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