Moving the office

Before I moved to Nigeria, my employer had to leave the synagogue of Enschede. So I moved out of an office once before. Now I did it again in Cameroon to enable our landlord to do some renovations. So, moving offices!

Planning to move; the Dutch way

The Finance Department
moving their confidential files

Start preparing your move months in advance. Look for a reliable company to move your things, make lists of things you shouldn’t forget to do or move. Find a company who also packs for you and provides boxes. Carefully pack your more important documents, mark and label all your belongings carefully. Make a time schedule what should be moved when.

Planning to move; the Cameroonian way

Decide on Tuesday you will move, pack everything (yourself) on Wednesday. Put as many books as possible in a carton, don’t even think about the weight of it. Buy some rice bags if boxes (or ‘cartons’) are not sufficient. Don’t worry about the weight again. Mark important things.

Fortunately in Knowledge for Children we can do all of this as a team, so the work was easy and even fun!

Moving; the Dutch way

Wait for the company you hired to move. Allow them to pack everything for you. See how they have to check the maximum weight of cartons. Watch them pack everything in a big truck carefully, saying it is ‘full’ when the doors can still close. End up sitting on the floor with a computer because all furniture already moved.

Moving; the Cameroonian way

What do you mean, it doesn't fit?

Call for some random boys from the street to carry your furniture down. Carry your cartons of books on your head. Pack everything in a pick-up, pile it up high and also behind the car. See some boys climbing on top of it to hold things together and get a ride to the new office, where they will also unload the car. Try to find your own cartons and furniture back and tell them where to bring it to. Find pieces of your bookshelf back in a different office. But, start work in the new work place just two days after the decision to move was taken!

So, who is saying in Africa everything goes slow?





PS If you are looking for Knowledge for Children, we are now temorarily in Kikkoo House Tambve, opposite Brasseries!

Commitment

As Knowledge for Children, we work with communities. Without parents and other community members, we can’t do our projects. They buy a percentage of the books, but we also need their presence to sensitize them on the importance of education and other relevant topics. Of course, we also work with the teachers in a school (if they don’t use the books we donate, nobody will learn anything from the books). And we work with authorities, traditional rulers, church leaders and the government to make our programs successful.

It is always interesting to see the differences in commitment between schools, villages, local government etc. For example, last year I travelled to donate books in a school and found only one parent. That means we can’t donate books and we take them back to Kumbo. The head teacher said all parents went to the farm, and we should come back on a ‘country Sunday’, the traditional non-farming day. But the day we visited was a country Sunday! So that didn’t work.

Last week my colleagues went to Islamic Primary School Tatum. Here, parents were waiting for them to come (instead of us waiting for parents). They were very committed and even managed to raise the percentage they needed to buy for next year on the spot. That is the kind of commitment we need to see.

During the last weeks we have been training teachers. Some teachers had to travel very far, but came well on time, joined the training, participated well. Others come from very close, show up late and sleep during the workshop. And then I don’t even talk about those teachers who can’t write English (‘Becous I laik child’) or have to teach according to the curriculum but don’t know what the word ‘curriculum’ means.

A similar pattern can be seen at the level of de government. Sometimes Inspectors come and disturb our workshops, or refuse to allow us to train teachers. I noticed that often these Inspectors are the ones looking for transfer. One even said; ‘I am personally really happy that you come and train, but I have to save my neck so I can get a transfer’. That means he is posted in some remote place where he doesn’t want to be, and doesn’t feel any commitment to the schools there.

Most of our teacher training was holding in schools. But in Ndu we needed the Council Hall to train. I arranged with one of the deputy mayors that we could use the hall for free. His colleague still tried to make me pay for it, but in the end we used it for free. So the commitment is at least there with this person. The same goes at the level of the Inspector of Ndu, who came to the workshop and sent a representative for both days. That commitment is very important to us.

It is always a challenge to work with these schools, parents, teachers and officials who are not committed, who are not ready to work with us and who seem to not understand the importance of education. But working with schools like IPS Tatum, or the mayor or inspector of Ndu is just a delight. It is also very motivational for us, we get the feeling that we do it together.

I always tell people that it is not MY child in that school. That the work we do in the school benefits THEIR children, THEIR communities. If a well-educated child can get a good job, he or she can also support the family and even the village much better. I just hope more and more people will understand this, and take the education of their children serious and seriously commit to it. 

