LUM BECOMES HAPPY
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Let Us Together Kick Out HIV The open school day ended with a football match between Classes six A and Class Six B. This was organized by the members of Cameroon Football Development Program (CFDP) and the Youth Alliance for Democracy and Development (YADD) as part of activities to launch the Health Club in our school. All pupils and villagers were invited to watch the match. In a banner at the side of the football field, it was written, “Show Care to People Living with HIV.” In another banner it was,” Understanding HIV is the Key to Staying Alive.” Other messages were on posters. As the two football teams entered the field, there was excitement everywhere. It was indeed exciting to watch my classmates including Agbor, Bessong and others in beautiful jerseys with very striking HIV messages written on them like, “Don’t die of Ignorance. Go for an HIV test.” When the match stated, every touch of the ball was accompanied with much fun from the nice commentaries on HIV by the commentator, one of our teachers, who knew all the twenty two players by name. Just a few minutes into the match, Kuga from Class Six A found a weakness in the Class Six B defense and sent a hard shot into the pool. As many were about to shout goal!!! The goalkeeper of Class Six B, Enow dived out, spread his hands and stopped the ball.”Oh!! A wonderful stop by the goalkeeper. He has shown us how vigilant we need to be. We need such vigilant to stop HIV. Enow keep it up,” the commentator said. By half time both teams were still at no goal on idea side. While the plays were on rest, flyers with HIV messages on were distributed to the population. The messages instantly created free room for discussions among all who were watching the match. When the match resumed, everyone anxiously awaited a breakthrough from one of the teams. Suddenly the commentator was on again. “Besong has the ball to kick Out HIV,” the commentator mentioned.”Great! He turns around and dribbles pass two opponents. Yes, no obstacle again. A hard one there! And a goal!!! Great! Great! Besong has done in! Besong has done it ! He has proven that with courage and determination we can do it! Great!! We can kick out HIV.” he said.
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About the Book
LUM BECOMES HAPPY is a story about a young girl who despite several weaknesses and challenges in school and in public, she succeeds in having a voice in her community and becomes the pride of her parents. The story portrays very important aspects about child development, confidence building, self-esteem, life-skills and others. It is a veritable tool that parents and instructors can tap from to moderate their relationship with the children they raise. The certain is a typical African village with different scenes in school, the public, at home and other milieus. These give a vast background and adequately show the challenges faced by the characters, and make the story real to life. Its African readers will easily be attacked to this since it reflects their socio-cultural background. For the non-Africans, it will be an opportunity to enrich their cross-cultural experience knowledge of which is much needed in the global village the world has become. The numerous milieus in which the main character manages through, will serve as a guide to children and the youth on actions to take to overcome similar situations and negative peer pressure which most children have been victims of . The strategy of the main character and the support she gets shall encourage others particularly in conservative societies to open up and consider appropriate actions to help their children to develop. The number of themes that are dwelled on are very important for moral and civic education which have increasingly become a felt need in schools. These themes shall also enable the youth to live a healthy and responsible life. The story is intersected with pictures that attract attention and help to ease interpretation even to less literate readers. The pictures also enrich the story and together with the numerous incidences in the story, generate a lot of humor which adds to the excitement to read the story. The story can thus be used at various levels including primary and secondary school levels.
About the Author
Eugene Atabong Atem is a Cameroonian. He graduated from the University of Benin, Nigeria in 1996 and has since then worked as a development practitioner with several local and international organizations operating in Cameroon> In the course of his service, he has acquired much knowledge on child development. He presently leads a youth focus organization that regularly organizers activities for child development. Writing is a portion for Eugene Atabong Atem. He regularly writes in the press on different issues. Apart from this story, he has written a play on elections and the importance of voting in a democratic process. He is also working on another story still focusing on the youth.