About 400 school children from 14 elementary schools and four colleges from Okola Subdivision in the Centre Region recently received textbook purchase vouchers worth FCFA 10 million from the Cameroon Oil Transportation Company.

The Cameroon Oil Transportation Company, COTCO, which manages the 1,070-km-long Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline, has never relented in its efforts to assist people in its host communities. The fact that the pipeline covers 900 km in Cameroonian territory suggests the huge need for community support.

In this light, officials of COTCO, led by the Director of Public Relations, Guillaume Kwelle, were in Zamengoe, Okola Subdivision, in Lékié Division of the Centre Region.

The event, in Government High School, Okola, was the distribution of textbook purchase vouchers worth over FCFA 10 million to pupils from 14 primary schools and students from four colleges in the subdivision.

In all, about 400 children received vouchers for hard work, with each nominee needing a minimum average of 10/20 in the Third Term of the 2015/2016 academic year.

The three best children in each class were entitled to prizes as follows:

Primary School: FCFA 25,000 for the first, FCFA 20,000 for the second and FCFA 15,000 for the third-placed pupil.

Secondary School: FCFA 30,000 for the first student, FCFA 25,000 for the second and FCFA 20,000 for the third.

High School: FCFA 40,000 for the first student, FCFA 35,000 for the second and FCFA 30,000 for the third.

After parents of winning school children, alongside their school authorities select textbooks, the lists will be forwarded to COTCO to buy all the books in bulk and distribute latest September 16, 2016.

Guillaume Kwelle recalled that COTCO’s social responsibility activities are in the areas of health, education, infrastructure, sports and culture. School textbook purchase vouchers have so far been distributed to deserving pupils and students in the South, East, Adamaoua, North and Centre Regions.

Similarly, the company donated over 100 computers in 2007 to colleges in the Centre, East and Adamaoua Regions. Other gifts include the distribution of more than 150,000 exercise books to school children in host communities since 2006.

The Divisional Officer for Okola, Ngoucheme Kutnjem Alexandre Legrande, commended COTCO for the show of concern for quality education. The gesture, the DO noted, spoke volumes of the good relations COTCO maintains with its host communities.

He also had a word of encouragement for teachers, pupils and students. The Mayor of Okola, Tsanga Messi Claude Bernard, pledged his council’s commitment to promoting education in the locality in order to improve the livelihoods of the people.

Modo Asse Victorine Grace, the Principal of Government High School, Zamengoe, the host of the event, said COTCO had understood that the State alone cannot meet all educational needs. She noted that Cameroon’s emergence demands properly trained, creative young girls and boys.

In a community where acqurining textbooks is often very difficult, the Principal said the gift by COTCO will make a huge difference in the lives of the pupils and students.