New school year

Group Work during Annual General Assembly

The new academic year has started and for us in Knowledge for Children that always means a busy period. We started the new school year in our usual way; with our Annual General Assembly. During this day, we bring all head teachers and PTA presidents from all our schools to Kumbo. We kick off the year together, we inform them about our plans etc. This year it was a bit special as the event marked the start of our ten year anniversary.

After our assembly, the real work can start. Last week we started training all teachers of all our schools. In one month, we aim to train over 700 primary school teachers. It is not always an easy job, the roads are very bad as this is still the rainy season. Many teachers are really behind and it is not easy teaching them to do new things. But we are trying our best and at least a few of them will really learn new things!

Last week, we found out that the highest government official in our area, the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) had given a notice that no meetings were allowed on and even around the 1^st of October. We were not aware so it took some efforts to find out what was happening.

Cameroon is mainly a French speaking country. Only our North West and the neighbouring South West Region are Anglophone. There is a group of people who want to separate these two regions from the rest of Cameroon and want to join Nigeria or want to create their own state. This group of people declared the 1^st of October as their own ‘Southern Cameroon’ day.

Of course, the government is not happy about this, and banned all meetings on the 1^st of October and the days before and after. People who would meet would have been seen as supporters of this separation movement they say.

We found out about this only the day before. So I ended up calling all government officials around, visiting them, asking them for permission to hold our training. Of course the hierarchy is so strong that nobody can do anything without support of someone else.

For us it was quite important to get permission. We informed all schools ahead and many of the schools are not so easy to reach by phone as not every village has good network coverage. So it is difficult to contact them and tell them the training was postponed till November. Also, we train in October to make sure all teachers can use it during the entire new academic year. Postponing till November will make it less effective.

In short, I went through the entire government hierarchy, pleaded with them, begged for permission and explained our own challenges. In the end, we got permission and had a successful workshop. The next few weeks we will finish and train all teachers in all our schools. By November that will be finished and then we will continue with the next steps. Stay tuned!

PS After last blog I discovered a new shop which is my favourite now; ‘Fear Women’ (repairing motorbikes) 

What's in a name?

Today I saw a new workplace opened in my street. The name; God Bless China, motorbike repairer. I always learnt that China has a bit of a complicated relationship with God, but apparently that doesn’t matter. Many shops here have names referring to God, like God is able (selling meat), God Bless Kumbo (fabric) or In God we Trust (a taxi, personally I would prefer the driver to trust his driving skills). In general, names often make me smile. Would you ever buy bread from Pees bakery?

Not only shops, also people can have interesting names. In Nigeria I knew a little girl whose name was Obedience. I think only Patience (what is also very common) would have fitted her less. There was really nothing obedient or patient about her. Or what about Immaculate, mother of two children?

In many names, God is remembered. Common names are Godswin, Godswill, Glory and especially Divine. That leads to funny miscommunications sometimes. I remember someone saying something about a talent of a person; ‘She has a divine gift’. Then people turned to my colleague Divine; what did you do for her to learn that?

Names like Hope, Gift, Promise or Favour are also very common. You also meet people called Sunday (and no, it is not necessary to be born on a Sunday to be called like this). Many of these names can also be used for both boys and girls.

To make life more difficult for someone like me, many people use their African name and also their Christian or Muslim name. So sometimes people refer to someone and I have no clue that it is the same person, as I know him or her by a different name. Sometimes people even have different spelling of their names in their government documents and church documents. How will I ever learn if it is all so complicated?

My own name also still leads to confusion. In the Netherlands people called me Elly, Elsie, Esther or even Angelique. Here I have been called Siesie and (most interesting) Elvis. And also my official name is different. So maybe I just fit in very well with all my names confusion.

But well, what’s in a name?

Grateful

Every now and then, I meet people who tell me how special it is what I am doing… How much they admire me and how amazing it is how I deal with all the issues as no light, no water, no internet etc.

I never really know what to say in these cases. I understand that to some people my life seems exotic and exciting. Or tough and crazy. At the same time, it is also daily business for me. Being without electricity is a normal thing here. We have no other choice than accepting it.

At the same time, I am always aware that this is my choice. I choose to be here. If I want to leave, I can always go. If there is a security issue, or a big health problem, I can always go. My friends don’t have that option. That already makes it easier for me, I know that once I can really not stand it anymore, I have the possibility to leave it behind and go.

