COREDA

Etuge Sumbede Elvis was born the youngest of 7 children in a poor, rural community of SW Cameroon. His mother was forced into a child marriage to a much older man who died when Etuge was a toddler. After his father’s death, his mother struggled to raise the children on her own. Due to extreme poverty, only four of the seven children survived, and none except Etuge was able to attend school past the free elementary level. Etuge had the great fortune of being the youngest, as his older brothers and mother pooled their resources to ensure Etuge not only received a secondary education, but was also able to attend the university where he received a BSc in Management and a post-graduate diploma in Teaching. Having experienced both the suffering of abject poverty as well as the great benefits resulting from educational sponsorship, he has committed his life to helping others as a tangible demonstration of his gratitude. To achieve this goal, he founded Community Relief and Development Action (COREDA) in 2010.

Schools have been closed in the forest communities of Western Cameroon since 2016 due to the Anglophone war. Many families had to flee their homes into the forests to escape the danger and were often separated from one another in the process. After surviving sometimes for two or three years in the bush, many families, or even young children on their own, worked their way to Tiko to make a new life in crowded IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps. These displaced children and orphans desperately wanted to attend school, but their dream was elusive until Etuge Sumbede Elvis opened a school for these marginalized children.

Etuge’s school has been thriving. His teachers are well-trained and his students have access to textbooks (a rarity outside the big cities in western Cameroon). As donations allow, he provides a nutritious meal to the children who used to cry from the trauma of deep hunger, medicine for intestinal worms, and even a dance program to nurture their emotional health. The school also has a well which provides clean water, and children fill up containers to take home which keeps them safe from the cholera which often infects others in the community.

The results are showing… Since starting his school in 2019, 100% of his graduating 6th graders have passed the national competency exams. By comparison, most schools in this region have pass rates of just 40-50%.

Though we’re pleased with the primary school, it saddened us to think that, after sacrificing so much and working so hard, the education of these children needed to end after the 6th grade. To address the needs of older children, we funded the construction of a vocational secondary school which opened its doors in the fall of 2023. In addition to academic subjects, children are learning skills like construction, carpentry, electricity, welding, computers, tailoring, and home economics. This will greatly improve their chances of finding jobs when they graduate.

It is a joy to help these children because they are highly motivated to work hard and escape poverty. One 5th grader, for example, who lives in an orphanage, works hard to care for the younger children, getting up early to draw water from a well and collecting firewood so they can cook food. She says life in the orphanage is really difficult, but she is working hard for a better future. One day, she hopes she will be able to find her mother. Etuge’s schools will give her the chance to do that!