Sponsor a child, Child sponsorship and charity gifts » Media Centre » Features » Kate Leeming visits Plan projects in Cameroon

Adventure cyclist Kate Leeming recently visited Plan International projects in south-east Cameroon as a part of her 20,000km bicycle ride across Africa to raise awareness of poverty issues.

During her two-day visit, Kate spent time in two villages that are a part of Plan’s Baka Rights and Dignity Project, and experienced a moving conversation with a refugee woman from the Central African Republic.

An edited version of Kate’s reflections on her visit, along with some great photos, are below.

Find out more about Kate Leeming’s epic ride across Africa, and how your school can get involved.

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Nomads learning how to stay still

I had to time our arrival in Yaounde with the arranged visit to Bertoua to learn about Plan’s Baka Rights and Dignity Project. After a recovery day - during which I met the Plan Cameroon Country Director Amadou Bocoum and other staff - John, Zdenek and I set off to Bertoua, a 350km drive to the east.

The Baka people belong to the ethnic and linguistic group of the Pygmies. Roughly 75,000 Baka live in isolated communities spread throughout the rainforest in south-east Cameroon. The Cameroon Government requires the Baka to give up their traditional nomadic lifestyle and settle in small villages in the forest.

Adapting to a sedentary lifestyle poses many challenges for the Baka, such as access to Cameroonian nationality, social services and property, including land ownership. Without identification papers their nationality can be questioned.

The Baka Rights and Dignity Project (BRD) supports the Baka to improve their bargaining skills and empowers them to claim their rights. These include rights to education, healthcare, the rights of women and children, knowledge of legal procedures and the right to birth registration.

The program also aims to strengthen self-esteem as a way of addressing some of the problems that young people can face as a result of increased integration with the rest of society, such as suicide, malnutrition, sexual exploitation, child labour, trafficking, unemployment and drug abuse. Other marginalised ethnic groups in the region, such as the Mbororo and Bantu are also included in Plan’s work.

Visiting a village: part 1

We met our Plan guide, Tom, second-in-charge of the project, at Doume, about 50km from Bertoua. We followed the Plan vehicle into the forest to make brief visits to two villages to get a snapshot of the communities, their issues and how they live.

The first village we visited, a community of about 250 people, was at the end of the track. The people came out of the forest in 1982 and it was evident that they were really struggling to adapt to a sedentary lifestyle. Plan had built some of the permanent buildings, a school and infrastructure. Nineteen children here had Plan sponsors.

The chief and community of the first village that Kate visited.

We sat with the village leaders, surrounded by many children, and discussed what it was like to live in a village and what their biggest needs are. A village leader said they were most in need of better roads so they can more easily transport their food and reach help if required, a health centre, and to have the water pump repaired.

John asked whether we could see the pump. It had been broken for two years. It is difficult to understand why they can’t repair such a simple problem. Tom explained that Plan staff had shown the villagers what they should do about it, but no paper work had been submitted and no action taken by the community leaders.

Plan’s work here is to teach management skills and leadership so that the people can implement their own initiatives – a sustainable theory, which I totally agree with, but here there is still plenty of work to do. Tom says they do not have the will at present. I felt saddened and looked around. There were obviously plenty of health issues too. Polio is still a threatening disease in this community. The village chief was not a dynamic personality and kept his distance; others were more forthcoming to communicate with us. I set off for the second village feeling pretty frustrated. I wanted to know and understand more.

Visiting a village: part II

The second village was bigger and much more advanced. Settlement started in 1970; there was more space, more food grown, a cultural centre and the pump worked. Apparently the pump had broken down in the past, but they learned how to fix it and took the initiative on themselves. They had much stronger leadership and organisation. Tom said that Plan is arranging for a delegation from the first village to visit the second village to learn and hopefully be empowered by what they have achieved. The second village is closer to the main road, which makes interactions with other communities easier.

The following day was a Sunday, so it was difficult to find someone to show us around on their day off. Despite this Denis, the Regional and BRD Project Co-ordinator, met with us and we learned much more about what Plan does and how they are adopting a “Council Approach” to make sustainable change in the communities.

Denis said that the BRD project is complex as different communities are faced with their own specific problems that require individual solutions. Much of Plan’s work teaching people about their rights and knowledge of legal procedures goes unseen, but without making this work a priority, all the improvements in infrastructure and other more visible actions would be a waste of time and energy. These people have had to start from scratch, and they need to be taught how to manage money, trade and negotiate with other cultures, work within the law, make democratic decisions, communicate, how to farm and learn about land ownership. Their own dignity and self-esteem needs to be preserved by acknowledging and practicing their cultural heritage.

A powerful story

Unable to visit any Baka communities on the Sunday, Denis came up with another plan – to visit an Mbororo village market. The same village was also home to a few thousand refugees who have fled from the rebels in the Central African Republic. Valentine, Plan Cameroon’s Early Childcare Development Co-ordinator, met us in the early afternoon and we drove east to the town of about 5000 people (inclusive of refugees).

Valentine from Plan Cameroon speaks to some Mbororo girls working at the market.

Women inspect dried cassava at the market

The medicine man also had a stall at the market.

The market was in full swing when we arrived and Valentine gave us a tour. Valentine then found Hannatou, the early childhood teacher, with whom he regularly works. Hannatou not only teaches the two to four-year-olds; she is also responsible for their vaccinations, health care, nutrition and general development. The demand for care for this age group is overwhelming due to the influx of refugees from across the CAR border and a new classroom has recently been opened behind the primary school.