But, what many people don’t seem to realize is that I am doing here what I always wanted to do. Of course, it is annoying to be without water or light. But there are so many positive sides of being here. I meet so many inspiring people, so many nice people. I see so many challenges, but also so many successes.

Sometimes I am travelling to a school and I just think; wow, I am REALLY here, I am REALLY doing this. This is REALLY Africa! I am no longer working to save a building, I am now working to support children to create a better future for themselves.

Who am I that I get so many opportunities and get the chance to live my dreams? I am just a girl from a little village in a tiny country. Why am I able to do all of this? I don’t have the illusion that I will save the world. But I am so grateful that my colleagues and I can bring some drops to the ocean and make a change for a few people.

As a little girl from a little village, I can now help new little girls from new little villages. Is that not reason enough to be grateful and accept some days without light or water?

Managers

In Knowledge for Children Cameroon, most of our staff is Cameroonian. We have a management team that consists of me as the Country Director, our Finance Manager and two Program Managers. They are all Cameroonians. Our managers are essential for our organisation; they have a very important role to play in all decisions concerning the organisation.

This seems to be special. Recently there was an intern in our organisation for one day of research. He was asking me how it is to work with African managers, because it is so uncommon. In many (international) organisations, the field work is done by Africans, but the management is in hands of Europeans or Americans.

Some time ago I also spoke with the director or a partner organisation. He was saying that I am so lucky working with Knowledge for Children staff. They are all working so hard and they are all so committed. According to him that is something special.

Our Cameroonian staff is very committed. They work very hard and try their very best to make our organisation better. I am always very happy that they come with suggestions to improve on projects, structures or even small things. We can’t always take every suggestion they do, but we always consider them, and we always try to improve on the problems they identify. And we always explain why we can’t do something, or we discuss and come up with a better solution together.

Sometimes my white face is opening doors that remain closed for them. But without our staff, our work would not progress. They know which doors I have to knock on and how I should knock. And they tell me. And then I can open doors, without them it would be difficult!

Cameroonian directors are normally very hierarchal. Often they have a bell in their office and they ring it when they want to see someone. I am obviously from a very different culture. I don’t expect our staff to come to my office in the morning, bow and say; Good Morning Madam! We chat and have fun together. If there is an event you will see me cleaning chairs. In Knowledge for Children that is very normal, we are a team and we do it together. But often people from outside are shocked to see the director (or even the managers) cleaning chairs, carrying tables or handing out water. ‘

For me, the strength of Knowledge for Children is this team spirit, working together in everything. And the real strength is in our Cameroonian staff, who will sustain all the work for long and who will always look for ways to improve our work. 

Mud, mudder, mudst!

The rainy season in Kumbo has started. It rains almost every day, or night. Because of all the rain, all roads become big muddy slippery puddles. Yesterday I saw a taxi gliding down the hill where I live. I saw the driver tried to brake, but the mud is so slippery that it doesn’t help. (He slipped into the gutter).

The road to Oku during
the dry season... 

Reaching my house can become challenging. Going up is not so difficult. Our car has four-wheel drive so it can make it. I see a lot of cars which get stuck just below my house because it becomes a little steep and they can’t make it. But for me, the real challenge is to go down. It is difficult to control the car, you can’t brake.

Walking is also dangerous. Not so much because of the walking itself, but because of the cars, bikes and trucks that are still trying to come up our down. They can’t control themselves so they might just slip and hit you if you are not careful. Taking a bike is even worse, and taxis can’t make it up.

Right in front of my house is a depot of Brasseries, who distributes drinks. Many big trucks go there. Of course that is not really helping the quality of the road. They made a rain gate now just above my house. That is a gate which they close when it rains so only normal cars can pass, and no trucks. The heavy trucks destroy the roads too much. So hopefully it will be a bit better.

Last year I wanted to visit the village a bit further up hill. We drove up and met a truck stuck in the mud. We couldn’t pass so we turned around and wanted to take the other road. Just below my house, another car was stuck and we couldn’t pass again. Fortunately the car was removed soon so we could still travel.

My colleagues are very skilled drivers on all these roads. Soon schools will re-open and we will have to go everywhere again. We go to remote places and some roads are extremely bad. Sometimes we have to leave the car to see how we can pass a pothole, especially in the rainy season they can be full of water and you can’t see how deep they are. One road going out of Kumbo had a real swimming pool! But thanks to the cardinal’s mum (see previous blogpost) it is a bit better now.

