Dear Sir/Madam

The Centre for Reconstruction and Development (CREDEV) will be fundraising to improve schooling conditions for poor children in rural Cameroon with GLOBALGIVING from 01 to 30 September 2010.   First to start with, may you permit me to introduce this organization to you in brief?  The Centre for Reconstruction and Development is an NGO (non-profit) registered in Bamenda – Cameroon as an equivalent of 501(c)(3) organization abroad in 2004 .  CREDEV is an autonomous civil society organisation, whose purpose is development, charitable and organised to advance sustainable social change in disadvantaged and poor communities in the society.  We are an affiliate or member of the United Nations Volunteering Service and CIVICUS: World Alliance for citizen participation, just to name a few.  We are inviting you to sponsor the cause of these children in Mbaw Plain, a remote community with very poor access to education. 

There are a several reasons I want you to participate in this fundraising SEPTEMEBER OPEN CHALLENGE organised for us by GLOBALGIVING amongst which are:

1.0  Children inability to read or write at school.

The lack of learning basic needs such as textbooks holds back the child’s mental development.  Majority of these children who go through primary school have never owned a textbook in their life.   A child has to learn how to read on its own also at home and do assignments.

2.0  Remoteness of the community.

Remote communities far off at borders with another country are worst off.  Access to bookshops or even used textbooks is limited to townships.  Some parents hold back their children from going to school particularly girls that we will change it.

3.0  Lack of qualified teaching staff.

Remote location schools lack adequate and qualified staff to teach with a pupil/teacher ratio of 300/1.  90% of the teaching staff does not possess O-Level GCE or teachers training certificate; they are first school leaving certificate holders.  These teachers are recruited by the PTA, which is only able to pay them stipends for lack of enough resources from the government. 

4.0  Poor educational infrastructure

The lack of enough classrooms force teachers to combine or jam some classes in one room.  Some full cycle primary schools are operating in sheds for years for lack of permanent buildings.  The PTA is unable to mobilise resources to build modern classrooms because parents are poor peasant.

5.0  High illiteracy in community

Less than 30 percent of the community indigenes are able to read or write.   Even those who have gone through primary school have this difficulty because they were aided or just managed to pass.   Very few advance their education through secondary school successfully because of the poor elementary educational base.

6.0  Lack of permanent donor support

We do not have a permanent donor and rely only on membership fee and honoraria.  If we had a source of income we will fund our projects with little external support.  That is why you are requested to support the poor PTAs of this community who we cannot help themselves from nothing.

7.0  Long-term future educational plan

This is a pilot project that prepares children to be able to cope with education at post-primary level.  What will be next is the setting up of a technical training centre to train youths in crafts to be self-employed anywhere they go.  Skilled craft technicians are few in the society let alone the community due to lack of competent technical schools. 

GLOBALGIVING requires us to raise a minimum of $4000.00 from at least 50 donors during this fundraising September Open Challenge in other to maintain us as a partner in their database.   International online fundraising is extremely new to us as we are only used to other methods and how to be successful in 30 days is our greatest challenge.  That is why we have gone open inviting the public to generously support us rather than to individuals which we do not know.  What I can guarantee you as my donor is that your dollar will be well spent specifically for the cause.  The full project proposal can be downloaded for details from GLOBALGIVING fundraising website below, where monitoring and reporting procedures are found.  Kindly tell a friend, a family member, your colleagues, everywhere you meet to adhere to this cause for children.  I am requesting you to donate and change the schooling life of just one poor child by making the world a better place for them at www.globalgiving.org/6283.

I want to thank you very much in advance for your support.

Yours sincerely,

Mbuti Mboyam

Chief Executive