About the Cause
Dubai Cares’ programs are designed to reduce, if not remove, the greatest obstacles that prevent children and young people in developing countries from attaining quality education. With each intervention, Dubai Cares evaluates the need for assistance across two key areas:
Access to Education which allows Dubai Cares to improve children’s health and learning environment, increase education enrollment and attainment, increase access to education, reduce absenteeism, increase gender parity and increase promotion rates.
Quality of Education which enables early learning, enhances educational attainment and school progression, improves literacy and numeracy skills among children, enables teachers to access teacher training resulting in better learning outcomes, reduce dropout rates and increase primary school attainment.
Dubai Cares is a long-term advocate of safeguarding children and young people’s right to education and is currently playing a global advocacy role in spreading the knowledge about the importance of providing education to the unprivileged children.
We also champion education through research - There is an overwhelming lack of evidence as to what works to promote children’s learning in crisis-affected contexts. Research plays a pivotal role in tackling this issue.
My Story
We are a Foundation, Watoto Foundation, created in 2020 and registered in 2022. Following the massive influx of internally displaced persons from Cameroon's conflict-affect Northwest region, the vulnerability in the Adamawa region of Cameroon has worsened. The community of Mvoumbam and neighboring villages had no secondary school to support this. We created TANDA Modern School Complex in response to this need with the support of the community. It is the only school serving about 8 villages. With over 70% of students unable to pay their tuition fees which is about forty dollars per year, no form of improvement could be registered. Students from different classes thus found themselves joined in the same classrooms with usually two teachers teaching two different classes in one classroom. Last year, parents launched an initiative to contribute money and build new classrooms with mud bricks. This initiative failed due to lack of motivation and financial difficulties. Since September with the new school year, many students have simply stayed at home. This has led to some reported pregnancies, delinquency and a few cases of concubinage. TANDA Modern School Complex offers technical education, permitting students to grow academically while learning a trade which could help them earn a living after high school. This project will thus increase the access of more than 300 additional students to education.