Early childhood teacher Hannatou watches as Kate meets some of the schoolchildren.

Communicating with the refugees is an important part of Hannatou’s work. She led Valentine, Zdenek and I to one of the refugee dwellings to have a chat with the women. We were privileged to have an opportunity to gain insight into the situation in the CAR, but this exchange was also my most confronting, harrowing experience of this journey so far.

They laid out a mat for us to sit on. Hannatou interpreted from Fulbe to French and Valentine then translated to English. The matriarchal grandmother figure told her story – sadly a story that can be replicated many thousands of times over in these parts.

She lived with her husband and about eight children in the forests of south-west CAR. They were wealthy cattle herders. About three years ago they were visited by rebels, who kidnapped three of their children and demanded a ransom of 10 million CFA ($A25,000). The husband was able to pay and the children were returned.

Kate listens as the Mbororo refugee woman tells her story.

The rebels came back, kidnapped the children and demanded the same ransom, again threatening to kill them. This time they sold all that they had to pay the rebels. The bandits returned a third time and took the children. This time they could not pay so the rebels killed the husband and three children. The woman fled with the rest of her family and gave birth to a child while on the run. She said that she did not know where she was going. She just ran in fear and did not sleep for months.

As she recalled the horrors, her already wrinkled, weathered face creased up and tears flowed. Her eyes were filled with unfathomable grief. I tried to be strong for her, but a few tears worked their way to the surface. To look at the photographs of this woman, she appears like a grandmother in her 60s or 70s, but as she was at least of child-bearing age three years ago, she can only be in her mid to late 40s - not much older than me.

The woman spoke on behalf of them all. They are grateful to have a safe, secure place to live and do not wish to return to the CAR. In Cameroon they have a fresh start and an opportunity for their children to grow up without fear. They are being educated and have access to health care facilities thanks to the combined efforts of a number of agencies. Here Plan works with UNHCR, the Red Cross and a couple of other French NGOs.

Barriers to education

The next day, on the way back to Yaounde, we returned to the more advanced Baka village for a closer look at their culture and issues. This time Samuel, Plan’s Capacity Building Co-ordinator, took us around.

First stop was the school to talk with the three teachers. The school is a government school that receives the “minimum package”. Plan contributes some of the learning materials and support. It was a Monday but there were no students in class. Debao, the Head Teacher, explained that the children were all out in the forest gathering food. She said food security was the biggest obstacle here. If children are hungry they cannot concentrate and learn. While some food is produced, it is a very much a hand-to-mouth existence.

Many adults are employed by the more businesslike Bantu people, who pay a very small salary. When combined with a lack of business and management skills, it means they cannot get ahead themselves. Everyone has to work to get food. Alcohol and drugs are a big problem affecting productivity and self-esteem, so drug education starts in school.

I suggested the idea of the students growing a garden at school, but then Debao pointed to an overgrown patch of weeds and grass beside the classroom. She’d already tried that. They had planted cassava and other vegetables, but before it was ready, an inebriated member of the community came and pulled everything up, destroying the garden.

Driver John Davidson fills out the school guest book, watched by a student.

To improve education the teachers need much more support from the community. I thought they were doing a great job with what they had, but there was also a sense of exasperation amongst the teachers. They are very keen to connect with international schools to enrich the learning process. She thought it may be a good way to provide a stimulus to keep children in class and build more pride. Anyone wishing to help can contact them via Samuel at Plan. The details are on the education Ning.

Medicine from the forest

Next we met with some of the community leaders in the centre of the village. They have a council system, like a village committee, to manage the different key areas such as infrastructure, water and sanitation, women’s and children’s rights, land and so on. I wanted to learn more about their culture and asked if they could take us into the forest to search for some of the plants they use for medicines. Knowledge of the forest is what they specialise in.

The medicine woman led us a short way into the undergrowth. First she scraped some bark off a solea tree. The shavings are used to treat stomach upsets. Kpoo Sasa leaves are collected and boiled to treat stomach and diarrhoea. Then they picked a large fruit, the size of a small rockmelon. The motokotoko has many important uses. Noel, the village leader, explained that he used it to treat diabetes. He’d been visited by many people wanting his treatment and university students wanting to study it. He said many experts wanted to extract his knowledge but not reward him. I tasted the seed, also used to treat malaria. The only way I can describe the taste is shockingly bitter – a little like quinine in tonic water but about a thousand times stronger! The taste remained for the rest of the day.

The medicine woman scrapes bark from the Solea tree, which is used to treat stomach upsets.

Kpoo Sasa leaves are used to treat diarrhoea.

The motokotoko is used to treat many things, including diabetes and malaria.

I am sure there is a future in developing this unique know-how into a marketable business. Their knowledge and skills of the bush are what defines them and they must fight to retain it. Business acumen, however, is not in their make-up and so at present they are vulnerable to exploitation. The marketability for treatments of such major diseases is immense, but they need help in reaching that point. Achieving the objectives of the Baka Rights and Dignity Project is essential to build a foundation before such projects can be successful.

I wanted to stay longer but with a five hour drive back to Yaounde and rain threatening, we were already late to leave. I thank Plan Cameroon for making such a wonderful effort to show us a snapshot of some of their very important work.  

Follow Kate Leeming’s ongoing journey at her Breaking the Cycle website.

Get involved with the schools component of Breaking the Cycle at the Victorian Education Department’s dedicated website.