SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. ­ A Concert for Cameroon to benefit women and AIDS orphans in a Cameroonian village will be held on November 18 at Mount Holyoke College. The concert is being sponsored by the College’s Library, Information, and Technology Services (LITS) Council, and will be held at 7:30 pm in the Great Room in Blanchard Campus Center. No admission will be charged, but donations will be accepted.

The concert is one of the many fundraisers of Village International Inc., a creation of oumaru-hamadou, a native of Cameroon. Oumaru-hamadou is an intern at LITS through the Andrew W. Mellon Librarian Recruitment Program. The Mellon Foundation has awarded Mount Holyoke and five other academic libraries nationwide funding to address the shortage of library science professionals. Oumaru-hamadou hopes to one day open a school and library in his hometown of Garoua-Boulai, Cameroon.

The Concert for Cameroon will raise funds to support the Garoua-Boulai Orphan Project, one facet of the multifaceted Village International Inc. charity organization. Monies raised will go to help AIDS orphans and widowed mothers in the village. Cameroon, a country of about 16 million, is situated in western Africa between Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria. A recent spike in the incidence of AIDS in the country has lowered life expectancy and increased the number of orphaned children and widowed women dramatically. In 2003 alone, 49,000 Cameroonians died of the disease. This, coupled with the Cameroonian government’s infamous human rights abuse record, has left women and orphans in a desperate situation.

The 90-minute folk music concert will be performed by Christopher Rust, senior administrative assistant for LITS administration, along with Holly Rust, David LeTellier, and Ed Chagnon.

For further information, contact Christopher Rust at (413) 538-2796 or crust@mtholyoke.edu.