Meeting with Paul Ymele, Rotary Club of Bafoussam (Nov 9th, 2012)
We were served tea at Winsoft, Paul’s business and soon Paul arrived. He was impressed with the Rotary Club of
Truro banner and wanted to know if we were harnessing the tidal power when I
explained that we have the highest tides in the world.
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| Paul Ymele, Rotary Club of Bafoussam with Lydia Sorflaten, Rotary Club of Truro |
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| Paul Ymele Holding Rotary Club of Truro banner. |
Question: What future project do you feel should be
priority?
His comments were very interesting.
‘Hunger is a problem. Many
people in the villages and town do not have enough to eat. Farmers just work with their hands to produce
more food and even for themselves there is not enough. Farmers, usually women, need money to send
their children to school and for their health.
Village women are working with hoes and cannot take care of their
children and husband as they are busy in the field. They need agricultural training. They need manure, natural manure to fertilize
their land. If we could offer manure to
2000 women to start-we have a lot of broilers-the land is overused. There is no
crop rotation so no land for next year.
The land is abused. Our aim is
sustainability. The first year they
would receive manure, the second year they could buy manure.
Women are organized in groups.
Every woman in the village belongs to a group. Women are the real people who educate the
children. She is the true bread
winner. One woman can have 9-12
children. Maybe not so many now because
life is so hard. If women are supported,
the impact in the field is felt immediately.
Question: As
well as owning your business, you are a teacher. What are the conditions like in your school?
‘We have 250 staff and 5000 students. We have had no water in the school for 15
months. We have a matching grant (Rotary
International) for $40,000 to make a well and a tank. There are many schools
without benches, water or latrines. Some
schools are built by parents. Sometimes
the PTA fund teachers for the school, sometimes the teachers are sent by the
Department of Education.’
Question: What is your teaching load and class size?
‘Class size?
I have 81 students per class. I
teach 4 classes (324 students). I use
multiple choice testing (Senior High Physics).
Some teachers have class sizes of 100 to 120. Four students per bench. Some do not have benches. I teach 17 hours per week. Some teachers teach 34 hours per week. My
classes are one hour in length. People buy their way into becoming a school
principal ($20,000 US dollars might buy you a school principal position but
someone might come along in two years time and pay more to replace you in your
job!)
Some people here eat just corn every day hence malnutrition is a big
problem. ‘
At the end of our visit I told him we could be pulled down
with discouragement but we have to be positive in looking at the improvements
in people’s lives made possible by Rotary Clubs working together.
Paul was very
impressed with the reasons we are here as CESO Volunteers (Farmer Field School
and Nutrition Training Community Volunteer workshops as well as the school
improvement project!) and wanted to know if several people from his area could
take part in the training. Mme
Oussematou agreed for two persons from Bafoussam area to come to the workshops
we are conducting in Bana.
We laughed at how quiet we were as Paul described the
priorities as he saw them for future Rotary projects and how aligned they are
to the pilot programs we are ready to do in the next six weeks in Bana, Bamenda and Wum (Befang): Farmer Field
School and Nutrition Training for Community Volunteers working with chronically
ill, malnourished and persons living with HIV AIDS.
Paul accepted Mme. Oussematou’s invitation to come to the
closing of the workshops. This event is
going to be hosted by King Happy of Bana.
Respectfully and humbly submitted as a dedicated Rotarian
and CESO VA.
Lydia Sorflaten
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