True to its commitment since 2021, the awareness and schooling caravan conducted for the past five years by the National Mining Corporation (SONAMINES) was once again rolled out in schools in the East Region. The 2025 edition, marked by a permanent presence in the field since the beginning of the year, replaced its usual September format with a community outreach campaign. The aim was to immerse ourselves in the schools benefiting from the \u201cOperation\u201d, so as to touch the realities of the ground through various activities and awareness-raising sessions along with donations.<\/p>\n
To implement its new strategy, the Operation No Child Labour in the Mine project team set out to visit several schools and meet with all the heads of the 43 recipient schools. Be it in Kette, Colomine, Garoua Boulai, Betar\u00e9 Oya, Batouri or Ndelele, SONAMINES\u2019 team offered a great moment of entertainment to the pupils, who enjoyed it to the fullest, with the support of the teaching staff, who contributed greatly through demonstrations to hammer home the need to prioritise education in these mining areas. Kette,<\/strong> de Colomine<\/strong>, de Garoua Boulai<\/strong>, de Betar\u00e9 Oya, de Batouri et de Ndelele<\/strong>, l\u2019\u00e9quipe de la SONAMINES a offert un grand moment d\u2019animation aux \u00e9l\u00e8ves qui n\u2019ont pas boud\u00e9 ce plaisir, avec l\u2019appui du corps enseignant, qui y a grandement contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 travers des cours d\u00e9monstratifs, pour marteler la n\u00e9cessit\u00e9 de prioriser le chemin de l\u2019ecole dans ces zones d\u2019exploitation mini\u00e8re.<\/p>\n Particular emphasis was laid on visiting Parent Teacher Training Schools and Pre-school Centres in these different localities.<\/p>\n Along with these activities, intensive awareness-raising efforts were made among the teaching staff, particularly school principals, who took the opportunity to commend SONAMINES' approach, which has borne fruit over the years, with a drastic reduction in school dropout rates.<\/p>\n Cette campagne de proximit\u00e9 a servi de pr\u00e9texte au suivi et \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9valuation des dons dans les \u00e9coles b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaires des derni\u00e8res \u00e9ditions\u00a0; l\u2019objectif ici \u00e9tant de mesurer l\u2019impact de cette activit\u00e9 et surtout, recueillir les besoins pour une meilleure r\u00e9orientation de sa strat\u00e9gie qui se veut dynamique.<\/p>\n This outreach campaign served as an opportunity to monitor and assess donations to schools that benefited from previous editions. The aim here was to gauge the impact of this activity and, above all, identify the needs in order to better redirect its dynamic strategy.\nIn prospect, SONAMINES intends to organise awareness-raising and entertainment days in schools during the Youth Week, with educational and competitive fairs for children in schools that are adjacent to mining sites. In addition, health campaigns focusing mainly on STI screening for women and training them in alternative income-generating activities, with a view to reducing their dependence on mining activities, are planned for March.<\/p>\n THE EDITION'S BONUS<\/strong><\/p>\n Awareness-raising Tailored to Children and with Children<\/strong><\/p>\n The production of posters with comic strip texts and characters was this edition\u2019s innovation. Designed to help children better understand the dangers of working in mines and the importance of education, in a language that is most familiar to them, these posters provided the backdrop for key messages in educating this mass.<\/p>\n L\u2019impact a \u00e9t\u00e9 imm\u00e9diat et les enfants se sont pr\u00eat\u00e9s au jeu d\u2019interpr\u00e9tation des diff\u00e9rents messages et d\u2019affichage desdites affiches \u00e0 c\u0153ur joie, au sein des \u00e9tablissements scolaires visit\u00e9s.<\/strong> The impact was immediate, and the children enthusiastically took part in interpreting the various messages and displaying the posters in the schools visited. This has now made them ambassadors to their peers, conveying the message about school benefits. Thanks to its visual and narrative format, the teaching staff equally committed themselves to pass the message on throughout the school year in order to preserve and maintain the pupils' commitment..<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n