ide
23/03/2005, 18h56
By Njingti Nfor, Coordinator for Administration and Finance, Serve the Orphans Foundation
Orphans and Disadvantaged Children; their Vulnerability to Child Abuse, Child Trafficking, Child Labour, and Neglect
Case of Cameroon-Africa, presented by Serve the Orphans Foundation
1. Introduction
Long gone are the days when orphans were few and they received all the attention they needed from their extended families and communities. In those days, the members of a family caring for an orphan made sure that the child had maximum care, protection and love, because it was understood that they had already suffered enough grieve and did not need to be reminded of these sufferings. In those days, orphans were brought up by their aunts and uncles who never distinguished between the orphans, their own children, cousins and even strange children they were bringing up in the same home. No one dared mistreat an orphan because society regarded such conduct as an abomination and against God’s will (Exodus 22:22-24, and James 1.27).
Today, with the advent of civilization and westernization of our cultures and traditions many things have changed. The African society is no longer what it used to be in the past, where there was no uncle but father, no aunt but mother, no nephew but son, no niece but daughter, no cousins but brothers and sisters. The world of today has become subjective, materialistic and even cruel. Today, anybody that is not from the same womb with us is considered a foreigner in our homes. The whole family is now centred on blood brothers and sisters. This notwithstanding, conflicts have been rife between brothers and sisters to such an extent that at the dead of any member of the family, solidarity is seen and ends only at the gravesite. We are no longer our brothers’ or sisters’ keepers as it was in the past. It is a pity that our traditional family relationships should die out so fast. It is unfortunate that good, helpful, humane norms should give way to attitudes that are discriminatory in nature. All of these are happening even though there is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other Conventions by the International Labour Organization such as Minimum Age Convention the 138 and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 182, which are all geared towards ensuring the well-being of the Child.
In this entire struggle for survival, the best looser are the orphans who are considered outsiders in most families and even abandoned to themselves. They are neglected, marginalized, discriminated upon, stigmatised, and some of them even accused of being the cause of the death of their parents. Due to this they are very vulnerable to societal vices such as child trafficking, child labour, child abuse, prostitution, drug abuse and neglect. Some family heads have even appropriated to themselves the wealth of the late parents of some orphans leaving them in misery and abject poverty. The situation has become even more sorrowful because, young girls at 14 are already unmarried-mothers. At this tender age, they do not only lack the knowledge of their own personal hygiene but also that of the babies they give birth to, as they have no experience in matters of responsible-parenthood. These children born to premature mothers are subsequently abandoned to themselves and the vicious circle of misery continuous.
These gloomy circumstances have further been compounded since the late eighties by the advent of the HIV/AIDS in our continent, which has claimed many more lives leaving behind many more orphans and miserable families than any traditional African society no matter its wealth can afford to take care of. The women and girls are the most affected, not only because they are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and to the impacts of AIDS than men and boys but because they are the ones to take care of the sick, to mourn the dead and to feed the hungry. What a burden?
It is within this context and given all the circumstances enumerated above that Serve the Orphans Foundation was created in March 2002 and authorized to exist on February 27, 2003 through acknowledgement receipt of declaration N° E.27/750/368/BRP The main goal of this Foundation is to work for the well being of Orphans and Disadvantaged Children (ODC).
Context and definition
We consider Orphans and Disadvantaged Children (ODC) as children up to the age of 20 whose mother, father or both parents have died; are affected by HIV/AIDS; are in need of care including those who are disadvantaged. Normally we would have ended at 18 years so as to conform to the minimum age of child labour but we have extended it to 20 so as to include ODC who are still attending secondary school and therefore need care. The simple fact that a child has lost a mother, father or both parents through death will make the child an orphan and the child may thus be more disadvantaged. The cause of death in our context is undefined. Disadvantaged Children are children who are abused, discriminated upon, neglected, abandoned or subjected to exclusion, and those who may not be able to access social services for various reasons. Their parents may still be living. From all what has been said above we can define ODC as:
An Orphan and Disadvantaged Child according to SOF is a child under the age of 20 whose mother, father or both parents has either died, or though living is (are) unable to provide for the basic needs of the child.
2. Identification of ODC
Orphans and Disadvantaged Children abound. They are found in almost every household or family. However Serve the Orphans Foundation has been carrying out surveys in various communities to identify these children. Due to the fact that we a still very young and also the costly nature of an intensive and purposeful survey we have for now concentrated our efforts in Donga-Mantung Division, (Cameroon) the headquarters of the Foundation. This survey is usually done using a survey form, which contains information on the child, the late parents and the guardians or caregivers. Such information include; the name of the orphan, the sex, age, village/quarter, level of education, the names of the late parent(s), their profession, the name(s) of the guardian(s), their profession and the number of dependents in the household. This enables us to assess the needs of each child and the guardian. So far, the data that has already been collected and analysed for the five Subdivisions of Donga-Mantung Division give a total of 2038 orphans. The charts below give the statistical analysis.
