The Companion is a project of the REGARTLESS formerly known as Sysy House of Fame that seeks to reach to young peoples affected by the ongoing aimed conflict in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon through arts, culture and Digital education. We believe in the children of our future and have a proper understanding of the fact that they are the most vulnerable during such conflict periods. We therefore organize arts, culture education programs to reach out to these children through established institutions to enhance creativity. Today the 5th/ March 2019 our visit was to CBC Manda in Bamenda III subdivision. The activities for the pupils included photography, picture storytelling and the game who am I? Through drawings. The aim were to build competences in children and to encourage the children to concentrate on their future aspirations that can be achieved through informal education despite the ongoing crisis within the region.
Photography is one of the arts and digital education lesson the children were trained on. The rationale behind this photography session was to teach the children the basic parts of the camera and their uses, teach them how to tell a story through photography and how to think beyond the classroom. This practical exercise was coordinated by Njobati Sylvie, founder of REGARTLESS formerly known as Sysy House of Fame and film maker.
The children were then thought basic photographic skills and how to tell stories using photography. They were each given the opportunity to practice with the cameras made up of simple digital cameras and professional cameras. This session proceeded by dividing the children into two groups with each group having the task of telling stories with photos. The team for girls worked on environmental consciousness where they encouraged the planting of environmental friendly trees per the need of that particular environment. The Ball thieve was the story told by the boys through their photos. Their focus was solving a crisis or problem with out violence.
The next activity was picture story telling which was aimed at impacting knowledge and preserving handed down cultural values. From the pictures, the children were quick to identify the “Garbage in” “garbage out” story which is a metaphor for “peace in” “peace out”. In this session the children were encouraged to find inner peace despite the on going conflict in the region so that they can offer this peace to their community and contribute to problem solving.
Lastly, the Game “who am I” was introduced to the Children with the aim of helping these children to identify their dream careers for the future. Some of the dreams of these children included being Medical doctors, computer engineers, Agricultural engineers, police man, footballers, Nurses, cooks, building architects and motor mechanics.
The program ended with a closing remark from the head of team from the Sysy House of fame and another from the class teacher. The children expressed their satisfaction with the activities and the knowledge gained requested for more working sessions. The Companion project from the REGARTLESS formerly known as Sysy House of Fame is supported by Goethe Institute Kamerun.
