This content was published: February 26, 2013. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Inspired by PCC, Sunday continues education work in Africa
Photos and story by James Hill
Isaac Sunday is making it his mission to make education a priority in Africa.
Sunday recently returned from another project mission to Cameroon. He said he sacrificed his fall term to go and donate school supplies to his formal elementary school (a Presbyterian primary school in Awing Village). They include three boxes of excises books, eight packet of pens, 48 dozens of pencils, four packets of rulers, school balls, and more.
Isaac Sunday hands over his donation to school officials in Awing, Cameroon last fall.
The 27-year-old credits PCC for giving him the tools and skills needed to facilitate this mission and others like it. He said Kelly Brennan’s business and professional communication courses taught him the foundation he needed to bridge the two worlds of a small village in Africa with donors here in the U.S.
“I could not have accomplished this without the knowledge of communication skills,” said Sunday, who is from Awing. “Communication classes offered here at PCC have played a tremendous role for the success of the project. These classes were very knowledgeable. I was able to communicate fluently with outside donors who immensely supported the project.”
Last year, PCC news profiled how Sunday procured a $3,450 grant from the Ndong Awing Cultural and Development Association through his summer grant-writing class at the Rock Creek Campus to fund 50 benches, a table and six-month salaries for four teachers for Awing in the Northwest region of Cameroon. The Hillsboro resident submitted the proposal in early August 2011 and finished the donation of furniture and money transfer by mid-September of that year to the village.
For that mission, the microelectronics student worked long distance to hire carpenters in Awing and surrounding villages to make the furniture, and coordinate the donation with school and village officials. He traveled back to Cameroon in late August 2011 to oversee the final stages of the project and returned just before the start of fall term.
As he traveled to and from Cameroon, the gulf in education standards between the U.S. and his native country caused him to brainstorm how he could help his own community further. As a result, Sunday decided to do a yearly mission to help improve education there.
“My community in Cameroon is very backward in education,” Sunday said. “When I started schooling here in PCC, I was amazed with the standard of education PCC is offering to students every year. Especially to some of us who are coming here from Africa.”
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »
Sonia, let me know your field of interest to the Africans. I can help you deliver your donation to any age group you to donate to.
Sonia, I will be travelling to Africa again in June, let me know what you want to donate any thing, I can deliver it for you free of charge. This goes to anyone as well who want to do any charity work in Africa. You can contact me isaac.sunday@pcc.edu. Thanks
We help because we are bless, we don’t help because we want to bless. We are already a blessing
[…] Sunday said he sacrificed his fall term to go and donate school supplies to his formal elementary school (a Presbyterian primary school in Awing Village). They include three boxes of excises books, eight packet of pens, 48 dozens of pencils, four packets of rulers, school balls, and more. It’s the second project he has finished for the village. The 27-year-old credits PCC for giving him the tools and skills needed to complete the projects. […]
sunday i appreciate your kind gesture with that of our beloved donours , please dont forget to let them know how hard working an Awing man is.Tell them about coffee,maize,beans,potatoes,
sunday i appreciate your kind gesture with that of our beloved donours , please dont forget to let them know how hard working an Awing man is.Tell them about coffee,maize,beans,potatoes, tell them about professors mbahgwana,Atehchi,drs.Alake,kwake Ndah,mofor,mayors kumasi,Atanga,,commisioner,Ayafor,Mbakwene,mbagwana.comandang Mbah etc.Tell them about the lake awing,The Fons palace,mount Lefo etc.tell them about corner water,Chungong,Muma etc.tell them also about the two roads to Awing,so that what they like we can sell to them in exchange of Catapilers,Helicopters,Four wheel drives and so on.THat way the will know that fifty years is Maturity.Brother,let me know when next you are coming so i will send our good friends some palm wine from my bush.my regards to them.stay bless till next time.