The rain brings many challenges, but the dry season brings dust. Also a challenge! In general, roads over here are just a challenge and I still try to learn how to master them!

View from my office

Closing and repairing roads

When I came back in Kumbo, it turned out that the road up to my house has been worked on a bit. The mother of the Cardinal died and the funeral passed my road. People say; thank God the mother died, now our road is passable again. Isn’t it sad?

Some time ago I was in the capital of Cameroon, Yaoundé. I had a meeting at the other side of town. Somewhere halfway we got stuck. The President of Cameroon was expected back from the airport and then the roads are all blocked. I called the person I was supposed to meet who only said; ‘O, yes, just call me when you get close by’.

My colleague, with who I was in the car, was very happy because after 15 minutes the President really passed and we could still have our meeting. It seems that sometimes they close the roads around 11AM and the President only passes by 4PM. Or later… I also hear stories of people who are kept in the airplane at the airport for hours because the First Lady is coming back.

A few days ago I came back from the Netherlands, flying into Yaoundé. The road from the airport to the town was repaired. My friends then told me that President Hollande from France was coming to Cameroon, so the road has been repaired. On TV we saw people wiping the roads, painting the white lines, banners were put up all over town. Hollande was expected by 4PM, but the members of the political party of the Cameroonian President were supposed to be ready to receive him along the airport road by noon. Roads all over town would be closed down. I was lucky I didn’t arrive that day as the airport was most likely closed all day.

For people in Yaoundé, it is a normal situation that roads are closed if the President is expected to arrive or leave. For me as a Dutch it is an amazing thing that roads are closed for hours only because one person is supposed to pass.

PS Ngashie as drawn by a pupil

By the way, these road repairs and all security cost a lot of money. If you like to support a better cause in Cameroon, check our crowdfunding page here and help Knowledge for Children to donate books to PS Ngashie!

Help PS Ngashie to join Knowledge for Children!

‘Finally the Lord has done it, finally finally!’ Even before Knowledge for Children has brought any books to Presbyterian Primary School (PS) Ngashie, the pupils, teachers and parents are already very excited. They sing the famous song to express their happiness and excitement. Only the idea that soon their school will hopefully benefit from the Knowledge for Children program makes them very happy.

PS Ngashie is located in a rural village in the Anglophone North West Region of Cameroon. It has an enrolment of 81 boys and 91 girls. The nursery school has an additional 30 boys and 32 girls In the school, 6 teachers (including two nursery teachers) try to teach the pupils as good as they can. However, it is not easy. Like in almost all rural primary schools in Cameroon, there are no textbooks and no teaching aids. Three teachers did not go for formal teacher training. In both primary and nursery section, half of the teachers were not professionally trained.

PS Ngashie will be the 134^th school to benefit from the Knowledge for Children program. In this program, Knowledge for Children donates government prescribed textbooks to the school. Unique is the co-investment structure in which the parents contribute and pay a total of 30% of all books. Knowledge for Children works with a school for three years. After these three years, every two children sharing a bench have access to one textbook in English, Sound and Word Building, Mathematics and General Knowledge.

Besides donating textbooks, Knowledge for Children also trains the teachers of the school. This is essential as the official teacher training lasts only for nine months. Many teachers are not well prepared to teach. The ones that are trained and experienced still find it difficult to make efficient use of the textbooks as they have been teaching without books for long. Knowledge for Children therefor trains and coaches teachers on aspects like child centred teaching, use of books in the classroom and evaluation techniques.

Not only teachers, also parents are trained. In the Community Leadership Program, the parents choose representatives who will be responsible to ensure continuous investment in the school after Knowledge for Children has phased out from a school. They will learn how to manage the books, how to manage finances etc.

The children, teachers and parents of PS Ngashie can’t wait to see textbooks and to start using them in class. You can help us to make it possible! The children of PS Ngashie count on your support to realize their dreams for the future.

For example, Blessing is a pupil in class five. When she grows up she wants to be a journalist. It will be difficult for Blessing to reach this dream without having access to text books.

The children in class one and two all want to become a ‘Madam’. Their teacher inspires them so much that even the boys want to be her when they grow up. Of course not all of them will become teachers, but with the help of text books at least some of them will be able to become teachers in their future.

With your help, PS Ngashie can become a Knowledge for Children school. Be assured that the day Knowledge for Children will bring the first books, the song will even be louder; ‘Finally the Lord has done it!’. 

