Bamenda and Portsmouth

St John of God project for Internally Displaced People (IDPs)

Br Linus’ project to assist displaced, elderly and vulnerable people in the villages reached hundreds of recipients. They reported “displaced persons who ran from south west region, from Numba, and other places were spread in some of our outreach villages. The beneficiaries received packages and bags of rice, savon, maggi (spices), milk, groundnut oil, toiletries. Elderly persons, pregnant women and malnourished children received medical care at the hospital and in our outreach clinics. Mothers of malnourished children were given financial assistance to start a small business to sustain the family.

Pit Toilet Project – Ambele Zone

Originally the community requested a Health Centre. The Social Welfare team encouraged them to develop basic hygiene through community toilets. Individuals offered the use of private land for community toilet blocks.

Raw materials could only come part way by road. Some of the community contributed by carrying materials, making mud blocks or providing the labour to build the toilet blocks.

Others contributed through part payment in oil. Some of the villagers have special needs and so adaptations have been made to some blocks to enable those with disabilities to use them.

There is no provision for clean water in the local villages so the Social Welfare team generated local involvement and encouraged them to work on developing a catchment area from a local spring. They have now cemented in the source of the spring in order to ensure the quality of the water is not contaminated.

In 2017-18 a new project was agreed to link the spring water down to a large tank and 11 standpipes to supply three villages. This is now complete and we received the following video showing the joy it brings. 

Since our visit in 2018, we have received these videos showing the happy result of the project 

Youth and Women’s’ Empowerment Project – Esu

Esu is a village situated in the Fundong Sub-Division of Menchum Division in the Northwest Region of Cameroon, an area of Primary Evangelisation. It has on parish, St. Therese Parish Esu with one resident priest.  The remoteness of the area and its poor road links means that there is much poverty.

With the support and encouragement of the Portsmouth Bamenda Committee (PBC) the Social Welfare Office under the leadership of Sr. Benedicta has embarked on an ambitious project to set up a Youth and Empowerment Centre near Esu. The construction of this Centre will enable the training of youths and single mothers in needlework, embroidery, hand and machine knitting, food and nutrition, housekeeping, kitchen gardening and also enhance agricultural and animal productivity.

We are also indebted to the Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission for their generous donation of £13,000 towards the funding of the project.

The scheme also has the enthusiastic support of the Fon and the local community which has helped in creating the road access to the site. Once it is up and running the Project should be self financing and can serve as a template for other projects elsewhere in the Diocese.

In 2016 the centre opened its doors to new students but sadly the closure of many educational establishments during the current political crisis has deterred some from registering or attending which means that the project is not yet financially self-sustaining. Nevertheless, there are more students than machines in the centre and so this year some new equipment will be invested in to facilitate the development of their skills and encourage new learners.

You can see here some of the students at work

 

 

Prison

Bamenda prison should house 400 inmates but in the current crisis (2017-18) we were told that there are more than 900, 25 of whom are women! Many are said to be entirely innocent but had been victims of arbitrary arrest and military crack down on people protesting against perceived marginalisation and discrimination of the Anglophone Cameroonians.

Bamenda funds (in particular raised by St Joseph's parish in Copnor) have for many years provided supplementary food (100 sacks of rice) to the prisoners and supported training and rehabilitation workshops. Training opportunities and workshops have included: basic education, shoe making, sewing / embroidery, cookery, IT instruction, mechanics, poultry farming, vegetable production. These have been difficult to sustain with so few resources and so many inmates purely needing their basic needs met. Sr Juliana who now provides the pastoral care / inreach, told us that many of the prisoners are barefoot, sick and abandoned.

Projects in recent years have supported the repair of dividing walls in the prison to enhance the safety of male and female segregation and also provided improved toilet and shower facilities in the female area to allow them more privacy and dignity.

Justice and Peace Team

The Justice and Peace team in Bamenda do very impressive work and are highly motivated. Laura Anyola who leads the team reported positively on having supported the first case to have achieved a conviction for human trafficking. A ministerial desk now exists in government. The Commission also works on various topics including: “Peace Building” through education in schools; awareness raising through media interviews such as “Cameroon calling”; providing access to justice (a judge and barrister providing pro bono work); and conciliation between areas affected by tribal boundary disputes etc.  

Our own Justice, Peace and Social Responsibility team are now linked with the Bamenda J and P Commission and are hoping for some fruitful sharing of issues and common resources.

Church and School Building Baworro 2011

This building is in an area of recent conflict and deprivation near the Nigerian border. It was chosen for support by St Paul’s Primary School children in Paulsgrove following an awareness raising exercise on Bamenda in the school. The children donated £323.50 they had raised.