One hundred girls displaced by the armed conflict in Cameroon’s North-West and South-West Regions have received school supplies and educational support in Douala as they begin the 2026/2027 academic year.
The back-to-school initiative, held on Friday, September 11, at Mount Zion Nursery and Primary School in Mabanda, Bonaberi, brought together electric mobility company Spiro Cameroon, Girls at Heart Cameroon and Lodge, an association supporting internally displaced persons.
Under the theme “Her Future, Our Community,” the initiative targeted girls whose families have been forced to leave their homes because of the prolonged Anglophone conflict. For the organisers, the aim went beyond providing stationery: it was also about helping girls remain in school despite the disruption displacement has brought to their lives.
School supplies for 100 girls
Each of the 100 beneficiaries received a school kit containing a bag, exercise books, pens, pencils, rulers and other learning materials. Where possible, the contents were adapted to the girls’ respective grade levels.
Three of the highest-performing pupils received additional support. They were given complete sets of textbooks for the academic year in recognition of their academic performance despite the difficulties associated with displacement.
The initiative comes as displaced families continue to face the financial pressures of rebuilding their lives in cities such as Douala. For families already struggling with accommodation, food and other basic needs, the additional cost of books, uniforms and school materials can determine whether a child returns to the classroom.
The organisers also included a psychosocial support session during the event, giving the girls an opportunity to receive encouragement and discuss the importance of continuing their education.
The session recognised a less visible consequence of displacement: children do not simply change towns or schools. Many have lost familiar communities and routines and have had to adapt to new environments while trying to continue their education.
‘One more obstacle between a young girl and her future’
Speaking at the event, Spiro Cameroon Managing Director Alain Guy Etoundi said the company viewed the initiative as an extension of its work around mobility, arguing that the concept should extend beyond physical transportation.
He described the support as an effort to remove “one more obstacle between a young girl and her future.”
For Etoundi, the circumstances of the beneficiaries made their determination to continue schooling particularly important. Many of the girls have already been forced away from their homes and communities but continue to attend school and pursue their ambitions.
He argued that supporting the education of one girl can have consequences beyond the individual beneficiary, extending to her family, classroom and community.
Etoundi also recognised the organisations working with Spiro on the initiative. Girls at Heart Cameroon advocates for girls under the message “her voice is her power,” while Lodge works directly with internally displaced families living in Douala.
Addressing the girls, Etoundi told them: “We see you — your courage, your potential, and your dreams.”
Education amid years of displacement
The beneficiaries are among thousands of children whose education has been disrupted since the crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking North-West and South-West Regions escalated into armed conflict.
Families have moved to cities including Douala and Yaoundé, as well as other parts of the country, in search of safety and opportunities to rebuild their lives. For displaced children, starting again can mean entering unfamiliar schools, adjusting to different communities and coping with the economic consequences of displacement.
Girls can face additional pressures when family resources become scarce, making targeted educational support particularly relevant.
The September 11 initiative sought to address some of those immediate barriers. A school bag and exercise books cannot resolve the larger circumstances that displaced the children, but they can remove some of the practical costs standing between a family and a child’s return to school.
Spiro expands its community engagement in Cameroon
The programme also marks an expansion of Spiro Cameroon’s activities beyond its core electric mobility business.
The company officially launched operations in Cameroon earlier this year, initially putting 40 electric motorcycles into circulation in Douala in partnership with Royal Holding, a fleet operator active on the Yango platform. Spiro has said it intends to expand electric motorcycle deployment and its battery-swapping infrastructure as it grows in the Cameroonian market.
Its involvement in the back-to-school programme is part of what the company describes as a longer-term commitment to communities affected by the Anglophone crisis rather than a one-off donation.
That commitment will ultimately be measured by whether such support continues beyond individual events and reaches displaced families facing educational barriers over the longer term.
For the 100 girls gathered in Mabanda, however, Friday’s intervention addressed a much more immediate question: whether they would have some of the basic materials they need as another school year begins.
Alongside those supplies came a message from the organisations behind the initiative: being displaced from home should not mean being displaced from education.