Here are the needs in Yaounde:
1. Teachers and tutors
for orphaned & vulnerable kids
for educating girls and women
who have been excluded from education.
2. Building capacities in leadership and team work
3. Vocational education to increase income for women:
.Teach Sewing, computer courses, hairdressing and esthetical care
4. Teach children in hand work, drawing, animation, etc.
6. Teach women and children English
7. In the future, we will address mental health needs In Cameroon.
Partners in other parts of Cameroon say that patients are shackled in the state hospital. We acknowledge that it is wise to “nibble at the edges” rather attack frontally. Thus we will need social workers, psychologists and psychiatrics with mental health experience.
What are the needs in the villages?
1. Agricultural
Cameroon is lush, tropical land where food grows without too much coaxing
and tropical fruits fall off the trees into your mouth.
Farmers seek help with soil improvement & composting.
And addressing the worms in the cassava (no worms in their feet)
2. Farmers would like help generating more income. They do well with a subsistence economy but do not know how to shift into a market economy.
3. Small business owners & entrepreneurs would be treasured to help make small start-up businesses
e.g. they grow lemon grass but need help marketing as lemon grass tea (which helps prevent malaria. Malaria is the only major concern in working in Cameroon.
4. Marketing & business experts who can help villagers market
their agricultural products to international Fair Trade markets
5. People that are well versed in Fair Trade, farmer’s associations and/or WTO
so that villages can be educated about a wider context of their work.
6. Appropriate technology experts, public health, water & sanitation engineers
who can improve qualify of life in the villages
e.g. should the swamp be drained to prevent malarial mosquitoes?
Direct the rebuilding of the cook houses (venting them?)
so that women do not respiratory diseases from all the smoke
Gutters on all houses to supply water
(but how to prevent that standing water from breeding mosquitoes)
Villagers request: a labor saving device that would pound cassava into flour
7. Doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, medical & dental students.
An international NGO built a medical clinic amidst these villages.
The clinic has never been staffed. Most villagers can not afford medical care.