July 31, 2010
The children of St. Valentine and Hotpec orphanages recently received a wonderful donation of supplies and food. The supplies were comprised of such necessities as laundry and bathing soap, while the food staples included beans, fish and flour.
When visiting St. Valentine’s in December ’09, I took a picture of the boys’ weekly menu. (INSERT MENU PIC) Caption: Some days, they have to split five cups of rice a day between sixteen people.
At Hotpec on the same trip, I saw children younger than my own washing their own clothes (INSERT WASHING PIC) Caption: Soap is a necessity, but also a luxury.
The orphanages rely heavily on donations such as these to care for the children. The Obakki Foundation is working to get them electricity and other basics, but there is always more work to be done.
The baby dorm, where five cribs hold 15 babies.
The kids are worth it.
July 4, 2010
From Tina:
First I just want express to you how incredible I think you and your organization are! Your blogs give us a connection to the people in need in Cameroon! My family and I farm & Ranch in South Dakota, my question is in regards to food production. What crops can they grow in Cameroon?
You talked about failed crops, and obviously they must not be able to grow enough to support themselves. With the amazing advancements in seed technology it seems we should be able to help them raise crops more efficiently without causing environmental issues!
The next question is, do they hunt for their meat source, or could they raise any animals, once again without negatively impacting their environment? It seems to me there should be some way to help them create a sustainable way to meet their nutritional needs. Once again thank you for all you are doing to help the people of Cameroon, and connecting us to them.
Hi Tina,
These are really great questions. The three main crops found in the regions we are working are cassava, palm nuts (which they turn into palm oil), and cocoa. We have a two part focus regarding agricultural development. One is to implement strategies that increase productivity, scale and income of their current crops, and the other is to slowly introduce new ideas and methods that may supplement what they have, and also fill in gaps of what they don’t have.
Of course we are always looking at sustainability and environmental impact on the region. These program are quite multi-faceted with a lot of external issues to consider. Because of this, we always work closely with our local partners on the ground, agricultural experts and the communities themselves to ensure we have considered all aspects before (and during) implementation.
Regarding meat, many families will hunt or trap ‘bush’ meat on occasion and there are a few families who have chickens, goats or pigs, however this is quite rare. Protein is very low in the deeper regions of the valley and we are looking at ways to improve this. It may seem to be an easy fix, yet there are many things that complicate matters.
Some issues include:
- in areas where people are not meeting the very basic nutritional needs, feeding becomes an issue of ‘now’ and keeping livestock to reproduce over time becomes a luxury;
- keeping livestock requires money – initial purchase, feed, fencing or pens, vaccinations etc. Most families have no start up money (one of our potential programs looks at providing start-up loans);
- theft becomes an issue between those that ‘have’ and ‘have not’, especially in regions where people are not meeting their own basic needs;
- swine flu is prevalent and there have been cases of entire areas of livestock being wiped out within a short period of time.
There are many more reasons, but this gives you an idea of some of the complications we encounter. Unfortunately, there is no quick fix but we are quite positive that our programs will gradually impact these areas of development and significantly improve both immediate and long term needs of the communities.
I hope I have answered your questions. Take care, and thank you for following the blog!
July 1, 2010
From Sharon:
Treana, thank you so much for the blog and for taking on this mission. While we all like to ponder what WE can do to help, or how we can teach the people of Cameroon the things we know, the question I have after reading your blogs is this: What can we learn from the people you met in Cameroon? What do they have that we do not, or that we have forgotten?
Hi Sharon,
Thanks for this excellent question. I think we can learn a LOT from our Cameroonian friends: the importance of family and community; the value of taking time to just ‘be’, without worrying about deadlines and schedules; and taking a moment to understand and appreciate what is really important in our lives. Being ruled by money, time and acquisitions gives us an entirely different set of problems!
While there is a lot of poverty to be seen in the regions where we work, there is also an energy that cannot be described in words. It’s apparent in the faces of the people, can be seen in the dancing and heard in the singing. There is a lot of beauty and joy in Africa that I think comes from being open to explore and accept the love of your family, friends and community.
We recently put together a short video to capture this very thing – which I cannot wait to share with you. After watching it, you will understand for yourself. 
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