By Ikome Christie-Noella Eposi in Buea
With a goal of supporting needy and underprivileged students in their academic pursuit, the Etombi Foundation has awarded scholarships to some 200 students from 22 institutions in Cameroon, cutting across the towns of Buea, Limbe, Douala and Bamenda.
In order to enable the students pay their fee and register for the certificate examinations (for those in examination classes), the Etombi Foundation donated the scholarships to the various laureates who applied and met the criteria for the scholarship.
The award exercise for the year 2024 kick-started in Buea this Tuesday February 13, 2024 spearheaded by the Country’s Representative of the Etombi Foundation, Lois Ikome who impressed on the students that their education is very cardinal. She urged the students to make good use of the scholarships given to them.
“We understand that education is the best thing that anybody can do for themselves. When you take your education seriously, it opens doors for you. We hope that this money we are giving you to pay for your certificate examinations and your tuition will enable you to continue your education with less stress. We are counting on you to be among students with the best results at the end of this academic year. You all cannot afford to misuse this opportunity” The country’s representative told the beneficiaries.
Talking to the press, Lois Ikome noted that the scholarships are given because the foundation realized that there are many students who want to study but don’t have the means. “Etombi Foundation sources for funding to be able to support such students. We have been doing this since 2020 when the Etombi Foundation was launched. So this is our 4th scholarship award process. We are grateful for the opportunity to help the students and we are also very thankful to our donors who believe in us and who are enabling us to carry out this activity”.
Throwing light on the award process she stated that there is a procedure and scholarships are awarded only to students who apply and meet the requirements. “We work through the schools because we believe that it is the school administrators who know their students who are needy. At the start of the school year, we give out our scholarship forms and they are supposed to apply and attach their birth certificates and their results of the previous school year and the school then visas the forms to indicate that truly the students belong to the school and the reports presented are valid”.
“When we get the forms, we do a selection process which involves creating a standard as we can’t award everybody. We draw out our cut lines, compile and then award the scholarships to the students”. She equally revealed that the feedback thus far has been very positive as the scholarships have had huge impacts on the awardees.
As per ensuring a proper follow-up, the country’s rep revealed that, “The school authorities are with us when we are paying the money and they ensure that the money goes to where it is supposed to go and used for the intended purpose. “Some of the students we initially gave scholarships to are already in the University. Some have had this scholarship thrice. At the end of this academic year, we are going to look at the reports and results to see how well our candidates performed. For the candidates we awarded last year, 90% of them were successful”.
Kenah Kingsley Wung, Nseme Cletus Sube and Rina Ephobia are some of the student beneficiaries from different institutions who appreciated the Etombi Foundation for such a laudable gesture. “This scholarship given to us will go a long way assist us in the payment of our fee and register us for the upcoming examinations. Many of us are undergoing some financial difficulties especially considering the fact that some of us are internally displaced persons. So this money will help meet up with our financial demands and make education less stressful for us”.
Specifically committed towards providing sustainable solutions to mitigate poor healthcare and education outcomes in most affected communities in Cameroon, the Etombi Foundation has provided educational, financial and material assistance to over 200 orphans, given full tuition scholarships and end of course registration fee and school supplies to over 400 pupils and students etc.