Beyong Conflict and Emergency

The armed conflict in Cameroon has made girls and women in the remotest villages in the Mbonge sub-division to stay at home. Schools have been destroyed and teachers have left the villages. This has resulted to an high illiteracy rate and poverty.

We shall create learning centers equipped with solar systems and satellite dishes which will receive live lessons from a central school in the city. Teachers of the various classes and subjects will give live lessons in the central school depending on the curricula and time table, and live TV images will be transmitted to the learning centers in the villages.

By 2022, 366,500 girls and women will be educated, trained, employed and empowered through leadership spaces and participation in Public life. There will be poverty alleviation, ensure food security and income generation. There will be good family planning, gender equality and reduced dependent and domestic violence.

• The 20 remotest villages have a total population of 25,500 girls and women. Our case study came out with the following results:

No school because of Poverty (no school fees): 12, 800

School drop-outs due to early pregnancy and child bearing: 5,700 

No school because of early marriages: 6,300

No school because of polygamous homes: 700

- No electricity networks, no internet connection and no ICT tools, no learning centers , no schools and teachers, inaccessible roads, high illiteracy rates, early marriages, high teenage pregnancy, childbearing and school drop- out, Polygamous homes, limited knowledge of the importance of girls’ education, law and custom not to educate girls and women. There are no income generating activities, no jobs and employment. There is very bad family planning leading to population explosion, poverty, food insecurity, poor health and sanitation.

1. In the remotest villages, the trained village instructors will assemble the girls and women in the various classes depending on their learning abilities, skills and ages.
2. The instructors will then tune on to the television stations at a fixed time to receive live images from the central in the nearest big city.
3. The girls and women will receive live lessons but during this time, they are not allowed to ask questions. They will be allowed to ask questions to the trained instructors who will answer the questions and can further explain their doubts at the end of each class section.
4. The school centers will follow the same curriculum as in the primary and secondary schools in the cities and live classes will be in the school centers from Mondays to Fridays.
5. At the end of each team, the village instructors will receive examination question papers from the central in the big city through an E-mail. The instructors will then print out the question papers and share them to the students. Successful students will proceed to the next level. 

My target population is the illiterate girls and women in the remotest communities in Mbonge sub-division. There is no electricity and the roads are inaccessible for vehicles. They have to trek 12 km to and from school. This is too hard for them. Most of them are 100% house wives who are fully dependent on their husbands. They are very poor, socially backward and have no saying in decision makings. Most of them are school drop-outs due to early marriages or childbearing.

We have organized seminars and workshops to group the target population according to their skills and ages. We conducted a one –on-one counselling to understand their individual problems. We realized that most of them want to be educated, trained and employed.  We then decided to create learning centers where the most innovative and attractive educational materials and methods, and enlist support and motivation of the parents and husbands can be realized, so that no out of school girl is left behind.

We engaged them in the day-to-day building and organization of the school centers.

• Job creation and employment
• Promotion of leadership spaces and participation in public life.
• Poverty alleviation, ensure food security and income generation.

The ongoing Anglophone crises in Cameroon has caused a lot of Girls and women to drop out of school in fear of armed groups in the Mbonge municipality. There are no schools and teachers in these villages. This has resulted to an increase rate of illiteracy amongst girls and women. The online learning through live classes transmitted on TV will enable the target population to reach the key learning milestone through:

• Effective learning.
• Job creation and employment
• Promotion of leadership spaces and participation in public life.
• Poverty alleviation, ensure food security and income generation.

My solution enables girls and women to learn, trained, employed and empowered during conflict and emergency times when there is no electricity network, no internet and therefore no what's app, no schools, no teachers. It enables learning for girls and women to be possible even in communities where the law and custom prohibit learning for girls and women. Just imagine that teachers give their live lessons in a video room in a central school in a city and the live images are transmitted to satellite dishes which are powered by solar energy in the remotest villages, and the illiterate girls and women there can learn without any stress or fear of armed groups. 

There are other competitors like 'learning for all' who depend on carrying lecture notes on mass storage devices such as CDs and Flash to meet these illiterate girls and women in these remotest areas. This is time wasting, risk bearing to travel on the inaccessible roads, risk bearing to confront armed groups on the way, risk bearing that some materials can be misplaced and no guarantee that the right lessons will reach the target population. 

My solution will start a new era of enabling learning for girls and women during conflict and emergency times every where in the world.

My technology is digital live TV image transmission to enable online learning for girls and women in conflict and emergency times.

