Hello everyone, I am Maria Sole, I am a consultant in the Milan office and I've been with Roland Berger for about four years. I was looking for an opportunity to use my knowledge, change my perspective and get out of my comfort zone. So, I decided to apply for a Social Fellowship, a program lasting about three months.

During this time, I supported the Fondation Bethléem de Mouda. The Foundation, which operates in the far north of Cameroon, aims to promote human advancement through integrated development with the goal of reducing poverty, discrimination, social exclusion, and indifference to poverty in the long term.

Cameroon is an extremely poor country and, as in most African countries, poverty is concentrated in rural areas where most of the population lives. In addition, the infant mortality rate is among the highest on the continent. The center operates in the social, re-educational, educational and productive spheres, seeking to find its own functional autonomy and ensure the social integration of people in need.

Fondation Bethléem, which permanently hosts more than 100 children, promotes the early schooling of children and the school integration of the sensory and physically handicapped, particularly the deaf and hard of hearing. Furthermore, it is the only facility in the northern region of Cameroon that offers a comprehensive service of integration and insertion into social and economic life for the underprivileged.

During my fellowship, I supported the Foundation on several aspects. I helped with the reporting of the projects with which the Foundation supports itself, collaborated in the creation of dashboards to monitor the Foundation's main expenditure items, and managed the updating and bureaucracy involved with long-distance support through which the Foundation supports the education and medical care of children with disabilities. In addition, I worked on revising the processes for accessing the main services offered by the Foundation, particularly from the Foundation's functional rehabilitation and re-education center, in order to streamline and optimize the consultation, processing and storage of patient data.

It was not all work though, as there was also time to get to know the children and people of the Foundation and to learn about their life stories and dreams. Living with the local children for the duration of the experience gave me the opportunity to fully immerse myself in their culture and customs. During my stay there, I had the opportunity to play and laugh with the younger children, who were looking for affection and attention, as well as to spend moments of debate and discussion with the older children, who were looking for a view of the world out there and the chance to exchange views with one of their peers.

These were three intense, challenging and demanding months, but they allowed me to get to know some extremely strong, resilient and courageous people and their continent. The experience confirmed to me that education is the strongest tool for learning about the world and building the future, and I discovered that the skills we develop in our daily work can be leveraged in contexts far from our own, and that our rational and organized minds can be useful in other activities as well.

Finally, I am infinitely thankful for the opportunity to have such a formative and motivating experience, both personally and professionally.