Rising Hope Foundation for change Little Feet, Big Step Charismas Empowerment project to the Rehabilitation Institute for the Blind (RIB) was held at mile 16 Buea on the 3rd of December 2017.
The visit started with the arrival of the RHFC team at about 12 noon, headed by the Country coordinator, Mr Efu Kelvine Fonkeng. One of the Pupils led us in Prayers, he called on God Almighty to bless the organization, replenish their source of income, bless their partners too and make sure they return safely to their various destination. Immediately after the prayers, a welcome song was sung by the entire community of the blind.
The Representative of the director of the institution, Mme. Dorette was presented to the team, she welcomes the members of the organization on behalf of the director who was preparing to receive the governor of the Southwest Region at the center. She told us our visit was timely because the 3rd of December each year is celebrated by the international community as the International day of persons living with a disability. she explained to us about this year being the celebration of the 26th edition under the theme, Transformation towards a sustainable resilient society for All, she also said this day was instituted by the UN in 1992, she went further to present the school to the organization. She gave us a brief history about the school, how it was created in 1967 and has trained a lot of students with very good results.
The school has four departments, which are:
1) The school
2) The Health Centre
3) The ICT Centre (TRAIN THEM HOW TO MANIPULATE THE COMPUTER)
4) The Education Centre.
The school has both francophone and Anglophones and both sections of the primary school up to class 6 and Cours Moyen 11 (CM2). The school is headed by a Director; the present Director is Mr Godfred Mukembe. They also have activities like sports for the visually impelled persons.
On the heels of Mme Dorette was a little blind boy by the name Brian who thrilled the audience with beautiful songs. The songs ushered in the representative of RHFC, on behalf of the CEO Mbenja Clovert, he thanked the school authorities for opening their doors to them and went immediately to present a Rev. Pastor who was the motivational speaker of the day. The Rev. gentleman using biblical verses encouraged, challenged and motivated the students, he said that even though they are blind physically, they see spiritually, he prayed and thanked God for the lives of the students and told them they can still be whatever they want to be in life if only they believe God can do it.
The coordinator came back to present the organization to the staff and students of the school when it was created, their head office, their contact addresses, members, their vision, mission and activities done and the ones in progress and the one still to be done.
Mme. Gladys was the next speaker of the day, she gave lectures on menstrual hygiene to the young girls and boys present. She explained what is the menstrual cycle, menstruation and how u can take care of yourself during menstruation, she supported her lectures with a demonstration for easy understanding. A series of question and answer followed after her lectures.
A short message from the CEO was read by the country representative, in the speech, the CEO encourage the blind to believe in themselves and thank God for their lives because some of their friends are dead, but they are not, it means they live for a purpose.
The next on the agenda was presentation of gifts, which included rice, groundnut oil, toilet roll, bathing buckets to all, Savon and menstrual pads to the young girls. A symbolic Shield was handed over to the school authority and a RHFC cup was also donated to the school by Mme. Gladys and Miss Forteh-Ngochi Susan respectively.
A thank you message was addressed to the organization through their delegate, he touched and felt the gifts offered to them and thank the almighty God for bringing us on that special day, meaning they have friends and brothers they can now count on. He said the thank you is coming but from their heart and not their lips. He went ahead to quote the president of Cameroon in a speech he made in 1992, that (un seul mot, continuer) which means, just one word, we should continue to do these marvelous things.
The team handed the gifts they brought, they included.
5 bags of rice 25kg
A bag of salt
30 bathing buckers with RHFC stickers on them.
Hygienic pads
A cartoon of big Savon.
5 litres of G. Nut oil.
A palette of toilet roll.
A shield of RHFC
A Symbolic glass with RHFC on it.
Trees to plant
Bread
Juice.
These gifts were presented to the representative of the students, who was happy to receive it and he asked for permission to touched the gifts. He said. They now know they have friends out there who they can count on. These gifts were handed to the students individually.
A group picture was taken by all.
On behalf of the CEO, the representative of RHFC thanked them for receiving their gifts. The Educator Thanked RHFC for putting smiles on the faces of the students.
Photos were taken outside; interview was done by the media outside.
We moved to planting of Symbolic trees for triple effects.
We left the campus at about 1:30. For our own refreshments outside of the campus.
Each student received a bucket, refreshments and other gifts put together for them. The country representative signed the visitors’ book and wrote down all we brought for the students. We had a group photo and a concluding speech from Mme. Dorette ended the occasion in the hall while we were ushered to their school garden to continue with our project of planting trees for triple effects. some varied trees were planted. Interviews were conducted by the various media houses present like the Advocate News Paper, CMTV and Ni TV, the delegation left the Centre at about 2:30 pm for their special reception at King David Square Hotel