IDF Shows Its Appreciation With Open Hearts
We arrived at the IDF office, ready to travel to Bana for
the closing. To our surprise, IDF had
Golf Shirts especially made with CESO, the Rotary Club of Truro, IDF and ‘A
Rewarding, Valorising and Sustaining Partnership, CESO-IDF on the back. They remembered everyone, CESO, Rotary Club
of Truro, Marian, and our family with each golf shirt placed in a bag made in
the Cameroon. What a lovely surprise. As well, Oussematou had invited a lady who
makes jewellery to have a display at the office. Lydia chose several necklaces to take back to
Canada. Oussematou plans to have
workshops where this lady will train women to make beads from paper and teach
them to crochet coverings for wooden beads.
Terence
again travelled separately. We stopped at
Winsoft in Bafoussam. Paul Yemele,
Winsoft owner, teacher and member of the Rotary Club of Bafoussam was still at
school. His cell phone was turned
off. Lydia was able to transfer pictures
of the renovations at GS Illum and the opening of the school direct to the
Winsoft computer.Yemele called later to thank us and to inquire about the
possibility of a Farm Field School/Nutrition program for Bafoussam area. The two Bafoussam ladies from Dchang that
attended the FFS/Nutition workshops in Bana (at our invitation) were very
excited about the program and want the
workshops to be held in their area(s) as
well.
After the stop in Bafoussam, on we travelled to Bana. This time, rather than at the Calypso in
nearby Bafang, we stayed at the Bana Hotel (CEHOTOBA) (where we stayed last year) and where
the final closing and our send-off was held on Saturday. Right away, Oussematou was off to organize
things for the following day. Once again, she is leading by example to
encourage a community (her own home village in fact) to care for those in need.
Psycho-social engineering is what she likes to call it.
Remember, there are no social safety nets whatsoever in this
country (For those who do not have paid job and those who have not been ensure
in the social insurance. Some community insurance are going on in some town now
and are stii very weak) IDF works with the Psycho-Social needs of the
community. One of the purposes of the program on this day was to attempt to
prod the conscience of the community through those attending, to demonstrate
care for those in their midst who are especially in need. Three special
guests had been invited to the closing:
a 66 year old diabetic man (former catechist Mr Louis who is
terminally ill, becoming blind man in his 90’s Mr
Weladji Jean deaf, diabetic and
hypertensive also, no child and living alone who often goes several days
without food and a single woman Odette Nansi who
is the mother of seven children and is terribly stigmatized by the community,
her family including her parents . The woman
(Odette) arrived. She was rather shabbily dressed but Oussematou was prepared
and had a new dress created for her. A
nutrition workshop participant Mrs Ngassa helped Odette get dressed. These
three people each were presented with 25 kg of rice, five large bars of soap, a
tooth brush and tooth paste, boxes of matches to light fire and lamp and other essentials.
Each was brought to the front and introduced. The 66 year old was totally devoid of any
extra flesh. His shoulders and knees
were protruding bones. There were many
round bumps on his arms and legs. His
ribs and collar bone protruded under his shirt.
He literally cried from diabetic nerve pain. Later Allan gave Oussematou Ibuprofen (from
the drug store at home) and this was to be divided up between the two men. The 94 year old is becoming blind and had to be led to the front. After Oussematou’s very persuasive appeal,
including her own brand of scolding and gentle admonishment, all sat down to an
excellent feast prepared by the hotel kitchen staff. Each of them brought back home a packet of
food enough for two dinners. She told us later that she had talked with the
hotel management who agreed to regularly deliver food (leftovers presumably)
from the kitchen to the one individual (the oldest man) who lives right in back
of the hotel and goes for days at a time without eating.
We told Oussematou about our Food Bank, how large quantities
are divided into small portions and given out over a period of time.
A lady travelled 12 hours to come to the closing. Again, Oussematou had a motive, to make the
community more aware of HIV AIDS, to encourage each and every person to be
tested and know their status and take action if positive and be preventative
regardless. This woman Shey is from the community of Kumbo. She got tested and found herself
positive. As a responsible individual,
she moved ahead to encourage her family, her friends and relatives to get
tested. At that time, like the community
of Bana now, her community was not aware, was not promoting testing for HIV
AIDS and not encouraging the use of anti retro viral drugs. This person has moved the community of Kumbo
forward to test, treat, prevent and reduce stigmatization. This is the reason she travelled 24 hours
(here and back) on rough roads-to help mobilize Bana to action, reduce
stigmatization, test and treat when necessary.
As well as being HIV positive, she is diabetic and
hypertensive. She attended Lydia’s
seminar on Nutrition in Bamenda and found the day very helpful. She takes medication for HIV but must cope
with diabetes and hypertension with diet only.
She found the dietary discussion for each helpful: avoid salt, do not eat fufu dipped in salt
and palm oil. Rather, emphasize the
Protective and Body Builders. She wears
dark glasses to help her eyes.
It was great to see the participants of the FFS and the
Nutrition Workshop. The three government
department people (The sub delegates of Agriculture of Bana and Bafang
respectively Philippe Mouandjo and Jean Wouapi, the surveillant General of the
Bana Hospital and the Pastor of the
Baptist Church of Bana Pastor Moses Jab (what
they call sub-delegates) attended from the Ministries of Agriculture and
Health.
Again, IDF surprised Allan and Lydia by taking them to
another room and dressing them in the full costume of the Chief and (one) of
his Wives. The garments are all hand
embroidered, very colorful with matching four cornered hat and headdress and
complete with traditional hand painted pottery beads, artistically strung by
Oussematou.
They presented Allan and Lydia with two yam tubers and a cassava
tuber from the women of Wum. The women
carried a big bag of raw yam cassava to Bamenda
for Allan and Lydia to take to Canada????
Ground nuts, about 15 pounds from GS Illum school, kola nut from Kumbo
(a sign of respect). Also, a lovely wall hanging, three meters of wax dyed
fabric from the Baptist group, (a cow horn drinking container, a gift from IDF,
a rattle along with an incredible song
especially prepared for the event by the Baptist Church participants.
With warm full hearts, we
bid farewell. What wonderful
people. What a great approach IDF has to
community development!
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