This report exist to offer donors, readers, and anyone who is interested a transparent view of our fundraising gala night, successes, and plans for the future.

The Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire, Mrs Julie Spence and her husband, were the guests of honour at the Second Edition of the Fund-raising gala night and officially launching of the Bisong Foundation. The gala night took place on 5th May 2018 at the Papworth Everard Village Hall. The event started at 18.00 and lasted well into the night. Other VIP guests include; Lady Grace - CEO Merimba Resources, Mrs Timothy Burgess - CEO Edward Storey Foundation Cambridge, Shiraz Peer - Senior Lawyer - Peer & Co Immigration Lawyers Birmingham/Watford, Karyne Tazi - CEO Womens Resource Centre Wolverhampton, Aunti Naomi Okoe Cambridge, Dr Mathias Chiano Cambridge, Mrs Nicole Nvoto London, Members of VUKA, colleagues from the HALT & PWS and Former Indomitable Lions of Cameroon namely; Cyrille Makanaky, Jacques Songo’o, Joseph Desire Job and Douala Mbela. Special guest artist - Sir Tata Kinge.

Rationale for the event: The purpose of the event was to raise money for the Good Samaritan orphanage in Babete in Cameroon. Every year Bisong Foundation fundraises in order to offer scholarships to the orphans. The orphanage host 22 orphans. Seventeen of the orphans are in primary and nursery schools and one of them in secondary school. Bisong Foundation had paid school fees for all 18 school-going orphans in the 2017 - 20018 academic year and provided them with new brand uniforms and all school equipments. Bisong Foundation aim to offer scholarships to these orphans in every academic year. It takes a lot of moral and financial support in order to offer scholarships to these orphans and fund-raising is a great way to achieve this. Every little bit helps. Some of the orphans were abandoned by mentally ill parents and some them have no parents. The trustees of Bisong Foundation took on a daunting task of making this event the best it could be. Earlier on the day Bisong Foundation had organised a charity football match against the Cambridgeshire Police FC and had invited Former Indomitable Lions of Cameroon and legends of African football to take part in the football match. Some of these players played in World Cup 1990 against England. They were also guest appearances at the gala night. £130 was raised and donated to Bisong Foundation by the Cambridgeshire Police FC after the game. The gala night was a spectacular evening held at the Papworth Everad Village Hall and it was a night of delicious food, drinks, networking, raffle, meeting elite footballers, dancing from live performance from special guest artist Sir Tata Kinge and also from special collection from popular known DJ Amour Scolaire, and most importantly fun. Having such a deserving orphans to be the recipients of whatever we could raise for them, made people more interested in donating money towards our cause, and donating their time. Some of the items used for the raffle was donated by Jimmy’s Homeless - Cambridge.

Event Budget: The initial budget for the event was £3000. However, we ended up spending £4.115 more than our initial budget. This was a result of the venue, food, drinks, decorations, printing the tickets as well as paying for travel expenses for Former Indomitable Lions of Cameroon including accommodation and feeding and also paying for guest artist, video, photos and DJ. Tickets sales brought in a total of £2.500, this was lower than the estimate of £5.000. That was because all tickets were not sold as anticipated. Raffle sales brought in £179, Hampers sales brought in £180 and cutting of the cake brought in £2800 and £490 as pledges. We spent a total of £4.115. We made a profit of £1.374 The event, overall, was a complete success. We had a great crowed of people from the United Kingdom and abroad.

The organising committee did an amazing job as everyone at the event enjoyed themselves. The food was delicious, the live performance from Sir Tata Kinge was entertaining and the Village Hall looked incredible. Everyone worked really hard to make the event successful. The only flaws was that we were not able to sell all our tickets which would have generated more funds.

By doing two events, we did gain more understanding of what it takes to put on these events. We found the time constraints to limit what could have been accomplished.