Chart 1; displays the total number of orphans surveyed per sex. In all 2038 orphans have been surveyed for the five subdivisions with 1059 (52%) boys and 979 (48 %) girls. This trend is a little bit embarrassing because women make 52 % of the total population of the Division estimated at 350000 inhabitants, thus we would have expected the same percentage for the orphaned girls. As many as 623, giving 31 % of the total were born of 294 single mothers, mostly prostitutes, who are now of late.
Chart 2; displays the total number of orphans surveyed per age group. Our grouping is related to the various stages of development of the child as well as the activities performed by a child at each stage. From 0 to 2 years, the child is still considered a baby and needs absolute care and protection. From 3 to 6 years, most children are already attending the pre-nursery or nursery school and are taught how to be a little bit independent. From 7 to 14 years the children are attending primary school. From 15 to 20 years, the children are attending high school and even post-secondary institutions. The calculated percentages are as follows: from 0 to 2 years 2 %, from 3 to 6 years 14 %, from 7 to 14 years 58 % and from 15 to 20 years 26 %.
Chart 3; displays the children according to their level of education. We have 263 children who are not going to school at all giving a percentage score of 13 %, 1219 are in primary school with a percentage of 60 %, 256 of them are holders of the First School Leaving Certificate, which gives a percentage of 13 %, 184 are in secondary school and barely 15 have either the Ordinary Level or Advanced Level General Certificate of Education certificates. Only 12 of them are involved in vocational training.
In Chart 4, is consecrated on the situation of the guardians. There are a total of 6018 dependents for 885 guardians, giving an average of 7 dependents per guardian for each household. This has been categorized as follows: guardians with 1 to 3 dependents 241, guardians with 4 to 6 dependents 256, guardians with 7 to 10 dependents 251, guardians with 11 to 20 dependents 120 and finally guardians with more than 20 dependents 17. The last two situations concern mostly polygamous homes and traditional chiefs. It should be noted that we came across households with as many as 85 dependents.
3. Problems faced by the ODC
As can be seen from the analysis of the charts above and also from our field experiences, there is a long list of problems faced by ODC, which could range from physical, emotional, social to intellectual. Many children have had traumatic experiences. This trauma is associated with losing one or both parents at an early age or not seeing them at all. Some of these children have witnessed the death of their parents. Some of them have been born of single mothers who most often were prostitutes and perhaps died of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses. Some of them have been sexually abused, raped or battered. Some have even been accused of being the cause of their parents’ death. Some are discriminated upon in an increasingly poverty ridden family where the guardians have no resources to support its large size. The absence of written wills has given a leeway for some family heads to appropriate to themselves the property of the late parents leaving the children in abject poverty and neglect. In some polygamous homes the living stepparents have no regard for the half orphans. Some orphans do not even have the immediate extended family members to take care of them and are left on their own. Some of them have been forced to drop out of school due to lack of sponsorship. Even while at school as well as in the village setting some of them are stigmatised by their peers. Some of them who have even completed primary schools can neither further their education nor undertake vocational training due to lack of financial resources. In rural areas some of these children below the minimum age of labour have been involved in labour in commercial agricultural plantations, doing work that is detrimental to their emotional, moral, physical and mental health. As if these were not enough, some have been trafficked from the villages and placed in big towns under child domestic labour where they are locked up in fenced houses and work for long hours without rest, and are in some cases sexually abused by their masters. Some have been forced by circumstances to go in to the streets where the situation is even worse as there they are exposed to all sorts of societal vices ranging from delinquency, prostitution, drug abuse, armed robbery, and vandalism.
4. Problems faced by guardians
It is noted that the extended family is still the best source of care for orphans, but it is stressed and overwhelmed by the situations they are facing. The women who are generally the primary care givers for orphans are at the bottom of the poverty ladder. In our survey area main source of living is subsistence agriculture most done by the women using very rudimentary tools. The proceeds from this labour cannot even sustain the lives of those within each household. Thus the guardians are usually left with nothing to sell and provide for the basic needs of the family not to talk of school needs for the children. The sizes of most families keep increasing as the more dead are registered, but the resources are either stagnating or face a downward trend. With such large family sizes the consequences are that most of the children feint for themselves using what ever means available ranging from stealing, going to the streets to beg, or even indulging in prostitution. The situation is aggravated when children of just a day or so old are left without a biological parent. Such children need very extensive care and perhaps medical attention, which the elderly caretakers (grandmothers) in general cannot afford to provide for. There is very little they can offer with their meagre resources and with most often very scanty harvests. One reason for the severity of the situation is that most parents, who die, especially from HIV/AIDS, do not leave anything for their children to survive on because the little that the earned while healthy has been spent to take care of their ill health. At times the family property such as farms, raffia palm bushes or eucalyptus plantations are mortgaged in the desperate struggle to ensure that the person stays alive.
5. Needs of the ODC
5.1 Education
The 1219 children who are in primary school and the 184 who are in secondary school need to continue and complete school, and they all have the same school needs like those whose parents are still alive and well to do. For most of them their school attendance is erratic, as they are from time to time driven out of class for one school need or the other. Their performance in class is not the best due to the numerous problems and difficulties they encounter.
