Projects
The African University project is moving forward according to the African University Foundation Development's Plan. We are currently focusing on designing community-based development programs for the Tali area to be progenitors of African University's degree-granting programs.
The initial step of the African University Foundation’s development plan was strategically changes from the implementation of the university’s construction plan to the implementation of a community development pilot program. This change in direction resulted form the exploratory trip to Cameroon in July 2006 that was funded by the West Foundation and Moore foundation located in Indianapolis. The objective of the trip was to meet the people of the Tali Area Community and to visit the designated 10 square miles of land for the African University campus site in Tali, Cameroon. The exploratory trip raised concerns about the high level of poverty in Tali Area Community in spite of its richness in human and natural resources, a symptomatic situation that is representative of the poverty and underdevelopment problems in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
This underscored the need for the proposed African University whose mission is to advance human and community development to begin with community development programs as the critical first step for the launching of the foundation colleges, the Colleges of Agriculture, Health and Business for the following reasons: First, the community development programs will enable AUF to build the necessary community level relationships, networks, resources, and capacities that will support and facilitate the extension activities of the foundation colleges. Secondly, knowledge acquired from the design and implementation of community development programs will serve as the basis for the development of well-focused curricula and scholarships that contextualize the academic programs of the foundation colleges to the needs of society. Finally, the established community development programs will provide consulting opportunities for future faculty and internship opportunities for future students and this serve as social laboratories foe experiential learning.
The importance of the new direction of the African University’s development plan prompted the AUF Board of Trustees to fund a limited baseline study that was carried out by Dr. Gladys Martin in March 2007 (Report of her study is attached in the appendix). The goals of the study were to understand the economic and health care needs of women in the area.
Dr. Martin’s report.