By Michael Bisong

Founder / Trustee

Kids of the Bon Samaritain or Good Samaritan orphanage in Babete, near Mbouda sang for joy, Friday August 18, 2017 after receiving a donation from the Bisong Foundation, a UK-based charity. The Bisong Foundation, founded in 2010 in Cambridge, United Kingdom by Michael Bisong and his wife Hortence Manto Bisong where they are both based, offered to pay school fees for all 18 school-going orphans in the 2017/2018 academic year. Seventeen of the orphans are in primary and nursery schools and one of them in secondary school.

The foundation also donated brand new uniforms for all the orphans, school needs ranging from schoolbags, exercise books, pens and pencils. Most of the kids attend the Babete Catholic School. They equally received foodstuff and other basic needs including rice, cooking oil, breakfast items and soaps.

The ceremony that took place at the orphanage centre at Babete was attended by members of the Bisong Foundation, the orphans all wearing their newly-made uniforms, officials of the orphanage and a representative of the Bamboutous Divisional Delegate for Social Affairs.

Appreciation for the gesture by Bisong Foundation, the orphans sang the French version of “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands”. They sang many more songs expressing their joy. Equally joyed, the foundation Founder and President, Michael Bisong said, “See how beautiful the kids are in their brand-new uniforms! They are God’s children. We are realizing our dream! God has helped us, so we ought to share with the underprivileged. We won’t give them the world, we can only share the little we have.”

Explaining the foundation’s motivation for donating to the orphanage, Bisong said, “We know how important education is for, those who do not go to school will spend their lives in perpetual darkness.” He said though his foundation is concerned about the plight of all the needy, their priority was to the needs of orphans. He said the foundation is in the process of being registered in the UK.

Speaking earlier, the foundation’s Executive President, Jean-Philippe Ntoukam who manages operations in Cameroon, recalled that Mr Bisong was inspired by his own childhood experiences to create the charity.

Also speaking on behalf of the foundation, its co-founder, Mrs Bisong Hortence Manto said they were happy to see the children sing, dance and smile, which satisfies their desire as stated in the foundation’s slogan to “Give the underprivileged a reason to smile”. She said the foundation has already visited five other orphanages in Limbe and Yaounde since it was legalized in Cameroon in May 2016.

Visibly overwhelmed, the coordinator of the orphanage, Rev. Sister Therese Grace Tcheutchoua, simply sang a song of praise to Jesus and Michael Bisong: “Emmanuel, we are saying ‘thank you’, Mr Bisong, we are saying ‘thank you’.”

She said the orphanage was created in 2005 after a child abandoned by a mentally ill woman was brought to their care. The orphanage, now hosting 22 orphans, is run by the Benedictine Sisters of the St Benedict Monastery in Babete, an extension of the Mt Febe Monastery in Yaounde. Also speaking on behalf of the orphanage, Mme Fomekong Tikun Jeanne Sylvie, director of the centre said some of the orphans have been found to have mental illness. This left Mr and Mrs Bisong particularly concerned as it somehow falls within their professional scope. Mr Bisong is a mental health social worker in the UK where he assesses and supports adults with mental health issues and Mrs Bisong is manager of their health support agency.

Besides donating to the orphanage, Bisong Foundation blended into weeklong sporting activities of the annual get-together of the Development Committee of Bamesso village, Mrs Bisong’s village of origin, located a few minutes’ drive from Mbouda in Bamboutous Division of the West Region. The foundation’s football team featuring Michael Bisong, a former Indomitable Lions player in the junior categories in the 1990s, played a friendly match with Bamesso Veterans.

Bisong, a native of Manyemen in Nguti Subdivision, Kupe-Muanenguba Division in the South West Region, presented medals and trophies to winners and outstanding playersof the Bamesso football tournament in which Bamesso sons resident in Edea defeated those from Limbe in the final after post-match penalties. In handball, Bamesso girls based in the village beat those from Yaounde 15-6. The finals were presided by the Mbouda Subdivisional Delegate for Sports and Physical Education, Bibeme Damien Martial.

The closing ceremony of the Bamesso Cultural Week on Saturday, August 19 was chaired by Public Works Minister Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, elite of the village and Honorary President of the local development association.

Written by Sone F Bayern