The 79 dropouts need to be reinserted back in school. For those among the 263 not schooling who are above school going age they need to attend literacy classes, their life skills need to be developed to enable them undertake income generating activities. Those who are still within school going age must be sent to school.
The 256 who already have First School Leaving Certificates as well as the 15 who are holders of General Certificate of Education subjects have to undergo vocational training to enable them earn a living.
The guardians do not readily make school needs like uniforms, levies, fees, books and writing materials available.
5.2 Basic health care
The health needs of these children are enormous. This starts from basic hygiene and sanitation to the need for regular medical attention for those whose parents died of HIV/AIDS and who might also be infected. The situation is worsen by the lack such health services in most of the areas.
5.4 General needs
These range from feeding, clothing, to sanitation and hygiene. Generally most of the children are malnourished developing external symptoms of kwashiorkor. They lack the clothes and shoes to wear, not to talk of covers like blankets and sheets for their beds.
5.5 Financial resources
A major problem in care giving is money. Money is needed to provide food for ODC, and the other needs like clothing, medical care, and education. This much needed resource is the most difficult to come by in a poverty ridden country like Cameroon where only the city duellers can afford two square meals a day. It should be noted that Cameroon was recently considered as one of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country in the World.
6.Our Solutions to the problems faced by ODC
Since creation, our Foundation has been doing it best to offer assistance to some of the children surveyed by undertaking activities at various levels. Here is a brief summary of what we have so far been able to do:
1. Survey, Data Collection and Analysis: This is an activity that is considered primordial for any effective care and support to be given to the ODC. It is through this that we have been able to present our findings as explained earlier.
2. The creation of orphans associations: After surveying the orphans in each community, an orphans association is created comprising the orphans and disadvantaged children and their guardians or parents. Within the associations the individual needs of every ODC are assessed and presented to the Foundation. The Foundation then channels its assistance to the ODC through the associations. It is also at the level of the Association that guardians are selected for training in income generating activities. So far, 23 orphans associations have been created and are operational.
3. The creation of basic educational institutions: We think that in order to ensure a continuous and unperturbed education of the children, some basic educational institutions like kindergartens or nursery and primary schools should be created especially in enclave areas. It is this idea that gave birth to the Brighter Future Nursery School that has existed now for two years. The current enrolment is 45 kids of which 18 are orphans and disadvantaged children.
4. Award of Scholarships: To encourage meritocracy, the Foundation has instituted a School Fees Scholarship Fund for ODC in secondary schools and higher educational institutions. Last academic year, 5 ODC benefited from this Fund.
5. School needs for primary school: Since primary education is supposed to compulsory, and we have realised it is not the case given the circumstances under which the ODC find themselves, we have instituted a primary school needs Fund. The Fund provides for all the school needs of selected ODC. For this academic year 2004/2005 that has just started, the Foundation has provided a total of 1000 exercise books and writing materials (550 pens, 400 pencils, and 200 rulers) to 300 orphans.
6. Provision of Medical Care: The fact that health services are very scantily located in the whole Division has made most children and even parents to resort to traditional doctors for medical treatments. The Foundation has created and is operating a Health Education Centre where it is hoped in the near future people shall be selected from each orphans association and trained as Community Health Volunteers. For the time being, the Centre offers treatment for minor health problems. Within one year, the Centre has offered free medical treatment to 10 orphans of which one is insane. Apart from this, the Foundation gave financial assistance to two orphans in order to enable them undergo surgical interventions elsewhere.
7. Establishment of micro-income generating activities: We think that the major assistance that can be given to the guardians is to involve them in income generating activities. This will provide the immediate assistance they always need and also ensure the sustainability of the Foundation. For this reasons, the guardians are usually constituted into Common Initiative Groups and given knowledge and when necessary the resources in a particular activity of their choice and encouraged to generate the needed income. We have the following activities going on in some of these common initiative groups
- In Ndu town itself some members of the Mbacourt orphans association have been trained in the making of rubbing oil, soap, detergents and the transformation of soya beans into milk and flour. These activities are presently undertaken, generating income for the association.
- In Lower-Mbot, the orphans association is undertaking livestock rearing of goats, cows, and poultry. A member of this association has also undergone training in mushroom production and a pilot farm has been created in the Foundation’s head office in Ndu.
- In the Njilah orphans association, the members have a one-hectare piece of land on which they undertake agricultural activities. The major crops grown there are beans, corn and vegetables. A hut and a barn have been constructed by the Foundation to enable them store this year’s harvest.
- Three other associations found in Mangu, Sehn and Wowo are doing palm oil retailing for income generation.
8. Provision of material assistance
Every year the Foundation makes an appeal to well wishers to donate clothes, shoes, bed covers and foodstuff for the ODC. Last year, 2956 clothes, and 125 pair of shoes were collected and given to the children during Christmas.
9. Official launching and first anniversary celebration of the Foundation
To let the people know about the activities of the Foundation, it was officially launched from April 14 to 17, 2004. During this occasion, an evaluation of the activities of the Foundation for the past one-year was made and a plan of action for the next year drawn.
