✓ The Observer publisher and his wife target IDP and underprivileged families in Bamenda’s Old Town neighbourhood
✓ Some 64 children receive school supplies, while two others are set to benefit from full school-fee support
Article by Laarry Uchenna
The publisher of The Observer and Secretary General of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) for the North West Region, Ndi Tsembom Elvis, and his wife have supported vulnerable children in the Old Town neighbourhood of Bamenda with essential school materials ahead of the 2026/2027 academic year.
The gesture, carried out on Sunday, September 14, 2026, at the esplanade of the couple’s residence in Old Town, Bamenda II Subdivision, targeted underprivileged children, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and vulnerable families within the community.
About 64 children benefited from exercise books, pens, pencils, and other didactic materials. The beneficiaries were identified with the assistance of Know Your Neighbour, a community group made up largely of mothers who have first-hand knowledge of vulnerable families in the neighbourhood.
Addressing the children and their parents, Ndi Tsembom Elvis urged the beneficiaries to take their education seriously and remain focused despite the difficulties affecting the community.
“Education is the key to success. Among you, tomorrow we will have doctors, teachers, and magistrates. Go to school, study hard, and make your parents proud,” he told the children.
He encouraged the children to take good care of their books and use the opportunity to build a better future rather than treating school as a place to play.
The refined newspaper publisher, cum distinguished regional football leader, also disclosed that two particularly vulnerable children had been identified whose families could not afford even basic school materials, let alone tuition fees. He committed to paying the school fees of both children to enable them to return to school for the new academic year.
The initiative, he explained, is particularly important in Old Town, which has become home to many internally displaced families fleeing the ongoing crisis in other parts of the North West Region.
“We cannot be sending our own children to school while other children are cut off from the picture,” he said, stressing that education remains one of the surest ways for vulnerable children to transform their lives and those of their families.
Parents expressed deep appreciation for the assistance, with one beneficiary’s parent describing the intervention as a timely rescue.
“I was still contemplating what magic I would use to send my children back to school. Things have been very difficult this year,” the parent said, thanking the couple and praying for blessings upon their family.
Another parent whose children were among the vulnerable cases selected for the scholarship said the support came at a moment when the family had almost lost hope.
“As schools were about to resume, my prayer every day was that God should not forget me. By this gesture today, He has remembered me,” the parent said.
The parent added that the assistance would ensure the children return to school alongside their friends and neighbours without feeling excluded because of their family's financial difficulties.
The back-to-school campaign is solely funded and carried out by Ndi Tsembom Elvis and his wife as part of their effort to support vulnerable families in the Old Town community and promote a successful return to school for the 2026/2027 academic year.
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