12 of our scholars graduated in Cameroon as we won an international gold award

This month we held our graduation ceremony at the Government Bilingual High School in Mfou, Cameroon, where the latest cohort of our regenerative-farming and business programme qualified as what we call “Architects of the Soil.”

Government officials, local authorities and our partner organisation RELUFA joined us, and we unveiled the International Gold Level Award the programme won from the School Enterprise Challenge (run by the UK charity Teach A Man To Fish), with a virtual keynote from its chief executive, Nik Kafka.

We held our scholars to a high bar, and 12 of the 20 met the full requirements to graduate. The clearest proof of the model came from Pitou, one of our graduates, who presented the business plan she had built for an organic poultry and vegetable farm. Her pitch was strong enough that a guest in the audience pledged to invest in it on the spot, and she is now a business owner preparing to employ others in her community. Each graduate received a certificate, and we gave letters of recognition to the school's staff.

We spent £1,200 on project kits, logistics and training materials, plus 175,000 CFA (about £225) on the ceremony itself, covering catering, refreshments, transport and certificates.

The eight scholars who did not graduate this round mostly face difficult economic circumstances, and we're planning more intensive mentorship to help them through. We're also assessing a site near Ngoumu, in Mbankomo, for a permanent Ecological Learning Centre, where we want to scale the programme to reach more displaced young people. International transfers for our running costs have been slow to arrive, so we're working with partners in the United States to streamline that.