Humanitarian action:

Chantal Biya touches the hearts of Tombel people

Women of the Circle of Friends of Cameroon, CERAC, the charity association founded by the wife of President Paul Biya, Mrs Chantal Vigouroux Pulcherie Biya, took Tombel by storm on Saturday 14 May 2016 and made landmark donations to the populations.

By Darel Ngwa in Tombel

Mrs. Linda Yang cuts symbolic ribbon 

to hand over GS Tombel

It will take a very long time for the populations of Tombel to forget what the First Lady, Mrs. Chantal Biya has done for them. Under the auspices of the First Lady, CERAC women led by their general coordinator, Mrs Linda Yang, wife of the Prime Minister and head of government, on Saturday 14 May 2016 visited Tombel where they donated a wide range of items to the populations.

                Among the landmark donations was a completely renovated and fully renovated Government Primary School GS Tombel that was handed over to the Tombel populations. Created in 1961, the school had become dilapidated and virtually abandoned, with broken walls, no windows or benches, and fallen-off roofs.

                But the school handed over by CERAC was completely transformed. Three new classrooms had been built; 4 classrooms completely renovated with modern roofs, metal doors, protected windows, brightly painted walls and ceilings and a completely electrified campus, with dust bins.

                Apart from these, CERAC also made donations of 450 new desks, a computer and printer, school bags, books, chalk and a variety of other didactic materials to the 350 pupils that populate group I and group II of GS Tombel.

                After cutting the symbolic ribbon, Mrs. Linda Yang proceeded to unveil the commemorative plague, on which was inscribed in bold: “On May 14, 2016, the Circle of Friends of Cameroon, (CERAC) on behalf of its Founding President, Mrs. Chantal Biya, First Lady, UNESCO’s Goodwill Ambassador for Education and Social Inclusion, officially handed over the Government School of Tombel, renovated and equipped by CERAC.” Linda Yang also made a guided tour round the school, alongside the dignitaries present and the bevy of CERAC women.

                Receiving the school and the other gifts on behalf of the rest of the pupils, Esso Rodrigue thanked Mrs. Chantal Biya for the wonderful donation which he said would help them to improve on their performance at school. The young and seemingly intelligent pupil asked Mrs. Linda Yang to extend to the First Lady the joy of the pupils and teachers of GS Tombel. He asked Linda Yang to also let the First Lady to know that the youths of Tombel were happy and proud of her especially because of all the good work she is doing for the needy in Cameroon.

                Worthy to mention that the renovated school and the didactic materials were not all that the First Lady had in store for the populations of Tombel; there were also donations in the domains of health and agriculture.

                Thus before she proceeded to handing over the school and didactic materials, Mrs. Linda Yang also on behalf of the First Lady, donated farm tools and agriculture inputs to some 20 women’s groups drawn from across Tombel sub-division. The farm tools comprised grinding machines for cassava, pressing machines for palm oil, cutlasses, hoes, wheel barrows, rain boots, fertilizers etc.

                In the domain of health CERAC donated delivery beds, stretchers, surgery kits, packets of cotton, aspirator tubes, a generator, drip stands, disposable gloves, cartons of surgery threads etc. to the Tombel district hospital and other health units in the sub-division.

                In her remarks on the occasion, Mrs. Linda Yang underscored the First Lady’s commitment to touching the lives of the needy in Cameroon. She said the wife of the head of state lays emphasis on health and education because these are primordial for the growth and development of any child. She therefore exhorted the beneficiaries of the donations to handle them jealously and use them appropriately.

                Reacting to the wonderful gesture from the First Lady, an old mother said to this reporter: “Now is the time for Tombel to also enjoy……The Holy Ghost has descended on Tombel, we must continue to thank and praise God for making it possible for Tombel to also see the light.”

                The hugely attended ceremony was witnessed among others by the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Philip Ngole Ngwese, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Finance, Elung Paul Che, the SW Governor, Bernard Oalia Bilai, the SDO for Kupe Muanenguba, Haddison Quetong, the DO for Tombel, the senator for Kupe Muanenguba Hon. Rose Ntube, MPs, Mayors among others.