600 Pupils Receive Gifts From First Lady

It was an unusual atmosphere at the Chantal Biya Foundation yesterday, December 23 as First Lady, Chantal Biya personally handed over gifts to 600 pupils. The pupils from some schools in Yaounde who benefited from the First Lady’s humanitarian gesture smiled from jaw to jaw as Mrs Chantal Biya made her way to the stand where the first set of gifts were to be handed. Their joy went wild when the First Lady, all smiles handed over gifts to each of them. As she distributed the beautifully packaged gifts, the kids became more and more jolly. After handing the Christmas gifts to the first set of 300 primary school children, the First Lady proceeded with the sharing of Christmas sweets from the nearby Christmas tree. Even those out of the gate had a share of the First Lady’s gestures as she threw some of the sweets across the gate where some onlookers and admirers. Mrs Chantal Biya ended by immortalising the event with the hundreds of exciting pupils in snap shots. Her second stop was at another end of the foundation where 150 pupils were ready to benefit from her kind gestures. The same ritual was performed and the First Lady ended with another family picture. The third and last exercise to the remaining 150 witnessed the same emotions.

Before her arrival at the esplanade of the foundation where all had been set a hilarious welcome, pupils; beneficiaries of her goodwill gestures all chanted and sang for her. Through song and dance and brandishing of fliers hailing First Lady, the pupils, expressed immense joy and gratitude as they welcomed Mrs Chantal Biya in their midst. They confessed through song and dance that they had nothing to offer the First Lady but their prayers for long life and good health.

The 600 pupils drawn from schools like the Central Government English Primary School, “Ecole Public de Messa, Camp Bove etc, in the Yaounde I, II, III and VI municipalities told First Lady that they were grateful to be honoured by her. Emotions were high as well as the anxiety to discover the great things that were in their parcels. Being her first time to set eyes on the First Lady, nine year-old Justina Bongben, a class six pupil of the Central Government English Primary School could not hide her joy. “I am so grateful and happy to have been fortunate to receive my Christmas gift from the First Lady. The joy cannot be expressed and the anxiety to discover what is inside is so high,” she said full of smiles. “I made my mine to open my parcel only at home,” she added. Like Justina, Elise Stephanie Essama Essola of the same class and school told CT that with the gratitude in her, all she can offer Mrs Chantal Biya is a very happy New Year 2011.

Victorine BIY