Help 40 Young People in Cameroon Build Their First Robot

My name is Maturin, and I am running this fundraiser for Giiyo Tech, a STEM education organisation in Cameroon founded by my sister, Maureen. I have seen this work in person and supported it myself, so I am not a stranger raising money for a project I found online. I have watched Giiyo Tech grow, and I know where every dollar is going.

With no institutional funding and no paid staff, Giiyo Tech has already reached 500+ children through STEM clubs, workshops and practical technology programmes across Cameroon. The curiosity was always there. Giiyo Tech gave it somewhere to go.

This November, they are running Build Your First Robot: two hands-on workshops that each give a group of young people two full days to assemble, test and troubleshoot a real robot, with facilitators alongside them. No previous robotics or coding experience is needed. Participants do not sit and watch a robot work. They build one.

The whole programme is built around a single moment. At the end of two days, a young person points at a working robot and says three words: "I built that."

We are raising $5,000 to deliver both workshops and put lasting equipment in place. About $2,400 buys 40 reusable robotics kits at roughly $60 each, and the other $2,600 covers the cost of actually running the two workshops: facilitation, transport, logistics, learning materials, consumables, replacement components, internet where it is needed, and the rest of the direct programme costs. That same funding also lets us lower the cost for families and open up fully sponsored places. The kits do not disappear after one weekend. They stay with Giiyo Tech. The same set of 40 kits runs both November workshops, and then keeps working long after, as Giiyo Tech partners with local teachers and schools to set up STEM clubs and follow-up sessions using the very same equipment. A kit that introduces one young person to robotics in November can introduce dozens more through the clubs and workshops that follow. Your donation does not fund two events. It builds a small pool of robotics equipment that Giiyo Tech can keep putting into young people's hands, instead of starting from zero every time.

We are also holding at least 15 fully sponsored places for girls in the first workshop. The workshop is open to everyone, but cost is the barrier that quietly shuts girls out of practical STEM first, and we are not letting that happen by default. The standard fee is 20,000 XAF per child, but families can register without paying, and every dollar raised opens another sponsored place. Families will know whether their child's place is sponsored before anyone is asked to pay, and those who miss out can still confirm at the standard fee.

Around $60 funds one complete reusable kit, and $120 funds two. A contribution of any size helps buy the materials and hands-on support that turn a box of components into something a young person can actually build with.

Because GoFundMe does not yet support direct withdrawals in Cameroon, I am collecting these funds in the United States and transferring them to Giiyo Tech to run the programme. We will post updates the whole way through: the equipment bought, the workshops set up, what the young people build, and how the kits keep being used afterwards. You will see exactly where your money went.

If you can give, thank you. If you cannot, share this with one person who cares about education or about giving young people the chance to build something with their own hands. That share can matter as much as a donation. Thank you.! :)