These are the components that build up my solution:-

- A video room in a school center in a city, a learning center in the villages where trained instructors in the villages will assemble the girls and women depending on their learning abilities, skills and ages.

- Village learning centers equipped with solar systems, satellite dishes, receivers, projectors and large white boards.

- PV arrays consisting of solar panels convert sunlight into Direct Current (DC). The DC enters a charge controller which regulates the electrical charge. Extra Direct current can be stored in large batteries which will be used in time of need. The DC enters an inverter which inverts DC to alternating current (AC). From the Inverter, the AC inters the Distributors which supply AC to the receivers, the projectors and lighting the learning centers.

The process: live TV images are transmitted from the video room in the city and are received by the satellite dishes in the learning centers in the villages. The receivers then receive the live images from the dishes and send them to the projectors which project the live TV images to a large white board. The target population can then receive live lessons.

My technology is widely used and accepted. My technology has been used and is still used in Cameroon in the past 4 years because of the ongoing Anglo-phone crises and the Corona Virus pandemic. Schools are not going on for the past 4 years and the Cameroon Government has made it possible that students stay at home while receiving live lessons over the Television. Teachers give their lectures in large TV rooms which are televised and the live images are transmitted to households mostly in the large cities which have electricity networks. Students in different classes can then tune on their Televisions to different channels to have access to the live classes.

The Cameroon Government has decided to use this technology because almost all households have a TV set and because the TV signals are uninterrupted unlike the internet which has a constant failure and can then disturb the smooth running of the live classes. Also, not all families will be able to afford for an android phone and even if they do, they will lack money to buy data to access the internet.  

My technology has also been used and is still used in other African Countries which are in conflict and emergency.

My solution will have an impact on the problem because our case study in these conflict and emergency areas shows that most of the girls and women in these areas want to be educated, trained, employed and empowered. This is not possible for them because there are no schools, there are no teachers, the girls and women are very much afraid to study out of their respective villages because of armed groups, the few available schools are overcrowded and they have to trek 12 km to and from school daily. This is very impossible for them. Some families have taken this advantage to stop their girl children from going to school. This has resulted to high school drop-outs, high illiteracy rates, early marriages, childbearing, prevalence of HIV/AIDS and poverty. 

My solution will enable these girls and women to be able to study in their own villages through online classes. They only need to sit infront of a large white board and learn. Also our special programs on the importance of girls' education will help to boost up the reluctant parents to send their girl children back to school. 

Through my solution, the girls and women will be able to reach their key milestones such as 

• Effective learning.
• Job creation and employment
• Promotion of leadership spaces and participation in public life.
• Poverty alleviation, ensure food security and income generation.

MY solution currently serves 25,500 out of school girls and women but there is wide cry from the population in other conflict and emergency areas needing my technology to enable the illiterate girls and women to learn. We realized that more that in 1 year time, my solution will serve 285,455 girls and women and in 5 years time, my solution will serve 5,675,455 girls and women in Cameroon, Central Africa and Gabon. 

In all, these girls and women will become leaders in our communities and will partake in decision makings in community development projects. There will be effective family planning which will result to reduced population, reduced food insecurity and poverty.

To improve on my technology to connect more girls and women in all conflict and emergency areas and all over the world to have access to education online, train online and work online. 

To provide quality primary education from class I to class VI through Learning Centers (online classes) established in each of the quarter and village, using most effective curriculum and pedagogy that will ensure their fast paced progress and completion of class VI in the shortest time is possible.

To make education compulsory for girls and women in conflict and emergency areas, reduce the cost of education so that girls and women from poor families can also be educated, create more learning centers to house students and train more village instructors, and to empower women so as to reduce poverty, food insecurity, poor hygiene and sanitation.

To provide quality primary education to the presently out of school children through these learning centers, using most innovative and attractive educational materials and methods and enlist support and motivation of the parents so that no out of school child is left behind.

To enhance the curriculum, develop more meaningful Teaching-Learning Materials, develop capacity of the village instructors and cultivate new instructors through specially designed training workshops;

To enhance enrollment and retention of children through individual tracking, community mobilization and quality improvement.

Through all these, 5,675,455 girls and women will be positively impacted by the next five years.

Technological barriers: Most villages in this sub-division do not have electricity network. There is no constant flow of electricity current in most of the communities in the Mbonge sub-division which have electricity network. This has made it impossible to use ICT tools to connect to the whole world or study online. No television network. Parents in these communities can only be convinced about the importance of girls and women education, of the leadership of their girl children and women in the world through television and radio programs, and other media but the absence of electricity current in most of these villages have made this impossible. 

