The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 has affected many countries across the world, and Cameroon is no different. Cameroon has one of the highest COVID-19 infection rates in Africa, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been over 76,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 1,230 deaths from January 2020 to May 2021.

Due to very limited preventive and restrictive measures by the government, the number of cases is still on the rise, and vulnerable internally displaced persons are the most at risk. As the world mobilizes to tackle this pandemic, our team at Hope for Cameroon has executed two COVID-19 sensitization campaigns.

In April 2020, we visited the IDP camps to sensitize women about COVID-19 and educate them on preventive measures against the virus. Women were taught how to make their own hand sanitizers, and PPEs such as face masks, hand sanitizers, and soaps were distributed to the women.

After launching our Back to School Campaign in November 2020 to sponsor 50 internally displaced kids to acquire a decent education, we realized that our partner schools – Fovan, Charis and Kids Bilingual Nursery and Primary Schools, were inadequately equipped to respect the health and safety regulations that protect the pupils against Covid-19.

The pupils did not wear masks, there were no hand sanitizers nor water and soap to properly maintain good hygiene in the classrooms. The school authorities informed our team that they’re willing to respect these safety measures, but they simply lack the means to do so. Consequently, we embarked on a second COVID-19 Sensitization Campaign to raise awareness about the pandemic in schools and to distribute PPEs including face masks, tap-adapted buckets for the washing of hands, soaps, and hand sanitizers. This was to ensure that the kids can study in a healthy and clean environment.

So far, we have distributed PPEs to two of our three partner schools, (Charis and Fovan Bilingual Nursery and Primary Schools), but we lack the financial capacity to do the same for our third partner school, Kids Bilingual Nursery and Primary School. Your donation can help us accomplish this goal of ensuring that displaced kids study in a healthy and safe environment.