school activities. Keeping children always occupied by impacting them with useful, skillful and important knowledge, is a great way of growing up a child.

• Child evangelism has become even more important. No one is too small to learn and tell the world about God. So through this project, children will receive biblical knowledge of God and how to live a good and responsible life pleasing in the eyes of God. They will benefit from both physical and digital evangelical materials.

• Access to technology helps in developing important skills for children, such as collaboration and communication that will be beneficial throughout their lives and that of their families as well. In their early childhood, IT knowledge serves as a tool for fast learning and also enables them to play, interact, express themselves and cultivate their skills by getting engaged. It helps the children to be creative, bold and more sociable too. With IT, children can use knowledge to create artwork and videos, communicate with friends and families and also share their ideas and talents with their peers and the world at large.

This project will contribute to building resilient communities by providing access to technology adequate for strengthening the educational system, as one of the foundations of every child’s development.

OBJECTIVES

1. Provide a safe nurturing, child friendly environment for children to grow essential school knowledge not well covered by school curriculum, especially digital skills. This is important to every child in this generation as this helps them study fast and quick.
2. Support parents in addressing key upbringing needs of children in emergencies through child friendly life skills and counseling. Sometimes, children connect and open up better to their Sunday school teachers and counselors than to their parents.
3. To connect children safely and properly to the digital world for a better future.
4. Improve on IT literacy level of children who lack access to education and can’t be able to access schools in the midst of the crisis.

APPROACH

This project will blend digital literacy with learning of craft, arts and life skills for comprehensive after school support to children within the crisis situation, ensuring a safe and nurturing space for them to learn and interact. Also, parenting programs will be enhanced with use of digital and onsite activities.

ACTIVITIES

• Renovate children center to accommodate the IT center
• Purchase equipment and furniture
• Recruit and train 3 IT staff and 2 counselors.
• Train at least 300 PCC Sunday school teachers in year 1 on holistic child care and parenting support.
• Produce and release learning and communication material
• Create and run the PCC Children’s Website
• Enroll at least 200 children in year 1.
• Launch and onboard child-friendly curriculum
• Run digital training programs
• Run child counseling services
• Run parental counseling activities
• Establish psychosocial support groups for parents.
• Graduate and certify children in life skills and digital skills.

BENEFICIARIES

1. Children will be the primary beneficiaries of the project as they will benefit from the evangelical works, digital learning and parental improvement services provided at the center.
2. Parents will be secondary beneficiaries as the center will contribute in addressing the challenges they face in bringing up their children. The church will also benefit from added value in their Sunday school program and in the lives of their children.
3. The project will go a long way to raise peaceful and resourceful children for the future.
4. This innovative project will be resourceful for the PCC at large considering the potential of scaling it to other centers.

NB: The PCC Sunday school organizers, in the month of July, met in Bamenda and endorsed the need for more holistic and comprehensive approaches towards Sunday school management and child care and evangelism by the ministry.

RESULTS

This project will be an important showcase of new evangelism approaches as it will be embarking on an unprecedented holistic approach toward the running of Sunday school with more strategic programming of holistic education, life skills, play and most importantly parental education, counseling and support. This is highly needed in a modern era where parents are getting more and more lost in modernism and failing to sustainably transfer their Christian values in the upbringing of their children. Below is an elaboration of its expected results:

Outputs:

• Children IT center renovated and equipped.
• 50 children trained on IT skills in Ntamulung.
• 300 Sunday school teachers trained in holistic child care and parenting support.
• General economic growth improved
• Social delinquency reduced
• Illiteracy rates reduced for children in adversity.
• Parenting skills of parents improved through parental learning forums.

Outcomes:

1.         A safe nurturing, child friendly environment provided for children at the Children’s Resource Center to grow essential knowledge, previously not well covered by school curriculum, especially digital skills. This is important to every child in this generation as this helps them study better.

2.         Parents supported in addressing key upbringing needs of children in emergencies through child friendly life skills and counseling. Healthy child – parent- counselor dialogue and connections established.

3.         Children safely and properly connected to the digital world for a better future.

4.         Literacy and level of information technology improved for children who lack access to digital and even general education.

SUSTAINABILITY

• At the end of the funding cycle, the center will need to rely on very moderate sustenance fees from parents to run operations. This will be possible with the parents having experienced the value and impact of the center in the lives of their children.Parental support will be further enhanced by engaging them in the parenting program.

• The program can easily benefit from support from the general church community given that the Sunday School is an integral part of the church and composed of children of church members.

• For its infrastructure, the program is sustainable as its activities are based in the church center with no risk of being pushed out for rental reasons.

• The digital center unit of the Children’s Resource Center will also run a documentation center for paid documentation services which will generate income for maintenance of digital appliances.

Growth Potential: This project has a huge goal potential as it will be well watched from the PCC Synod Office for its impact by which departments and units like the Health Department, the Mental Health Unit, the Men’s Works Department, Women’s Works Department, the Youth Department and the Gender – Based Violence Program will draw insights for their own child – related activities.

Also, it will generate a lot of lessons, tools, approaches and practices that will be transferred to other congregations and communities and supported by diverse donors for replication thanks to available technical support from CEDAR-COM, PCC’s offshoot partners in program strategy.

SEE FULL PROJECT HERE>>>