Social and cultural barriers: Early marriages, high teenage pregnancy, childbearing and school drop- out: Most parents struggle a lot to make ends meet. Despite their own struggle in life they continue to look on daughters as a burden, to be married off as teenagers and start producing children.  In this way, there are high teenage pregnancies, high childbearing, and high school drop-outs. Meanwhile, education of a girl child is hardly ever a priority. 

Agricultural barriers: - Mbonge sub-division has 30 villages and a population of over 350,000 inhabitants. 90% of the population of Mbonge sub-division are farmers. From this 90% farmer’s population, 95 % are peasant farmers producing only food crops to feed the immediate family. There is no money kept aside for education (mostly for girls and women education). 

Solutions: 

Technological barriers: Create learning centers in all target areas, install solar systems to provide solar energy and satellite dishes which will receive live classes in these learning centers to enable online learning. 

Social and cultural barriers: We shall organize meetings with traditional rulers, parents and girls in the communities to educate them on the importance of girls’ and women education through videos programs, Television programs, radio programs, newspapers and other media, and discourage them from early marriages. 

We shall fight against drug trafficking among the youth population, girl child trafficking, girl child prostitution and girl child labour (most of these children are under-aged mostly from poor families work as prostitutes on the streets and labourers in the farms, industries, households, markets, etc.).

Agricultural barriers: To work with experts in agriculture from Europe and America to train our peasant farmers on modern agricultural technology to increase their yields, ensure food security and alleviate poverty.

To enable mobilizing of concessional resources, catalyze private sector investment on agriculture and maximize the use of market-based mechanism such as in the carbon and insurance markets.

Connect the farmers to foreign and vibrant markets so that they can determine the prices of their farm products and sell them at good prices to make more profit.

We are not a part of any organization

Mr. Ekoko Zacheus Ekwa: Chief Operating Officer / project supervisor and full time.

Mrs. Tabi Clara: General project Manager and full time.

Mr. Arrey John: Human Resources and Admin Manager and full time
Mr. Esapa Alfred: Accountant / Cashier and full time.

Mrs. Esther Nkenganyi: Sales and Marketing Executive and full time.
Mr. Paul Tabe and Mr. Philip Ebai: Field Employees and all full time.

Mrs. Essoa Mary: Front Desk Officer and full time



 

My team is made up of well seasoned professional and hard working personnel who have made big name in their respective fields. Most of them are retired Government workers who have held posts of responsibility. Most of them have made much research on how to enable people in conflict and emergency areas to learn in their target areas without the fear of being attacked by enemies. My team is very anxious to make it possible that even children from poor families have effective education because most of them come from a very poor back ground. They know what it means to be an illiterate. Because of this, we have provided quality primary education to the presently out of school children through the creation of learning centers, using most innovative and attractive educational materials and methods and enlist support and motivation of the parents so that no out of school child is left behind. Two members of my team were head teachers in primary and secondary schools for the past 30 years respectively. They have used their teaching experiences to enhance the curriculum, develop more meaningful Teaching-Learning Materials, develop capacity of the teachers and cultivate new teachers through epecially designed training workshops. My self (Ekoko Zacheus Ekwa), am a civil engineer with 25 years experience. I have held big posts of responsibilities in companies. I have worked with a company which supply solar energy in remote areas. My team should be considered for the philanthropic works that we have been doing.

For now, we have no partner organization.

KEY CUSTOMERS  KEY ACTIVITIES  VALUE POSITION CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

Villages              construction of     provision of                pay after service

                          solar system        installation services

COST            OUR RESOURCES           CHANNELS             REVENUE AND GAIN

U$2,000     Complete installation         P.O BOX 587,               U$500

                                                            Kumba

                                                       Tel. 679814362

• Fees from training of volunteer workers on the promotion of girls’ education.
• Payment from construction of learning centers in other communities outside the target communities.
• Payments from the installation of satellite dishes and maintenance services .
• Payments from the construction of solar systems and maintenance services. 
• Construction of modern latrines.
• Construction of boreholes
• Seminars and workshops
• Consultation fees.
• Other related services to the population

To receive technical assistance to develop and improve on my solution

to receive technical and financial assistance which enable me develop and improve my solution so that i can serve  wider communities which are in conflict and emergency situations.

I would to partner with SOLVE members