We started a crowd funding page to raise money. If you want to help, you can donate through this page. You can also donate through me in cash or through my Dutch bank account (contact me for details). 

Thanks a lot in advance!

Marching!

Cameroon is fighting Boko Haram. We hear about successes of the military in fighting them every now and then. The nation is really behind the army to secure peace in this country. And with a reason! Cameroon is a safe haven in the middle of countries with a lot of violence, Boko Haram in Nigeria, wars in Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo, security issues in Chad. Cameroon is really safe compared to all these places.

For me, being Dutch, I understand that people are proud of their army. I can even understand that people and councils are collecting money or food to support the army. I am not happy that the construction of the road from Kumbo to Bamenda is put on hold as the budget reserved for that seems to be going to the army now to fight Boko Haram, but even that one I can kind of reason.

What strikes me here all the time though, is how militarized national holidays are. On Youth Day, school children march in front of the oga’s or big men of Kumbo. On Women’s Day, women march, on Labour Day, workers march. This marching is taken serious. The school right in front of the Knowledge for Children office has practised marching for Youth Day for weeks. So, weeks of teaching are disturbed because children will march and have to practise to march in line. Apparently marching is seen as more important than reading or counting.

People here are always shocked when I tell them I never marched in my life. I joined parades, I joined protest marches but I never really marched like a soldier. For Cameroonians, it is impossible to think about that. They start in nursery school and many continue until they are adults.

The 20^th of May is National Day. This day celebrates the unity of the Anglophone (British) and Francophone (French) Cameroon. Sounds like a reason to celebrate to me indeed! But again, everyone comes out to march. The focus during National Day is on the army, police etc. In short, during National Day, men in uniform march. I can’t help that I find it difficult to take a too fat man, stuck in a too narrow uniform, marching very seriously very funny. So at least I enjoyed that part of the day.

In Kumbo however there are only few men in uniform. So the school children march again, political parties march and before you know it you find yourself in the Grand Stand of Kumbo for three hours, watching how people march.

I hear that in some places (or some years?) the marching is more like a parade with dancing and shows. At least in Kumbo this year, that was not the case. The MC even announced that this day was to honour the army, so all marching should be like the army.

Celebrating Queens Day, dressing up in orange!

It is understandable that people want to support the army in this time. But is all this marching really so serious? Is there not a more fun way to honour the army and celebrate the peace and unity of the nation? Or am I just weird that I think marching in the burning sun, waiting for hours and marching for five minutes, is not a fun way to celebrate your peace and unity?

I went to a school the next day and many children, boys and girls, said they wanted to be a soldier when they grow up. So apparently, the message is reaching them. Maybe I am very patriotic, but I am afraid I prefer our crazy orange events for Kings Day over all the military show off!

Water is Life

When you live in Europe, water is always there. You take it for granted and you can’t imagine that you will be without water. Here in Kumbo, there is a yearly water crisis around March and April. This is the end of the dry season and that is causing problems. However, this year even my Cameroonian colleagues say it is very bad, much worse than normally. And nobody knows why.

In the past two years I found out that being without light is annoying, especially if it takes for days. You can’t charge your computer or phone, you can’t keep food for long as the fridge doesn’t work and the nights are very long and boring as it is dark by 7PM.

Tap water...

But being without water is much more complicated. Did you ever think about for how many things you need water? Try to cook without water, you can’t wash your vegetables, you can’t even boil rice or pasta or potatoes. Or, think about all the dust that you catch when you walk home. If I wear my sandals my feet are totally red of the dust and there is no water to wash them. Or, how hygienic is it to flush your toilet only twice a day to save water?

I store water and I really learnt techniques to save water. For example; flushing the toilet twice a day, washing dishes once in two days and use that water again to flush the toilet. Or wash your vegetables in water in which you can then wash the dishes (and then you can also flush the toilet again).

Many Cameroonians have a borehole and a pit toilet on their compound. We don’t have any of these in our house. So I need to bring jerry cans to fill in the office if there is water there. And be careful to not spill water and fill everything as soon as water comes on. That means that I might find myself filling jerry cans and buckets by 3AM or so.

Years ago I saw a TV program in which Paul Rosenmöller was visiting women in Niger. I still remember that he was following them to the well were they were getting water. That well was something like 7km from their houses and they had to walk there, fill their jerry cans and walk back.

