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’!