10. Fight against child abuse, child trafficking, labour and neglect
The Foundation has been actively involved in the fight against these ills especially child trafficking by identifying and withdrawing 10 children (mostly orphans girls) who have been trafficked from Donga-Mantung Division by Networks based in Bamenda (provincial headquarters of the Northwest province) and placed under bondage in Yaounde (the national capital).
On June 12, 2004 the Foundation joined the national and international communities to commemorate the world day against child labour whose theme this year has been the child domestic labour. This began with sensitisation activities that ran from the 1st to the 11th of June, culminating on the 12th with the commemoration. During the sensitisation exercise, 1000 copies on United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention 138 on the Minimum Age of Child Labour, Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour as well as its Recommendations were compiled by though Foundation into a single booklet and distributed to opinion leaders, teachers, pastors, and politicians. This was aimed at encouraging them to be actively involved in the fight for the rights of the child.
The Foundation is presently implementing a project by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) under the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) directed by the West African Cocoa and Commercial Agriculture Programme (WACAP) for the progressive elimination of child labour in commercial agriculture. Under the project the Foundation has withdrawn 50 school dropout children from labour in the tea plantations in Ndu Subdivision and sent them back to school at the beginning of the 2004/2005 academic year. All their school needs have been provided for while their parents/caretakers have been constituted into common initiative groups and given the resources to undertake income-generating activities in order to ensure the sustainability of the project.
11. The Foundation as a Foster Care Agency
To provide the family care for those ODC who do no have immediate family members to take care of them, the Foundation encourages Foster Caring. In this case there are guidelines to be followed by the Foster Carer, the Child in Foster Care and the Extended family. This we believe is an appropriate way of ensuring that the children grow up in their natural home environments. We think that institutionalisation such as creation of orphanages and other childcare structures should only come as a last resort. The reasons for this abound.
12. Communication and public relations.
We have been very much involved in activities aimed at creating public awareness about the plight of the ODC. This has been done through radio, television, newspapers, and the Internet. The Foundation’s Coordinator for Administration and Finance intervened twice over the national radio station and once over the television to sensitise the public on child labour most particularly on child domestic labour. Ten articles were published in three widely newspapers on the activities of the Foundation, the fight against child labour and child trafficking.
13. Maintaining our office
The Foundation presently operates from a moderate building, which has three offices for the permanent personnel who ensure the daily running of the Foundations. Members who are found all over the national territory and generally operate from their homes undertake the other activities.
14. Writing and submitting projects to donor agencies: The Foundation has an adhoc project-writing department, which has written and submitted projects to many organisations.
7. Activities to be carried out for 2004/2005
1. Continue and complete survey, data collection and analysis for the whole of Donga-Mantung Division. We are expecting to have a total of 4000 ODC for a total population of 350000 inhabitants at the end of the survey. To be able to get to highly enclave areas we need two motorcycles. For the analysis of the results and management of data we need four computers, one laser printer, a scanner and a photocopier.
2. Create more orphans associations
3. Create more micro-income generating activities within orphans associations.
4. Train more personnel and members in various activities so that they can work with the orphans associations. Most of the members of the Foundation work as volunteers in the Education, health and general assistance sectors. They need to be trained in order that they can easily go about their duties.
5. We have as target as from September 2004 to pay parents-teachers association levies and school fees of 3.6 million francs CFA, ($7200 U.S) for 400 ODC in primary schools
6. We have to provide teaching aids and books to the nursery school for 1.0 million francs ($2000 U.S).
7. Provide material assistance of 1.5 million francs CFA ($3,000 U.S.) to the needy orphans. From an assessment of needs made and submitted to our office, most of the orphans need clothing, food and sanitation materials.
8. Provide medical supplies to the health post and assistance to orphans worth 2,5 million francs CFA ($5000 U.S). The health clinic of the Foundation lacks the basic health care equipments and medicines to cater for the orphans who have health problems.
9. To create and run two computer literacy centres in Nkambe and Ndu capable of providing training in computer to 100 ODC per year. A one-month training workshop shall be organised in the month of February 2005 for members of the Foundation.
10. Creation of a Central library for the children and teachers in Ndu town.
11. To create carpentry and tailoring workshops for the training and life skills development of 40 ODC every two years. Only a very small percentage of the ODC who have gone through basic primary education are able to continue to secondary school. The vocational training centres will absorb those whose caretakers do not have the means to further their education.
If these projects are realised, they will make more than 2000 ODC happy within a period of three years.
8. Sources of finance
1. Our main source of finance is annual dues from the 50 active members, which will barely take care of the utilities of the main office and other services like the school and the health post and provide for personnel remunerations.
2. We have written a total of 20 projects in various areas and submitted to donor agencies. On the whole, we expect a 25 % success in these projects within the next two-year.
3. We are still appealing for continuous assistance from individuals and organisations to enable us realise this plan of action.
