“It (Bosco Youth Center in Nkol’Afem) is offering soccer, basketball and volleyball training every Saturday and Sunday. There are also dance and singing classes, guitar and piano classes, and a brass band. The center also has games and monthly spiritual activities and competitions,” the Salesian officials say.
They add that they “want to create a model youth center for education and culture. The goal is a center where youth can receive spiritual support and feel at home with their peers.”
Northwestern and Southwestern parts of Cameroon plunged into conflict in 2016 after demonstrations by teachers and lawyers turned violent. An armed separatists’ movement claiming independence for the so-called republic of Ambazonia emerged following the government’s crackdown on protesters.
Since then, the violent conflict has led to the displacement of over 679,000 people. More than 600,000 children have not been able to go to school in the two regions, and more than 3,000 lives have been lost in the five-year conflict.
According to a March 2021 report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 4.4 million people are in need of humanitarian aid in the Central African country.
The ongoing crisis, natural disasters and below average harvests have contributed to the continuing cycle of poverty and hunger in the country, SDB officials say in the December 8 report.
In an October 2021 report, the World Food Program (WFP) has reported that over 55 percent Cameroonians live in poverty and that 37.7 percent of the people are “severely impoverished.”
In the December 8 report, SDB officials say they are also involved in the provision of education and social development services to youth from poor backgrounds.
The services offered to the youth help them to “gain the training needed to find and retain long-term employment,” the Salesian officials say, adding that the young people “in turn are then able to give back to their families and communities.”
SDB members have previously facilitated education scholarships to needy students in the Central African nation.