They were telling that sometimes the well was dry and they didn’t find water. Rosenmöller asked what they did in these cases and the women said; well we walk back and try again tomorrow. And we sleep thirsty.

I remember it very well as I couldn’t imagine a life like this. How horrible should it be? Now I feel it even more. I am lucky enough to be able to find water in town and have someone who can help me to carry it in a car to my house. But when the water is off in both the office and my house I really start to worry. I can’t imagine how it would feel to always wonder if you would find water today. Or to walk every day for 14 kilometres to get water, and then you can only pray there is really water when you arrive.

Water will become scarce in the world in the next decades. I have learnt here how horrible it is to be without, and I also learnt how to save water. If everybody would save water like we are forced to do here, the scarcity will become less. So, save water to save lives!

Malaria is a very bad sick

Marching trough Tatum to create awareness

Many people know that the 1st of December is World Aids Day. But did you know that 25^th of April is World Malaria Day? I think in the Netherlands it is not really commemorated. With a reason of course, there is HIV in the Netherlands, but no malaria.

Yearly, almost 600.000 people in the world die from malaria. Most of these are children below than five years old, living in Africa. This means that every minute, a child in the world dies from malaria. In Cameroon, malaria causes 40% of all deaths of children below five.

Compared to other regions in Cameroon, the prevalence in the North West Region is quite low. But still, malaria is an issue. Therefore, we decided to commemorate World Malaria Day with our Health Scouts. Together with our partner organisations Afoni Children of Hope Foundation and Rural Development Foundation we organised a day in Tatum.

Knowledge for Children invited the Health Scouts of four schools in and around Tatum and also the Mayor of Tatum was represented by his fourth Deputy. Unfortunately, the population of Tatum did not really come out. We were already warned by Afoni Children of Hope Foundation who are based in Tatum that it is very difficult to bring the people of Tatum together for events like this.

Two mosquitos trying to bite children under the net

But, the children of the four schools showed that they are very well aware of malaria and know how to prevent it. We marched through Tatum while the pupils were singing a song about malaria. We dressed up two children as mosquitos and made them bite other children. When we reached the grand stand, some children were hiding under the mosquito net to show that the giant mosquito could not reach them.

It was interesting to see how much the pupils know about malaria and how to prevent it. A nurse came from the Health Centre to talk to the pupils and even the class one children knew very well what we were doing (malaria day!) and what to do to prevent malaria. They all know how to use a bed net, they know they have to keep the environment clean, clean away bushes and wipe out puddles of water to prevent mosquitos from breeding.

Health Scouts of IPS Tatum singing and dancing

The children were showing all of this in sketches, songs and dances. One Health Club was acting out a community which showed wrong behaviour; using donated mosquito nets for fishing, to protect crops in the farm from birds, to carry beans from the farm etc. The second Health Club showed a community which is being sensitized in which parents help each other to understand the use of net. In the first sketch, the last Club showed a community which is sensitized very well, where people sleep under the net and clean the environment. Children also read poems, sang songs and danced. Two secondary school students read poems as well.

We are very proud of the Health Scouts. Not only because they showed that they really know what to do, but also because they are able to sensitize other people through their sketches and songs. Although their parents didn’t come for the event, I hope they will listen to their children as they really know what to do to prevent malaria. 

Junior Health Scouts of GS Tatum Dancing

Remote schools

‘My name is Nervis. I am in class 5 of GS Kimata. Our school has only one teacher, the head master. We are sitting six on a desk’.

‘I am the head master of GS Kimata, the lone government teacher of the school. The school is in somebody’s premises, under a hut of one classroom accommodating all classes. (…) Fowls and goats oftenly interrupt classes thereby causing ineffective teaching/learning process’.

Can you imagine a classroom in the Netherlands where teaching is disturbed because chicken or goats are entering the class? Or where you can’t be taught when it rains as the rain will just come in? Or where you have to share a bench with 5 other children? Or where there is no water, toilet or teacher?

The pupils of GS Kimata
in their school

All of this is happening in Government School Kimata, one of the schools I visited last week for the Remote Schools project Knowledge for Children wants to do with three partner organisations. The school is relatively well accessible, at least the car can reach and it is quite close to the main road. However, the school is in deep need.

They have one hut in which almost 250 children are taught. The lower classes face one side, the higher classes face the other side of the hut. But there is no wall or something to separate them, leading of course to a lot of distraction.

