Projects

African University Foundation is moving forward with purpose and commitment. We are currently focusing on designing community-based development programs for the Tali area to be progenitors of African University's degree-granting programs.

Our development plan was strategically changed from the implementation of the university's construction to the implementation of a community-based development pilot program. This change in direction resulted from the exploratory trip to Cameroon in July 2006 that was funded by the West Foundation and Moore Foundation located in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Two key objectives of the trip werea 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 the 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 including the Colleges of Agriculture, Health and Business for the following reasons:

First, the community development programs will enable African University Foundation to build the necessary community level relationships, networks, resources, and capabilities 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 for experiential learning.

The importance of the new strategic direction for advancing African University's development prompted the African University Foundation Board of Trustees to fund a limited baseline study that was carried out by Dr. Gladys Martin in March 2007. The goals of the study were to understand the economic and health care needs of women in the area.