4. Assistance that might necessitate the writing of a project proposal shall be highly appreciated and addressed expediently
We will like to inform you that handling expenses have been estimated at just about 5 % of the total amount expected.
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me, Mathew 25:40”
Orphans and Disadvantaged Children; their Vulnerability to Child Abuse, Child Trafficking, Child Labour, and Neglect
Case of Cameroon-Africa, presented by Serve the Orphans Foundation
1. Introduction
Long gone are the days when orphans were few and they received all the attention they needed from their extended families and communities. In those days, the members of a family caring for an orphan made sure that the child had maximum care, protection and love, because it was understood that they had already suffered enough grieve and did not need to be reminded of these sufferings. In those days, orphans were brought up by their aunts and uncles who never distinguished between the orphans, their own children, cousins and even strange children they were bringing up in the same home. No one dared mistreat an orphan because society regarded such conduct as an abomination and against God’s will (Exodus 22:22-24, and James 1.27).
Today, with the advent of civilization and westernization of our cultures and traditions many things have changed. The African society is no longer what it used to be in the past, where there was no uncle but father, no aunt but mother, no nephew but son, no niece but daughter, no cousins but brothers and sisters. The world of today has become subjective, materialistic and even cruel. Today, anybody that is not from the same womb with us is considered a foreigner in our homes. The whole family is now centred on blood brothers and sisters. This notwithstanding, conflicts have been rife between brothers and sisters to such an extent that at the dead of any member of the family, solidarity is seen and ends only at the gravesite. We are no longer our brothers’ or sisters’ keepers as it was in the past. It is a pity that our traditional family relationships should die out so fast. It is unfortunate that good, helpful, humane norms should give way to attitudes that are discriminatory in nature. All of these are happening even though there is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other Conventions by the International Labour Organization such as Minimum Age Convention the 138 and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 182, which are all geared towards ensuring the well-being of the Child.
In this entire struggle for survival, the best looser are the orphans who are considered outsiders in most families and even abandoned to themselves. They are neglected, marginalized, discriminated upon, stigmatised, and some of them even accused of being the cause of the death of their parents. Due to this they are very vulnerable to societal vices such as child trafficking, child labour, child abuse, prostitution, drug abuse and neglect. Some family heads have even appropriated to themselves the wealth of the late parents of some orphans leaving them in misery and abject poverty. The situation has become even more sorrowful because, young girls at 14 are already unmarried-mothers. At this tender age, they do not only lack the knowledge of their own personal hygiene but also that of the babies they give birth to, as they have no experience in matters of responsible-parenthood. These children born to premature mothers are subsequently abandoned to themselves and the vicious circle of misery continuous.
These gloomy circumstances have further been compounded since the late eighties by the advent of the HIV/AIDS in our continent, which has claimed many more lives leaving behind many more orphans and miserable families than any traditional African society no matter its wealth can afford to take care of. The women and girls are the most affected, not only because they are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and to the impacts of AIDS than men and boys but because they are the ones to take care of the sick, to mourn the dead and to feed the hungry. What a burden?
It is within this context and given all the circumstances enumerated above that Serve the Orphans Foundation was created in March 2002 and authorized to exist on February 27, 2003 through acknowledgement receipt of declaration N° E.27/750/368/BRP The main goal of this Foundation is to work for the well being of Orphans and Disadvantaged Children (ODC).
Context and definition
We consider Orphans and Disadvantaged Children (ODC) as children up to the age of 20 whose mother, father or both parents have died; are affected by HIV/AIDS; are in need of care including those who are disadvantaged. Normally we would have ended at 18 years so as to conform to the minimum age of child labour but we have extended it to 20 so as to include ODC who are still attending secondary school and therefore need care. The simple fact that a child has lost a mother, father or both parents through death will make the child an orphan and the child may thus be more disadvantaged. The cause of death in our context is undefined. Disadvantaged Children are children who are abused, discriminated upon, neglected, abandoned or subjected to exclusion, and those who may not be able to access social services for various reasons. Their parents may still be living. From all what has been said above we can define ODC as:
An Orphan and Disadvantaged Child according to SOF is a child under the age of 20 whose mother, father or both parents has either died, or though living is (are) unable to provide for the basic needs of the child.
2. Identification of ODC
Orphans and Disadvantaged Children abound. They are found in almost every household or family. However Serve the Orphans Foundation has been carrying out surveys in various communities to identify these children. Due to the fact that we a still very young and also the costly nature of an intensive and purposeful survey we have for now concentrated our efforts in Donga-Mantung Division, (Cameroon) the headquarters of the Foundation. This survey is usually done using a survey form, which contains information on the child, the late parents and the guardians or caregivers. Such information include; the name of the orphan, the sex, age, village/quarter, level of education, the names of the late parent(s), their profession, the name(s) of the guardian(s), their profession and the number of dependents in the household. This enables us to assess the needs of each child and the guardian. So far, the data that has already been collected and analysed for the five Subdivisions of Donga-Mantung Division give a total of 2038 orphans. The charts below give the statistical analysis.
