At Mandela Day celebration: MTN Cameroon, partners succour orphans in Yaounde.

The beneficiaries came from the Foyer Marche en Avant orphanage, situated in Soa, Mefou and Afamba Division of the Centre Region. The gifts were donated Thursday July 18.

This was as part of activities to commemorate Nelson Mandela International Day. The ceremony was presided over by South African High Commissioner to Cameroon, His Excellency Mandla Langa. 

This was in the presence of the representative of the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of MTN Cameroon, Mitwa Ng’ambi and the Senior Manager Corporate Affairs at MTN Cameroon, Marie Germaine Ndzié.

Also present was the representative of the Minister of Social Affairs, Ndengho Maurine, and the representative of the United Nations System, Jean Njita.

Speaking during the ceremony, Marie Germaine Ndzie expressed gratitude to the South African High Commissioner for inviting MTN to join them in the important commemoration.

“MTN is proud to be a part of Nelson Mandela legacy. He is the spiritual father of this African company created in Africa by blacks from South Africa to contribute to the development of Africa. He has largely inspired the creation of our company and guided his first steps,” she said. 

Nelson Mandela, she said, repeatedly remarked that: “Telecommunications is the start of freedom, because it breaks the barriers”. 

“We express this solidarity, inspired by Nelson Mandela in Cameroon through the MTN Foundation which, since 2005, works on a daily basis for the well-being of our communities by contributing to the improvement on their life and living conditions,” Ndzie said. 

She equally thanked the founder of the orphanage and her staff for their daily work which is dedicated to look after these underprivileged children and to improve on their living conditions.

For dedicating their self to help these children, she stated they automatically become “heroes inspired by Nelson Mandela vision of solidarity”.

Speaking further, Ndzie encouraged the children to emulate the life style of Nelson Mandela.

Enter orphanage official

According to the initiator of the Foyer Marche en Avant, Megnifeujio Esther, the celebration of Nelson Mandela International Day 2024 in Cameroon testifies to their commitment, like the illustrious figure of the day, to give hope where there is despair. 

Created in 2019, Marche en Avant orphanage, she explained brings together and supports people living with visual impairment and others with special needs. 

The centre, she said, houses over 50 children aged between zero to 18. She disclosed she was motivated to create the centre after discovering that “children living with visual are often neglected”.

“We fully subscribe to our slogan to identify children in the hinterland and promote their inclusion in education and employment,” she said.

To her, Nelson Mandela himself said “education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”.

She thanked the donors for their gesture while pleading for assistance at the level of learning tools for the introduction of the use of Braille which she said, is inadequate.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue No:3177 of Tuesday July 23, 2024