Projects

It is split into 3 phases. The first on (1 year) consists in selecting in each zone organisations member of IDAY interested in the project and having the agricultural competencies to start plantations of highly nutritious and medicinal plants in nearby schools. The 12 first schools will be chosen according to their teachers’ agricultural competencies, availability of water and cultivable land, motivation of their youth. Those schools that have succeeded the plantations, will become pilot centres for the production of seed and training. In the second phase, (4 years) activities will be extended by each initial school to 2 or 3 new ones by supplying seed and training. Medical tests conducted on 10% of the pupils will verify their health levels. At the end of that phase between 36 and 48 schools should be integrated in the project. The third phase (1 year) consists in completing the number of participating schools and conducting advocacy campaigns with the government to scale up the project to the whole country without additional foreign help.

General Objective

Improve schooling access and learning conditions through the creation of school gardens with highly nutritious and medicinal plants.

Specific Objectives

> demonstrate to the government through an experiment with an adequate number of schools, the validity of the creation of school gardens with the following goals;
> stop school absenteeism due to malaria and cut health costs through the use of Artemisia annua;
> improve the nutritious levels of the students through the regular consumption of highly nutritious fruits and plants they produce themselves;
> reduce malaria impact on children and teachers hereby improving education quality;
> extend as much as possible the growing of Artemisia annua among members of IDAY-Cameroon
> extend and teach the interest in school gardens and stimulate the exchange among national representatives of IDAY (in particular in Benin, Togo and Burkina-Faso) promoters of similar projects;
> train youth about the fight against malaria, in favour the agro-ecology, and the principles of composting and recycling;
> following the example of a similar project in Uganda, teachers can teach notions of mathematics, and biology with the use of works in the school garden hereby raising the “acceptability” of nearby schools;
> demonstrate to the population their capacity to fight by themselves diseases like malaria and under-nutrition as well as putting an end to the current dependency on foreign aid;
> make the government aware that it can fight malaria and under-nutrition at low cost in Cameroon; – teach youth the principles of cooperation, solidarity and voluntary work.

> Significant (30 to 80%) reduction of medical costs for the children and their families with the potential use of the savings to school derelict children;
> Improvement of education quality for children protected from malaria and some other infectious tropical diseases
> Significant reduction of school absenteeism resulting from malaria and under-nutrition;
> A large number of people know how to cultivate Artemisia annua and highly nutritious fruits 
and vegetables;
> More students – girls and boys- register in school;
> Higher levels of learning achievements;
> Schools are more highly appreciated by the local communities because they give teachers 
and students practical useful information;
> Minimising environmental degradation as a result of training in recycling and agro-ecology;
> More exchanges within the IDAY-Cameroon network and meetings with management of 
IDAY-International, including from Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo who have launched similar projects.