Chart 1; displays the total number of orphans surveyed per sex. In all 2038 orphans have been surveyed for the five subdivisions with 1059 (52%) boys and 979 (48 %) girls. This trend is a little bit embarrassing because women make 52 % of the total population of the Division estimated at 350000 inhabitants, thus we would have expected the same percentage for the orphaned girls. As many as 623, giving 31 % of the total were born of 294 single mothers, mostly prostitutes, who are now of late.
Chart 2; displays the total number of orphans surveyed per age group. Our grouping is related to the various stages of development of the child as well as the activities performed by a child at each stage. From 0 to 2 years, the child is still considered a baby and needs absolute care and protection. From 3 to 6 years, most children are already attending the pre-nursery or nursery school and are taught how to be a little bit independent. From 7 to 14 years the children are attending primary school. From 15 to 20 years, the children are attending high school and even post-secondary institutions. The calculated percentages are as follows: from 0 to 2 years 2 %, from 3 to 6 years 14 %, from 7 to 14 years 58 % and from 15 to 20 years 26 %.
Chart 3; displays the children according to their level of education. We have 263 children who are not going to school at all giving a percentage score of 13 %, 1219 are in primary school with a percentage of 60 %, 256 of them are holders of the First School Leaving Certificate, which gives a percentage of 13 %, 184 are in secondary school and barely 15 have either the Ordinary Level or Advanced Level General Certificate of Education certificates. Only 12 of them are involved in vocational training.
In Chart 4, is consecrated on the situation of the guardians. There are a total of 6018 dependents for 885 guardians, giving an average of 7 dependents per guardian for each household. This has been categorized as follows: guardians with 1 to 3 dependents 241, guardians with 4 to 6 dependents 256, guardians with 7 to 10 dependents 251, guardians with 11 to 20 dependents 120 and finally guardians with more than 20 dependents 17. The last two situations concern mostly polygamous homes and traditional chiefs. It should be noted that we came across households with as many as 85 dependents.
3. Problems faced by the ODC
As can be seen from the analysis of the charts above and also from our field experiences, there is a long list of problems faced by ODC, which could range from physical, emotional, social to intellectual. Many children have had traumatic experiences. This trauma is associated with losing one or both parents at an early age or not seeing them at all. Some of these children have witnessed the death of their parents. Some of them have been born of single mothers who most often were prostitutes and perhaps died of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses. Some of them have been sexually abused, raped or battered. Some have even been accused of being the cause of their parents’ death. Some are discriminated upon in an increasingly poverty ridden family where the guardians have no resources to support its large size. The absence of written wills has given a leeway for some family heads to appropriate to themselves the property of the late parents leaving the children in abject poverty and neglect. In some polygamous homes the living stepparents have no regard for the half orphans. Some orphans do not even have the immediate extended family members to take care of them and are left on their own. Some of them have been forced to drop out of school due to lack of sponsorship. Even while at school as well as in the village setting some of them are stigmatised by their peers. Some of them who have even completed primary schools can neither further their education nor undertake vocational training due to lack of financial resources. In rural areas some of these children below the minimum age of labour have been involved in labour in commercial agricultural plantations, doing work that is detrimental to their emotional, moral, physical and mental health. As if these were not enough, some have been trafficked from the villages and placed in big towns under child domestic labour where they are locked up in fenced houses and work for long hours without rest, and are in some cases sexually abused by their masters. Some have been forced by circumstances to go in to the streets where the situation is even worse as there they are exposed to all sorts of societal vices ranging from delinquency, prostitution, drug abuse, armed robbery, and vandalism.
4. Problems faced by guardians
It is noted that the extended family is still the best source of care for orphans, but it is stressed and overwhelmed by the situations they are facing. The women who are generally the primary care givers for orphans are at the bottom of the poverty ladder. In our survey area main source of living is subsistence agriculture most done by the women using very rudimentary tools. The proceeds from this labour cannot even sustain the lives of those within each household. Thus the guardians are usually left with nothing to sell and provide for the basic needs of the family not to talk of school needs for the children. The sizes of most families keep increasing as the more dead are registered, but the resources are either stagnating or face a downward trend. With such large family sizes the consequences are that most of the children feint for themselves using what ever means available ranging from stealing, going to the streets to beg, or even indulging in prostitution. The situation is aggravated when children of just a day or so old are left without a biological parent. Such children need very extensive care and perhaps medical attention, which the elderly caretakers (grandmothers) in general cannot afford to provide for. There is very little they can offer with their meagre resources and with most often very scanty harvests. One reason for the severity of the situation is that most parents, who die, especially from HIV/AIDS, do not leave anything for their children to survive on because the little that the earned while healthy has been spent to take care of their ill health. At times the family property such as farms, raffia palm bushes or eucalyptus plantations are mortgaged in the desperate struggle to ensure that the person stays alive.
5. Needs of the ODC
5.1 Education
The 1219 children who are in primary school and the 184 who are in secondary school need to continue and complete school, and they all have the same school needs like those whose parents are still alive and well to do. For most of them their school attendance is erratic, as they are from time to time driven out of class for one school need or the other. Their performance in class is not the best due to the numerous problems and difficulties they encounter.
