THE CAMEROON COMMUNITY CENTER PROJECT
Theodore Roosevelt once said,
The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena……who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions to a worthy cause; who at best, know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Our Cameroonian community is blessed with humble sons and daughters who have great thoughts and visions to move this community forward. Men and women who steadfastly look for victory for their people and community but are not afraid to face defeat trying.
It is with this spirit that we bring to your attention the Cameroon Community Center Project. Our community is growing geometrically. Each day there are new individuals and whole families arriving from Cameroon to join us and our families here are blessed with new additions to households through births. We must be ready for these changes in our demographics. We must position ourselves to cater for the needs of our community. We must face the challenge of living in the Western society, while preserving our natural way of life and culture. The best way of preserving our culture is to own structures that are suitable to our way of life and that would preserve our culture for now and the future. Those of us in the Washington DC metro area are aware of the difficulties and the expense we go through securing a place for our numerous occasions. We spend a lot of money on renting halls and our community incurs capital/resource flight all the time we do this because these halls are not own by Cameroonians. This is why we are pushing for us to come together and work towards having our very own Cameroonian Community Center .
The Community Center shall stimulate cultural awareness and consciousness through various educational programs for children and adults. An Academy would be organized for children and adults to learn the history and cultures of the Cameroonian people. These programs will expose participants to the ways Cameroonian culture and society view and deal with such issues as unity, patriotism, civic responsibilities, peace, justice, tolerance, technology, development, marriage, respect, family, structure and progress.<br> On regular basis throughout the year, the Center shall organize and host seminars on various topics and issues of relevance and/or concerns to the community. During these seminars, members of the community and experts on various fields will be brought together to share information and create awareness on such subject matters as health, economy, education, the law etc. etc. Emphasis shall be laid also on such disturbing issues as AIDS and crimes.
The Community Center shall host and organize century club scholarship drives to raise funds for scholarships to assists needy students with some of their educational/ financial needs. The Center charitable engagements shall be extended to victims of AIDS: AIDS widows/widowers, and orphans of AIDS. The Center will assists (through hosting functions) in providing some of the needs of families and individuals whose lives have been adversely affected by the AIDS virus, including making it possible for children left behind by parents who died from AIDS, to be able to hope for a dignified future through attending school. The determination, selection and distribution of scholarships and charitable donations shall be handled and managed by the scholarships and charitable committee of the Cameroonian Community Center . The Center shall also host an exhibition and collection center of Cameroonian/ African artifacts, works of arts/literature, music and other products from Africa/Cameroon. The center shall have office spaces, halls for various occasions, a library and other facilities.
We know you have all discussed the need for such a structure in our community and we are counting on your support and that of your cultural groups, ex-student association, your church, family and company you work for to make this project a reality. Due to the interest of the entire community in this project, we are inviting the leaders of cultural groups and associations to be members of the Cameroon Community Center Project Committee.
We have held several committee meetings and we are currently putting a business plan together.