BABANKI EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT FUND
The Babanki Educational Support Fund was founded in 2011 and has been providing scholarships to underprivileged children in Babanki, Cameroon since 2012. The Fund has created Support Bilingual Nursery and Primary School where children can be taught in their native Babanki language for the first two years before transiting to English as the language of instruction. We also help children develop critical thinking skills while preparing for examinations in the traditional system.
Imagine your first day of school. You arrive wearing your best clothes and packing a lunch your mother made for you – ready to learn! But your teacher only speaks a foreign (colonial) language you don’t understand. This practice has devastated the educational hopes of millions of Africans, leaving the continent underdeveloped and in poverty.
You can help!
Email: babankischool@gmail.com
Contact us to donate!
The Babanki Educational Support Fund was founded by Pius Akumbu, a native of Babanki, Cameroon, professor of Linguistics at the University of Buea and University of Bamenda, a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley (2015-2016), and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Universität Hamburg (2019-2021). He is joined by a group of Cameroonian linguists and educators who understand the importance of mother tongue education.
Pius Akumbu
We have already purchased the land and started constructing a few classrooms
We started the construction of this building in November 2017. It has six classrooms and two offices.
With your donation we will be able to further this project and, more importantly, sustain it.
“As someone who has been researching the rich and complex Babanki language since the early 1970s, I’m fully in support of the efforts to educate the children of this locality in their language so that they can succeed in this increasingly complex world. Dr. Pius Akumbu is the right person to oversee the implementation of mother-tongue education in Babanki both because he is an accomplished and distinguished linguist and because he has already shown his leadership abilities in running the Babanki scholarship program for the last five years. I applaud this inspiring initiative of the Babanki Educational Support Fund and strongly encourage others to help”.
Larry M. Hyman
Professor of Linguistics, UC Berkeley
“I am very pleased to be part of this very promising undertaking.“
Peg Barratt
Professor of Psychology, The George Washington University