Youth Advocacy Network: Teaching Multimedia in Cameroon

On May 24^th 2014, the YAN Class of 2014 had their graduation ceremony.

Of the 42 students we had 19 from the Government High School in Buea Town,  16 from the Bilingual Grammar School in Molyko and an addition 7 from BGS Molyko who were part of the first ever Advanced YAN. (Please see the end of the blog for individual results)

The night started out as expected, everyone that had anything to do with graduation was late. This I had foreseen so it didn’t stress me out too much. I can say the only thing that was on time was the food! I loaded a taxi from the market with all of the drinks and made my way up to the city hall. As I wanted with a friend for the DJ/sound system to arrive (who came 75min late) I was arranging the interior of the Council Hall and attempting to set up the projects/computer. Oh, that was another obstacle l I had to jump over: when I picked up the projector from ActiveSpaces, I found out that it was compatible with PC computers – not Macs (me and everyone I work with and know have a Mac). Luckily a friend of a friend was in town and let me use his PC.

Soon by 4:40 a couple of the students started to arrive and I sent them down to Mami Promise’s house to collect the food she had prepared. After the sound system was set up I was able to test the projector and arrange the films to be shown. The previous night I had stayed up until after midnight grading the last papers and then was forced to pull and “all nighter” in order to finish the YAN 2014 video. The final week of classes I went around to all of the students to ask three simple yet loaded questions: What was your favorite part of the YAN class? What was your best memory in YAN? How will the skills you learned in YAN benefit you and your community in the future? I had a wide variety of answers which I incorporated into the YAN video along with pictures taken throughout the year. In the background I played popular regional music like Jovi (Cameroonian), P-Square (Nigerian), Gasha (Cameroonain) and several more.  

Suddenly, as we were waiting for more students to arrive, the Principal of BGS Molyko herself arrived!!! She is the first female Principal of Lycee Molyko (aka BGS Molyko) which is the first and largest high school in the Southwest Region of Cameroon! She is an extremely busy and highly respected woman in the area. We were truly blessed to have her in our presence.

Soon we started the program where I first introduced the Principal and asked her to sit at the high table (something to recognize that she was an important person). After a short introduction of YAN and showing appreciation towards the students and those who attended the graduation, I passed the mic to the first speaker from Lycee Molyko: Koi Blessing Amezang whos speech was so well planned it even surpassed mine! She ended with “Long live BGS Molyko, Long live Madam Antonia and Long live the YAN Club!” The mic was then passed to the Principal and our Country Director, Walters Chin who alternated between announcing BGS Molyko students and congratulating them with their certificates.

 

Blessings of Lycee giving the first student speech of the evening.

Etone Veronic accepting her certificate by the Principal of Lycee!

Next on the agenda was Henry Ekema from the Advanced YAN class who also gave an uplifting speech and again passed the mic onto the Principal to award her students with the certificates they all earned.

 
Henry speaking on behalf of the Advanced YAN class

From GHS Buea Town we had Ketline Yatuh who gave a thoughtful and quite nostalgic speech bringing up events and memories from the year we spend together. I announced the names and gave the certificates from Buea Town as their Principal was not able to make the event.

 
Ketline rounding up the student speeches

Fadimatou Isa accepting her certificate.

The evening was already passing quickly so I welcomed students and their guests to begin taking their food and drinks.

On the menu was Fufu and Eru (a Cameroonian favorite) and Jollof Rice
(which is made throughout West Africa with several different variations depending on the area)

After nearly everyone had taken their food I began to announce the Special Awards which were given to the following students:

Best Introduction(tie): Poverty with David Abunaw
Best Introduction(tie): Climate Change with Fadimatou Isa and Samuel Kinge

Best Interview: Nature Conservation with Abah Cardine

Best Conclusion: Water Pollution with Malange Clinton, Precious Claris Namondo Wose, Asawure Fidele and Kfu Patience.

Best Editing and Best Overall: Practical Education with Mpako Mbappe Darios, Koi Blessings Amezang and Muluh Victory Ngwi.

Best Overall: Political Problems with Ketline Yatuh

Most Original Research Topic: High Birth Rate with Ngala Nadia, Asawure Irene and Ekah Judith

Best Attendance Achieved: Precious Claris Namondo, Kadijatou Mohammed and Fadimatou Isa tied from Government High School Buea Town and Kamgwam Lecrivain from Bilingual Grammar School Molyko

Every time I announced an award for a section of a video or the video itself, we played it for everyone to watch. Once the awards were finished, the majority of people were through eating. The last hour or so was spent taking photos and dancing. As 8pm approached I took turns selecting random students to help clean up areas and bring things to the dumpster outside. I found our 11 interns one by one, congratulated them on their accepted applications (we had 25 applicants) and informed them about our meeting on Monday. One of the students, before I could even congratulate him on this acceptance into the internship ran up to me holding his certificate and a very proud, happy and surprised look on his face saying, “Madam! I did it!! I got highest honors!!” When I told him about his internship, he literally began jumping up and down!!

During this period our intern Maddy was taking DVD orders from the students which we would deliver at a later date. At 8:30pm the man who transported all the chairs arrived to collect them and by 9pm the Council Hall was spotless and all of the students were heading to their respective houses.

 
Family photo!!

What a successful night it was. I think the most rewarding part of the graduation, at least for me as their teacher, was seeing Buea Town YAN members and Lycee members bonding and making friends with each other. One girl, Rose from Lycee who also happens to be my neighbor, joyfully told me the following morning how she had given out her email address to some of the girls in Buea Town. Later that day she came to my house to collect their phone numbers.

2014 YAN Graduating class of Government High School Buea Town

2014 YAN Graduating class of Bilingual Gramar School Molyko

2014 Advanced YAN Graduating class of Bilingual Grammar School Molyko

Blend of Lycee students in the regular club and the Advanced club.



Mostly Buea Town YAN students but also a few guests for the graduation!