There are two teachers; the head teacher who is also responsible for all administration of the school and a lady who is a family member of the person who offered space on his compound to construct the hall. She is not trained as a teacher but should teach at least three classes at the same time.

The school has two very small blackboards (what doesn’t give them enough space to teach three classes), the benches are borrowed from a neighbouring school and of course there are no books or charts or other teaching materials.

The parents, the Fon (the local king) and the rest of the community are very committed, but they are also very poor. The community consists mainly of survivors of the Lake Nyos disaster in 1986. They are not allowed to go back to their ancestral villages. They make a living through farming, but all farming here is small scale and doesn’t enable them to make much money.

No matter how remote,
the flag should be on top!

As the school is a government school, there is no school fee. However, the Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) tries to collect money to pay the second teacher. As many parents have no means to contribute, the PTA is not able to do anything else in the school, like building a classroom. So that is why the children are in a hut.

As the attitude of parents, head teacher and the Fon is very positive, we hope to be able to really help this school. We plan to train the teachers, do income generating activities for the women to bring more money to the school, provide benches, books, materials, pay fees for very needy children and more. And in this special case, we will try to find a partner who can help them to construct a building.

We don’t want to do this only for GS Kimata. For us, this school might sound as a horrible exception, but there are many schools like this in that area. Some are not even accessible by motorbike. Therefore we hope that, with our partners Benekin, Rural Development Foundation and Afoni Children of Hope Foundation, we can do something for these remote schools to enable to pupils to get good education and be able to lead their communities out of poverty in the future! 

News

Everybody who has read Joris Luyendijk’s great book ‘Het zijn net mensen’ (translated into English as ‘Hello Everybody!’) will remember how Luyendijk describes how news is ‘produced’. Demonstrations with only a few people are filmed in a way that this few people look like a huge crowd, or people hiding new baby clothes under the ruins of a bombed house to show to the TV.

He also describes how ‘news’ in a dictatorial regime is very different from news in a European country. I am not sure how the media here in Cameroon is controlled. I think there is more freedom than in the countries in the Middle East where Luyendijk writes about. However, politicians here also have quite some control over the media.

When I lived in Nigeria, we often knew of Boko Haram attacks through BBC or Dutch news far before something was published in the Nigerian media.

Here in Cameroon, I am often also the first one to know about attacks of Boko Haram in Cameroon. However, the Cameroonian armed forces are also fighting back and having success. They kill terrorists and recently they freed a German hostage. If something like that happens, it is big news and we will see reports about it for days.

I think we see the influence of politics in media here. Of course, if the army kills Boko Haram terrorists, the government is proud and informs the media. The Dutch would do the same! And I can also imagine that the government is less ready to publish about attacks of Boko Haram.

In the Netherlands, journalists can travel to a place if something is happening, they can look around, interview people, see what happens. Here is it all more complicated. First, not every journalist has the means to travel all the way to the Far North. But also, as a journalist you depend on the politicians. If you publish a story they don’t like, they might not talk to you again.

That might be similar in Europe. But a big difference is that politicians here pay journalists to write about them. Even us as Knowledge for Children, if we have news, we have to pay journalists to cover it. In the Netherlands, I simply sent a press communique and most newspapers and radio stations would report based on that or call for an interview. Here you first pay.

That also means that if I have a problem with someone, I can pay a journalist to write very bad stories about him or her. People tell me that this is what really happens during elections. For normal Cameroonians, this is also bringing problems. Because, how do you know what is true and what is propaganda? Even for Boko Haram news, we often depend on foreign information. One of my good friends has a brother in the army fighting Boko Haram. Sometimes I call my friend with news and he checks with his brother and it turns out to be true. Sometimes the brother even has to check it with other soldiers so the Dutch news knows about it before the people risking their lives for it.  Sometimes my friend gets upset; ‘I have been watching the news on the Cameroonian national TV just before you called and they didn’t mention it! How come that Dutch media know before us?’

And regarding Boko Haram, my impression is that the Cameroonian government is really trying their best to stop them. The Cameroonian army seems to be more organised than the Nigerian one. (In Nigeria it also seems that many soldiers collaborate with Boko Haram).

But, the problems are there. Many people are internally displaced because of it. Many schools along the border are closed because the army needed the buildings, or even worse, because Boko Haram took it or attacks schools and kidnaps children. Nigerian refugees live in camps in Cameroon and can’t go back to their houses.

