Japan Supports Education, Health NGOs

Within its framework to support local projects in Cameroon, the government of Japan, yesterday March 21, in Yaounde signed two separate conventions according a non-reimbursable sum of over FCFA 100 million to two NGOs; Soleil Levant from the East Region and Organisation de Jeunes pour l'Education et le Développement (OJED) to rehabilitate and equip a primary school in the East Region and a health centre in the Littoral Region.

The interim Chargé d'Affaires at the Japanese Embassy in Yaounde, Kazuhiko Fujita signed on behalf of the government of Japan while the presidents of both NGOs signed on behalf of their structures. Kazuhuko Fujita began by signing that over FCFA 53 million agreement destined for Soliel Levant NGO within its project to construct and equip six classrooms for Government Primary School at Yanda Bobilis in the East Region. The Chargé d'Affaires said Japan is keen about providing quality basic education to pupils.

That is why they offered Soleil Levant the means to provide a better educational environment to pupils in the locality who had just one classroom which did not have enough desks and other school materials. According to Kazuhuko Fujita, the six new classrooms that will be constructed will not only interest the population who will be encouraged to send their children to school, but will also motivate the pupils and teachers using the environment on a daily bases.

"This is Japan's own way of contributing to the efforts of the Cameroon government in attaining the Millennium Development Goals of guaranteeing Universal Basic Education by 2015," Kazuhuko Fujita noted. The President of Soleil Levant, Olivier Ntcho Ndedja lauded the efforts of the Japanese government while stating that this will greatly motivate the pupils who are interested in schooling but had no desks to sit or had to cover over 10 km each day to attend school in other neighbouring villages.

Besides basic education, the sanitary situation of the population is also important. If people have intelligence without a good, healthy situation, they cannot contribute to the development of a country. It is within this backdrop that later during the day, Kazuhuko Fujita also handed a cheque worth FCFA 51 million to the NGO "Organisation des Jeunes pour l'Education et le Développement for its project to rehabilitate, extend and equip Ndokou health centre in the Littoral Region.

The money will permit OJED to rehabilitate and equip two buildings of the health centre and construct a building of three hospitalisation rooms, an external toilet and a manual tap. The money will also help ameliorate the dilapidated Ndokou health centre which risked contaminating patients as well as provide better healthcare to pregnant women.