Beaucoup à faire!

Remember way back when, when everyone was asking me questions like “what the heck are you actually doing out there in Cameroon?”  and all I could really say was “umm… makin’ fwiends?  Hangin’ out?  Avoiding heat stroke?”  Integration and community needs assessment were certainly essential activities in the first few months at my Peace Corps post.  But now it’s May; I’ve been at post for over five months (well, I guess technically three and a half, because the past two months I’ve been travelling for various seminars, conferences, and minor medical issues).  What do I have to show for it?

Well, to be honest, due to my recent travels, I don’t have a lot to show for it.  Aside from my cook-stove project, which turned out to be a major success in Ndiam-Baba (the village right behind Sanguéré-Paul) there are no tangible or visible results from the time I have spent here.  However, that by no means implies that I’ve been taking too many cat-naps.  Throughout all of my traveling, I have still been working with my counterparts and I will certainly have a lot on my plate as soon as I get settled back at post.

Let me break it down for y’all.  

At this point in time, I would consider myself as having three counterparts:  Djida, Madame Tizi, and Samuel from “Environment, Research, and Development”.  With each of these counterparts, I have a set of projects that will hopefully be lanced within the next month or two.  

Djida:  Denis Antoine Djida has been the counterpart of all of the previous volunteers in Sanguéré-Paul (I’m the fourth).  He is a consultant/advisor for all of the GICs (Common Interest Groups, which in Sanguéré-Paul mostly consist of farming groups who own land together and work together to make a profit).  He is also an agriculturist and a well-known, well-respected member of the community.  We have a variety of general development projects planned together, based on the needs and requests of community members.

• Health Center:  A couple of years ago, the US Embassy financed the construction of a health center in Sanguéré-Paul.  The building is there, but to this day it remains empty and without staff.  Djida and I hope that buy the end of my two years here, the health center will be up and running.  Right now, that requires working with the Ministry of Health to push along the process of the “authorization” of the health center and to have staff affected there.  Then we will work with neighboring health centers to find out what equipment is necessary and how to go about attaining that equipment. 

• Water:  This is an extremely serious issue in my village.  My quartier in particular has zero water sources, and it’s a problem that affects me just as much as anyone else in village.  The mayor is currently in contact with a Japanese organization that has agreed to finance most of a new water pump, as long as the community contributes 200,000cfa.  Djida and I are working on setting up a water committee, encouraging people to contribute to the construction of the pump, and then finding someone to do surveillance so that it does not break as often as the others do.  We hope to add multiple new potable water sources over the next two years.

• Agro-Pastoral Conflict:  People in the area have two main livelihoods:  agriculture or animal husbandry.  Problem is, the cows, goats, and sheep need somewhere to graze, and often wander into people’s fields.  Surveys and negotiations will have to be conducted in order to find a way for the cows and the crops to fruitfully coexist.

Madame Tizi:  Madame Tizi started off as my community host, and only recently transformed into a fantastic potential work partner.  Her primary job is as the directress of the nursery school in Bockle, a village just North of Sanguéré-Paul.  However, she is the voluntary local president of the Red Cross.  She has had experience with girls groups in the past and with counseling vulnerable girls and women.  Consequently, I invited her to National Girls Forum in Limbé.  After this seminar, we came up with numerous projects that we would like to get started on as soon as possible.

• Girls Group:  Next month we’ll be commencing our girls group for the older girls at the primary school (ages 13-15).  The purpose of this group will be to empower girls and teach them about the importance of their own education, their own rights, and smart decision-making.  The goal is to reduce the amount of girls that marry or become pregnant at a young age, and to increase the amount of girls that attend high school. 

• Women’s Literacy Group:  Madame Tizi was inspired by the project of another volunteer, Halima, and would like to replicated the project in our own village.

• Money Management:  We are hoping to work with 5 to 10 women who sell things at the carrefour each day (fish, beignets, mangoes), and teach about budgeting skills and saving money.  If we have success with our first group, then we will expand to teach others as well.

Samuel and ‘Environment, Research, and Development’ (ERD):  ERD popped into my Peace Corps service as a happy accident, declaring that they were starting an anti-deforestation project in five villages near me.  I wrote a post a while back talking about building improved cook-stoves, which to be honest, failed in 3 of the 5 villages, but were potentially a success in Sanguéré-Paul (we’re still waiting on our follow up), and were a huge success in Ndiam-Baba (with approximately 80% of the households in the village constructing and using their improved cook-stoves).  ERD continues to be incredibly motivated and interested in working with a Peace Corps volunteer, not just to have me as a someone to follow up on their projects in village, but also as someone living in the community who can better understand the needs and wants of the community and help to mobilize community members.  ERD will also serve as an awesome resource for any environmental project that I plan to undertake.

• Improved Cook-stoves:  ERD has already completed the implementation of their cook-stove project in an effort to have people use less wood fuel and to cut back on the health effects from smoky fires.  While this project was wildly successful in Ndiam-Baba, I would have liked for it to catch on more in the other villages as well, especially Sanguéré-Paul.  My plan is to meet with small groups of three to five women who are friends and/or neighbors, and work with women to create their own improved cook-stoves all within the same day.  This way, the women will be helping each other with the construction (which really takes thirty minutes maximum), and we will be able to drastically increase the amount of households in the village using these improved cook-stoves.