The 79 dropouts need to be reinserted back in school. For those among the 263 not schooling who are above school going age they need to attend literacy classes, their life skills need to be developed to enable them undertake income generating activities. Those who are still within school going age must be sent to school.
The 256 who already have First School Leaving Certificates as well as the 15 who are holders of General Certificate of Education subjects have to undergo vocational training to enable them earn a living.
The guardians do not readily make school needs like uniforms, levies, fees, books and writing materials available.
5.2 Basic health care
The health needs of these children are enormous. This starts from basic hygiene and sanitation to the need for regular medical attention for those whose parents died of HIV/AIDS and who might also be infected. The situation is worsen by the lack such health services in most of the areas.
5.4 General needs
These range from feeding, clothing, to sanitation and hygiene. Generally most of the children are malnourished developing external symptoms of kwashiorkor. They lack the clothes and shoes to wear, not to talk of covers like blankets and sheets for their beds.
5.5 Financial resources
A major problem in care giving is money. Money is needed to provide food for ODC, and the other needs like clothing, medical care, and education. This much needed resource is the most difficult to come by in a poverty ridden country like Cameroon where only the city duellers can afford two square meals a day. It should be noted that Cameroon was recently considered as one of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country in the World.
6.Our Solutions to the problems faced by ODC
Since creation, our Foundation has been doing it best to offer assistance to some of the children surveyed by undertaking activities at various levels. Here is a brief summary of what we have so far been able to do:
1. Survey, Data Collection and Analysis: This is an activity that is considered primordial for any effective care and support to be given to the ODC. It is through this that we have been able to present our findings as explained earlier.
2. The creation of orphans associations: After surveying the orphans in each community, an orphans association is created comprising the orphans and disadvantaged children and their guardians or parents. Within the associations the individual needs of every ODC are assessed and presented to the Foundation. The Foundation then channels its assistance to the ODC through the associations. It is also at the level of the Association that guardians are selected for training in income generating activities. So far, 23 orphans associations have been created and are operational.
3. The creation of basic educational institutions: We think that in order to ensure a continuous and unperturbed education of the children, some basic educational institutions like kindergartens or nursery and primary schools should be created especially in enclave areas. It is this idea that gave birth to the Brighter Future Nursery School that has existed now for two years. The current enrolment is 45 kids of which 18 are orphans and disadvantaged children.
4. Award of Scholarships: To encourage meritocracy, the Foundation has instituted a School Fees Scholarship Fund for ODC in secondary schools and higher educational institutions. Last academic year, 5 ODC benefited from this Fund.
5. School needs for primary school: Since primary education is supposed to compulsory, and we have realised it is not the case given the circumstances under which the ODC find themselves, we have instituted a primary school needs Fund. The Fund provides for all the school needs of selected ODC. For this academic year 2004/2005 that has just started, the Foundation has provided a total of 1000 exercise books and writing materials (550 pens, 400 pencils, and 200 rulers) to 300 orphans.
6. Provision of Medical Care: The fact that health services are very scantily located in the whole Division has made most children and even parents to resort to traditional doctors for medical treatments. The Foundation has created and is operating a Health Education Centre where it is hoped in the near future people shall be selected from each orphans association and trained as Community Health Volunteers. For the time being, the Centre offers treatment for minor health problems. Within one year, the Centre has offered free medical treatment to 10 orphans of which one is insane. Apart from this, the Foundation gave financial assistance to two orphans in order to enable them undergo surgical interventions elsewhere.
7. Establishment of micro-income generating activities: We think that the major assistance that can be given to the guardians is to involve them in income generating activities. This will provide the immediate assistance they always need and also ensure the sustainability of the Foundation. For this reasons, the guardians are usually constituted into Common Initiative Groups and given knowledge and when necessary the resources in a particular activity of their choice and encouraged to generate the needed income. We have the following activities going on in some of these common initiative groups
- In Ndu town itself some members of the Mbacourt orphans association have been trained in the making of rubbing oil, soap, detergents and the transformation of soya beans into milk and flour. These activities are presently undertaken, generating income for the association.
- In Lower-Mbot, the orphans association is undertaking livestock rearing of goats, cows, and poultry. A member of this association has also undergone training in mushroom production and a pilot farm has been created in the Foundation’s head office in Ndu.
- In the Njilah orphans association, the members have a one-hectare piece of land on which they undertake agricultural activities. The major crops grown there are beans, corn and vegetables. A hut and a barn have been constructed by the Foundation to enable them store this year’s harvest.
- Three other associations found in Mangu, Sehn and Wowo are doing palm oil retailing for income generation.
8. Provision of material assistance
Every year the Foundation makes an appeal to well wishers to donate clothes, shoes, bed covers and foodstuff for the ODC. Last year, 2956 clothes, and 125 pair of shoes were collected and given to the children during Christmas.
9. Official launching and first anniversary celebration of the Foundation
To let the people know about the activities of the Foundation, it was officially launched from April 14 to 17, 2004. During this occasion, an evaluation of the activities of the Foundation for the past one-year was made and a plan of action for the next year drawn.