I hope Cameroon, together with other countries, will be able to keep Boko Haram out. Cameroon is a safe and stable country in this region. We are surrounded by so many countries with problems, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo… Let’s do it the African way and let’s pray that Cameroon will ‘live long’!

Religion(s)

Before I first travelled to Benin in 2006, I read a book that starts with a passage in which the taxi driver tells the author that ‘this is the place where the minister was blown up’. Knowing that Benin had had some revolutions in the 80s, she thought that there was a bomb explosion. But, no… The minister was a victim of voodoo; he was blown up as a balloon until he exploded.

In Benin, people told me that 60% of the population is Christian, 40% is Muslim and 80% believes in Voodoo. Or, most people combine their traditional religions with imported ones. I also heard that the reason why Christianity and Islam could get easy access to Benin was mainly because the people had so many Gods already, they could easily add one.

This is also shown by women who go to church every day, but wear beads around their stomach to protect their fertility against evil spirits, or people dripping drinks on the floor for their ancestors before or after saying prayers.

For Cameroon, I have not really found which percentage of the population is adhering traditional religions. According to Wikipedia it is around 6%. But I guess these are only the people who only follow their traditional religion while most people combine imported and traditional religions.

For example, His Royal Highness the Fon of Nso is the traditional ruler of Kumbo. He is also the chief religious authority in charge of the heritage of the ancestors. That means the jujus are related to the palace for example. But, the Fon is also a Muslim who went for Hadj (pilgrimage).

A belief I heard from various people is the power of thunder. Some people seem to be able to control the thunder. I know people who are high educated and very European or American in their beliefs who do belief in this. Some people told me stories like one day it was sunny and then all of a sudden thunder came. One classmate disappeared during the thunder and was found back in a field kilometres away. It is said that traditional religious leaders can send thunder to do this kind of things.

Last week I was in a Knowledge for Children school. Some time ago, books were stolen from this school and till now they didn’t find the thief or the books. The head teacher contacted the local Malam (an Islamic scholar, one of the religious leaders of the village). According to the Malam, the books are somewhere close to the school in a bag. They will come back he says. And if not, he will send the thunder to destroy them. I am not too sure if I should believe this. But I hope the books will be found and brought back to the school!

Feeding the hippos

Sometimes, development can be so easy! Our partner organisation RDF is a grass root organisation of Mbororo people, a nomadic tribe. They work mainly for their own community. I admire their passion and commitment, but also their projects.

For example, in one of their communities, there was no access to clean water. So they decided to install a tap where everyone can easily get water from. Once they installed it, they found out that the women of the (mostly traditional Muslim) community would hardly leave the house. They used to go to the river together to carry water and wash dresses. But now that there was water in the community, they didn’t have to go there anymore.

Instead of telling them; well you have clean water now you have no reason to complain, RDF saw a new problem here. The women were not able to meet each other that much anymore, they had to wash their dresses at home.

So, they installed a basin at the water tap where the women can wash their dresses. Sometimes they saw women who came to wash the same dress every day, to be able to meet the other women. But, at the water basin, there was no space to dry dresses. So as soon as the dresses were washed, they had to go home to dry them.

Again, RDF saw the problem and decided to solve it. They put a fence around the tap. If needed, they can tell the men of the village that they did it to keep the animals out (Mbororo people are keeping a lot of cattle). At the same time, the women started to use the fences as a place to dry their dresses. Now, they can spend a lot of time together, they have access to clean water, they don’t have to walk far anymore to reach the river, they don’t have to carry water from very far. But the social aspect of the river has just moved to the tap.

For me, this example shows how simple it can be. But it also shows how important it is to involve the local people. I heard a story from another partner organisation. They work with disabled people and someone in Europe decided to donate a wheelchair for one of their beneficiaries. Very nice of course and people here need wheelchairs.

Where it went wrong is that they sent an electrical wheelchair. Looking at the roads here, this is very difficult to use. And then, no potential beneficiary has access to electricity. And even if they would have, it might be too expensive for them to charge the wheelchair every day. So now they have a wheelchair which no-one can use while many people are in need of a wheelchair.

In Knowledge for Children we call this ‘feeding the hippos’ based on the great Ted Talk of Ernesto Sirolli (the first 5 minutes are great, the rest is of less interest to me). I believe that involving your beneficiaries, following up with them and looking at your projects and its side effects, is the best way. We keep trying!