• Tree Nurseries:  ERD plans on creating tree nurseries at the primary schools in each of the five villages in their project plan.  This will increase the amount of trees in the area while also teaching young children about the importance of trees and how to plant them.  There will be a local environmental committee in each village to help with the follow-up and teaching of the children. 

• Vegetable Gardens:  The goal is also to create a small vegetable garden at each of the primary schools as an income generating activity.  This will help to support to nursery project, though I am also hoping that it will serve to teach the children a bit about nutrition and a balanced diet as well.

All together:

• HIV/AIDS Awareness:  All three counterparts are interested in doing some sort of HIV/AIDS sensitization campaign in the area, and I’ve decided it would be a great idea if they could sit down together and team up on that.

Myself:  There are some projects that I will implement myself, and use whoever or whatever I can find as resources.

• Mango Drying:  I’m in the process of constructing some dryers so that I can make dried fruit.  I’ve heard that by the end of mango season, there are more mangoes than the village can possibly consume, and a lot end up rotting.  By drying the mangoes, we will be able to conserve this nutritious food source, I will have myself some tasty snacks, and hopefully some women in the village will have a new product to sell!  Of course I will not limit myself to just mangoes, though mangoes will be the most easily available and cost effective.

• Environmental Clubs:  There are environmental clubs at both the primary school and the high school, but they are inactive and have no facilitator.  I would like to restart these clubs and and see what kinds of environmental projects the kids in Sanguéré-Paul can get involved in.

• Home Garden:  Once I construct a higher fence around my house so that the goats can no longer jump over it and destroy my yard, I’d like to plant some seeds and experiment with my gardening skills.  I’d like to grow local vegetables as well as attempt to grow some seeds that Mommy Dearest sent from the US so that I can introduce my friends to the kinds of vegetables that I’m used to back home

• Community Garden:  I’ll be working with friends and neighbors to grow some local crops on a shared plot of land.  We have not yet decided what crops we’ll be growing, but it will be a combination of local staples and nutritional veggies.  

So there you have it!  I’m currently in Yaoundé stuck on med-hold due to a scratched cornea, but as soon they let me go back up North, I’ve got big plans!

Happy World Malaria Day!

Let’s talk about malaria!  

In a door-to-door survey conducted by health volunteer Hannah Purkey, malaria is the most common illness that affects Sanguéré-Paul.  It’s not just an issue here in Sanguéré-Paul, but we see it in all of our villages in Cameroon, and most of Sub-Saharan Africa as well.

This disease, spread by mosquitoes, affects 300 million to 500 million people worldwide each year, killing approximately 1 million children.  While mosquitoes tend to breed where there is an abundance of stagnant water, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist up here in the arid North region of Cameroon. 

Young children and pregnant women are the most gravely effected by this disease, but Peace Corps Volunteers have definitely experienced its wrath as well.  While I’ve been lucky enough to avoid it, Cameroon is ranked #1 in terms of malaria incidences amongst volunteers.  One of my friends and fellow volunteers even had to be medically-separated a couple weeks ago as a result of having three cases of malaria in only four months.  

Le paludisme:  It's a serious problem.

So what can we do?  Peace Corps volunteers are stepping up our game in the battle against this disease through a campaign called “Stomp Out Malaria”.  

“The Stomping Out Malaria in Africa initiative aims to have universal bed net coverage and malaria prevention and treatment education programs in every malaria-impacted Peace Corps community in the initial target countries by 2013.

In addition, Peace Corps will work with partners to achieve two Millennium Challenge goals: a 50% or more reduction in deaths caused by malaria globally by 2015 and a substantial reduction in deaths caused by malaria in all 25 African target countries by 2020.” -Stomp Out Malaria

Even as an agroforestry volunteer, I can take part in this effort.  A couple months ago, I conducted door-to-door surveys in my village to see whether or not people in village have their malaria facts straight, and to see how many people use a mosquito net.

The results:  While most people are aware of the symptoms of malaria, not everyone has the means to seek treatment when the fever strikes and merely hoping that the fever and chills will subside on their own or that a traditional or local remedy can cure it.  Not everyone was aware that malaria is transmitted through mosquitoes, or even that it can happen at any time of the year.  While most people did in fact have mosquito nets, the majority of people don’t sleep under them, claiming that it traps in the heat when this place is already too darn hot (which is a bunch of baloney, because trust me, your going to sweat your pants off regardless of whether or not you’re under that net.)

This exercise was a great way to understand a bit more about my community – about the knowledge they have and some of the daily struggles they face.  It was also a great way to get to know more people. 

Today for World Malaria Day, several of my fellow PCVs will be partnering with the Ministry of Health and the Red Cross to host a malaria testing and treatment campaign in Ngaoundéré. 

It will be a long, hard struggle before we can conquer this disease, but in the meantime, we can continue to encourage testing, treatment, and moustiquaires! (bed nets)  As for myself, bug spray, bed nets, and malaria prophylaxis!  

