Every year, hundreds of children sit in PHII classrooms not because their families can afford it but because a structural commitment built into every school we operate ensures that inability to pay is never the reason a child misses an education. This is the story of how that commitment works and what it produces.
Who the Scholarships Serve
PHII’s scholarship protocol targets three groups facing the highest risk of educational exclusion across Cameroon’s communities: orphans and children in child-headed households who have lost parental income entirely; internally displaced persons whose families were uprooted by conflict in the Anglophone regions and arrived in new communities with nothing; and children from verified low-income households where school fees compete directly with food, rent, and survival. For each group, the protocol provides either a full scholarship covering tuition, materials, and uniform or a partial scholarship that reduces fees to a level the household can sustain without sacrificing basic needs.
“Before PHII’s school came, I had already decided my daughter would stop after primary. I had no choice. Now she is in Form Four and wants to be a nurse.” Father of scholarship recipient, Northwest Region
The Numbers Behind the Commitment
- 400+: Scholarships awarded annually across all five campuses
- 100%: Of scholarship recipients complete the academic year once enrolled
- 11 years : Of uninterrupted scholarship provision since PHII’s first school opene
Not Charity. Structure.
What distinguishes PHII’s approach from a traditional scholarship programme is that it requires no external campaign to sustain it. The protocol is embedded in the school’s budget from the start of every academic year. It does not depend on a fundraising season, a donor’s mood, or a grant cycle. It simply exists — as part of what a PHII school is and how it operates. This structural approach means children do not arrive mid-year to find that the scholarship fund has been exhausted. It means teachers do not face the awkward task of turning away a child whose family fell behind on fees. And it means the community trusts the school — because the school has never broken its promise.
Emergency Provisions
Life in Cameroon’s communities does not follow academic calendars. A father loses his job in October. A mother falls ill in February. A household that was managing fees in September can no longer manage them by March. PHII’s scholarship protocol includes an emergency provision specifically designed for mid-year household crises — allowing a child who was paying fees to be reclassified as a scholarship recipient without losing their place in school. No interruption. No humiliation. No child left behind because of something that happened to their family.
“The school that keeps a child in their seat through the worst year of their family’s life is the school that earns a community’s trust for a generation.”
— Rev. Celestine Meh Chu, Founder, PHII
What Comes After the Scholarship
PHII tracks scholarship recipients beyond the year of support. The data tells a consistent story: children who receive scholarship support in a critical year — the year a family crisis would otherwise have pulled them out — go on to complete their secondary education at the same rate as fee-paying peers. Several have gone on to university. One is currently completing a degree in medicine. Another has returned to her community as a primary school teacher. The scholarship did not give them their future. It simply refused to take it away.
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