Our story
One woman, a handful of school fees, and a refusal to accept the odds
Teach Me To Fish Foundation began in September 2010, funded out of one person's own pocket, supporting a handful of children through primary and secondary school in Cameroon. Fifteen years on, the work reaches hundreds of children a year.
From the founder
Teach me to fish, do not keep giving me fish, so when you are not there to provide the fish, I will fish for myself and not go hungry.
The Cameroonian proverb that inspired our name, and the philosophy behind everything we do.
I started Teach Me To Fish in 2010 with my own money and a handful of children. There was no organisation behind it, no big fundraising campaign and certainly no grand plan. I simply wanted to help a few children stay in school for another year. But the reason I felt so strongly about doing that began much earlier in my own life.
I still remember a point during my secondary-school years when my mother struggled to find the money needed for my education. As a child, you may not understand the pressures your parents are carrying, but you understand the feeling. The uncertainty of wondering whether something as basic as staying in school could suddenly depend on money your family simply did not have. We overcame that period, and I was fortunate to continue my education, but I never forgot how it felt. I never forgot the vulnerability, or what it meant to see a parent trying desperately to give her child an opportunity she could not easily afford.
That experience stayed with me.
Years later, I began to see children and families facing the same uncertainty, children with ability, ambition and dreams, whose education could be interrupted not because they were unwilling to learn, but because their families could not afford school fees, books, uniforms or other basic necessities.
And I knew exactly what that could feel like.
That is where Teach Me To Fish became more than an idea for me. It became personal.
What started with a few children has grown year by year because sometimes the difference between a child remaining in education and dropping out is an amount that can seem relatively small to someone elsewhere in the world, but can be impossible for a family already choosing between competing necessities.
We cannot reach every child in Cameroon who needs support, and we have never pretended that we can. But we can reach one. Then another. Then another.
We can do it responsibly, work alongside people who know their communities, follow the impact of our support and grow without losing sight of the individual child behind every number.
More than a decade later, that remains the heart of Teach Me To Fish.
I know what it feels like when education suddenly feels uncertain. I also know what becomes possible when that obstacle is overcome.
No child's potential should be determined simply by whether their family can afford the basic tools they need to learn.
That is why we keep showing up.
Dorothy Akoh-ArreyFounder and CEO, Teach Me To Fish Foundation
How I got here
In 2006, I took my first role with a well-known human rights charity in the UK. It opened my eyes to how fundraising, campaigning and purpose-led organisations really work. Over the years that followed, I went on to work across several major UK charities, learning not just how to raise money for a cause, but how to turn good intentions into programmes that are responsible, sustainable and capable of making a genuine difference.
Through all of that, one ambition never left me: I wanted to do something meaningful for children back home in Cameroon. My own experience had already shown me how quickly a lack of money can put a child's education in jeopardy. The more I learned professionally, the more convinced I became that education was where I wanted to make my contribution. That conviction, grounded in my experience, my faith and a deep sense that this was work I was meant to do, became the seed from which Teach Me To Fish grew.
But passion alone was never going to be enough.
Supporting children thousands of miles away requires trust, accountability and a real understanding of how charitable giving works across borders. I wanted to understand the responsibilities that came with asking other people to believe in this vision: the legal requirements, fundraising obligations, governance and, importantly, the limits of what a small charity should promise.
So I returned to learning myself, undertaking specialist study at City University's Cass Business School to strengthen my understanding of the charity and non-profit sector. That knowledge gave me the grounding to build TMTF more thoughtfully, not simply as an act of giving, but as an organisation capable of growing responsibly around the children and communities it exists to serve.
Along the way, I have continued to learn from organisations doing remarkable work in education, development and community empowerment around the world. They remind me that meaningful change does not happen because one organisation has all the answers. It happens through partnership, local knowledge, consistency and the courage to start where you are.
My ambition for TMTF is simple but enduring: to help more children in Cameroon, girls and boys alike, access the education, resources and opportunities that allow them to imagine a different future and build it for themselves.
That is how I got here. And, in many ways, I feel we are only just beginning.
Our mission
To champion every Cameroonian child's right to an education, and to remove the practical barriers that stand between them and a classroom.
Most children we support are not out of school because they lack ability or willingness. They are out of school because a fee went unpaid, a uniform could not be bought, or a family's circumstances changed. Those are solvable problems.
We work with schools, colleges and the local education delegation to identify children who would benefit from long-term support, and we pay fees, uniforms and materials directly rather than handing over cash. Every child we sponsor has their progress tracked with their school.
Our vision
A Cameroon where every child can read, write, and choose what happens next.
We want to reach the point where a community facing a child's school fees knows exactly where to turn, and where no child's education ends because of a bill their family could not meet.
Literacy is not the end of this. It is the beginning of economic independence, for the child and eventually for the country. That is the long game, and it is why the foundation is named for teaching rather than giving.
What we hold to
Five things we do not trade away
Education first
Everything we fund has to put a child in a classroom and keep them there. We do not diversify into work that sounds good but does not do that.
Capability, not dependency
The parable in our name is a commitment. We fund the route to a child providing for themselves, not a permanent transfer.
Open books
Supporters are owed an accurate account of where their money went and what it achieved, including when a number is smaller than we would like.
Safety before storytelling
A child's protection outranks any photograph, profile or appeal that might raise more money. Where the two conflict, the child wins.
Every child, regardless
No child should be denied an education because of what their family earns. We defend that as a right, not a favour.
Our approach
How the work actually runs
Identify
Schools, colleges and the local education delegation help us find children who show promise and face real barriers.
Fund
Fees, uniform and materials paid directly to schools and suppliers.
Track
Each child's progress is followed with their school, year on year.
Stay
Support continues as long as the child stays in education, primary, secondary and beyond where we can.
Our roots
Why Cameroon?
People often ask why Teach Me To Fish Foundation focuses exclusively on Cameroon. The answer is simple: charity begins at home.
Our founder was born and educated in Cameroon, completing her academic journey from nursery school through to university before building an international career in the United Kingdom. Having experienced the Cameroonian education system first-hand, she understands both its strengths and the challenges that prevent many talented children from reaching their full potential.
Before founding TMTF, she worked as Cameroon Editor for Macmillan UK Publishing, leading the development and editorial review of academic textbooks across the national school curriculum. That experience provided a unique insight into education, not only how children learn, but also the barriers that many families face in accessing the most basic learning resources, from textbooks and exercise books to uniforms and school supplies.
Rather than spreading our efforts too thinly, we have chosen to invest deeply in the communities we know best. By working consistently with the same schools, families and local organisations over many years, we can build trusted relationships, understand changing needs and, most importantly, measure the real impact of every donation.
Cameroon is where our story began. It is where our roots are deepest, our relationships are strongest, and where we believe we can make the greatest and most sustainable difference.