Check out www.stompoutmalaria.org for more information! 

National Girls Forum

Last week I had the privilege of attending Peace Corps Cameroon’s third annual National Girls Forum in Limbe.  This three-day forum promotes women’s empowerment the education of young girls.  Thirty volunteers were selected to attend, each bringing one Cameroonian counterpart from their post and one girl between the ages of 14 and 25. 

Being an agroforestry volunteer, I hadn’t originally even considered applying for National Girls Forum (girls do not grow on trees, in my experience).  However, during my first three months at post, one of the biggest concerns brought to my attention was the lack of education amongst the girls in Sanguéré-Paul. 

There is a significant trend for girls to become pregnant and/or married at a very young age (as early as 13 years old), and consequently drop out of school.  Because of this tendency for girls to get married at such a young age, parents see it as a loss of money to send their daughters to high school, preferring instead to prepare their daughter for a domestic life and waiting to collect her dowry.  This phenomenon can be clearly observed by looking in the classrooms at Sanguéré-Paul’s high school.  Of the 976 students, 815 are male, and only 161 are female.  That’s more than five male students for every one female student: a shocking statistic, especially in a village that has a high ratio of females to males.

In an effort to tackle this issue before the girls reach the typical age that they would become pregnant and leave school, my counterparts and I would like to create an afterschool girls club for girls ages 10 to 13.  National Girls Forum is a perfect way to gain ideas and knowledge of how to better plan and facilitate this girls group.

I invited my community host, Madame Tizi, to join me at the forum as my counterpart.  Madame Tizi is a strong, enthusiastic woman who has worked with girls groups in the past in Maroua.  She is also the voluntary regional president of the Red Cross, and very generously donates her time to helping the community in various ways.

I also invited one of my closest friends, Yvette – a kind and intelligent seventeen-year-old high school student who has dreams of continuing on to university and finding a job before getting married, despite her older sister dropping out and becoming pregnant at age 14.  Yvette joins me for dinner a couple times a week to teach me how to cook Cameroonian food, to learn how to bake various chocolate goodies, or even sometimes just to hang out and chitchat about life.  She will be more than willing to help Madame Tizi and I with our girls group, and will be an excellent role model for younger girls.

Yvette, happy to be at the beach!

The three of us left Sanguéré-Paul bright and early on April 7^th, took the bus from Garoua to Ngaoundéré, met up with the other NGF attendees from the Grand North, and almost immediately took the train down to Yaounde.  From the train station, 32 of us (volunteers, counterparts, and girls) loaded into a bus for Limbe. 

The journey was 36 hours of straight travel time, but it was spent in good company.  (I taught Madame Tizi and Yvette how to make friendship bracelets, which helped to pass time on the train!)  For some girls, it was the first time travelling out of their region.  For many girls, it was the first time travelling without their parents.  Some were a bit nervous and shy at first, but most of them were having a blast with this unfamiliar independence.

The forum itself was incredible.  Most sessions were split – counterparts in one room, girls in the other.  The counterparts' sessions dealt with subjects such as project ideas, project planning, and learning how to facilitate life skills lessons.  My counterpart came up to me afterwards and said, “Maria, do you see how much we’ve learned?  We’re going to have the best girls group ever!  The girls in Sanguéré-Paul are really going to benefit from this.”  She has already developed an action plan on how to start our girls group, how to create a women's literacy group, and how to help the women at the carrefour (the ladies who sell fish and beignets) with money management.

PCVs Aly Azhar and Caitlin Howe leading an ice breaker:  Demonstrate your village's/region's dance style.  How they represented America?  The Macarena!

As for the girls, I have never seen so many articulate and passionate young girls.  These girls were courageous and eager to stand up and tell their stories, voice their opinions, and share their dreams (which ranged from becoming a Spanish teacher to Peace Corps director to cardiac surgeon) while sitting in on sessions about how to become strong, independent Cameroonian women.

 

Role-playing how to be assertive in saying "no".

Yvette taking notes during a session.

At the end of each day, all the volunteers and girls would run straight to the beach.  It was Yvette’s first time swimming.  She was hesitant at first, but after seeing all the other girls prancing around in the waves, she quickly dismissed all fears (though in the end, she decided she preferred the pool).

Yvette having fun in the pool.

Hanging out at the pool after lunch.

And of course, it wouldn't be a girls week if not for random dance parties during lunch breaks!  While eating lunch a Cameroonian keyboardist was there for background music.  The first day, we simply sat back and enjoyed.  By the second day, girls, counterparts, and volunteers would be singing and dancing to jazzed up versions of Cameroonian top hits.  By the third day, girls were grabbing the microphone to sing their own solos. 

Seeing how enthusiastic Madame Tizi was about all that she learned and seeing how engaged the girls really demonstrates the effectiveness of the forum, and gives me so much hope for all the ways that Madame Tizi and I can help our community.  I can't wait to get back to Sanguéré-Paul and put some of these new project ideas into action!

Yvette, Bouba (Peace Corps' Regional Logistician in Garoua), Madame Tizi, and myself after the closing ceremony.