10. Fight against child abuse, child trafficking, labour and neglect
The Foundation has been actively involved in the fight against these ills especially child trafficking by identifying and withdrawing 10 children (mostly orphans girls) who have been trafficked from Donga-Mantung Division by Networks based in Bamenda (provincial headquarters of the Northwest province) and placed under bondage in Yaounde (the national capital).
On June 12, 2004 the Foundation joined the national and international communities to commemorate the world day against child labour whose theme this year has been the child domestic labour. This began with sensitisation activities that ran from the 1st to the 11th of June, culminating on the 12th with the commemoration. During the sensitisation exercise, 1000 copies on United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention 138 on the Minimum Age of Child Labour, Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour as well as its Recommendations were compiled by though Foundation into a single booklet and distributed to opinion leaders, teachers, pastors, and politicians. This was aimed at encouraging them to be actively involved in the fight for the rights of the child.
The Foundation is presently implementing a project by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) under the International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) directed by the West African Cocoa and Commercial Agriculture Programme (WACAP) for the progressive elimination of child labour in commercial agriculture. Under the project the Foundation has withdrawn 50 school dropout children from labour in the tea plantations in Ndu Subdivision and sent them back to school at the beginning of the 2004/2005 academic year. All their school needs have been provided for while their parents/caretakers have been constituted into common initiative groups and given the resources to undertake income-generating activities in order to ensure the sustainability of the project.
11. The Foundation as a Foster Care Agency
To provide the family care for those ODC who do no have immediate family members to take care of them, the Foundation encourages Foster Caring. In this case there are guidelines to be followed by the Foster Carer, the Child in Foster Care and the Extended family. This we believe is an appropriate way of ensuring that the children grow up in their natural home environments. We think that institutionalisation such as creation of orphanages and other childcare structures should only come as a last resort. The reasons for this abound.
12. Communication and public relations.
We have been very much involved in activities aimed at creating public awareness about the plight of the ODC. This has been done through radio, television, newspapers, and the Internet. The Foundation’s Coordinator for Administration and Finance intervened twice over the national radio station and once over the television to sensitise the public on child labour most particularly on child domestic labour. Ten articles were published in three widely newspapers on the activities of the Foundation, the fight against child labour and child trafficking.
13. Maintaining our office
The Foundation presently operates from a moderate building, which has three offices for the permanent personnel who ensure the daily running of the Foundations. Members who are found all over the national territory and generally operate from their homes undertake the other activities.
14. Writing and submitting projects to donor agencies: The Foundation has an adhoc project-writing department, which has written and submitted projects to many organisations.
7. Activities to be carried out for 2004/2005
1. Continue and complete survey, data collection and analysis for the whole of Donga-Mantung Division. We are expecting to have a total of 4000 ODC for a total population of 350000 inhabitants at the end of the survey. To be able to get to highly enclave areas we need two motorcycles. For the analysis of the results and management of data we need four computers, one laser printer, a scanner and a photocopier.
2. Create more orphans associations
3. Create more micro-income generating activities within orphans associations.
4. Train more personnel and members in various activities so that they can work with the orphans associations. Most of the members of the Foundation work as volunteers in the Education, health and general assistance sectors. They need to be trained in order that they can easily go about their duties.
5. We have as target as from September 2004 to pay parents-teachers association levies and school fees of 3.6 million francs CFA, ($7200 U.S) for 400 ODC in primary schools
6. We have to provide teaching aids and books to the nursery school for 1.0 million francs ($2000 U.S).
7. Provide material assistance of 1.5 million francs CFA ($3,000 U.S.) to the needy orphans. From an assessment of needs made and submitted to our office, most of the orphans need clothing, food and sanitation materials.
8. Provide medical supplies to the health post and assistance to orphans worth 2,5 million francs CFA ($5000 U.S). The health clinic of the Foundation lacks the basic health care equipments and medicines to cater for the orphans who have health problems.
9. To create and run two computer literacy centres in Nkambe and Ndu capable of providing training in computer to 100 ODC per year. A one-month training workshop shall be organised in the month of February 2005 for members of the Foundation.
10. Creation of a Central library for the children and teachers in Ndu town.
11. To create carpentry and tailoring workshops for the training and life skills development of 40 ODC every two years. Only a very small percentage of the ODC who have gone through basic primary education are able to continue to secondary school. The vocational training centres will absorb those whose caretakers do not have the means to further their education.
If these projects are realised, they will make more than 2000 ODC happy within a period of three years.
8. Sources of finance
1. Our main source of finance is annual dues from the 50 active members, which will barely take care of the utilities of the main office and other services like the school and the health post and provide for personnel remunerations.
2. We have written a total of 20 projects in various areas and submitted to donor agencies. On the whole, we expect a 25 % success in these projects within the next two-year.
3. We are still appealing for continuous assistance from individuals and organisations to enable us realise this plan of action.
4. Assistance that might necessitate the writing of a project proposal shall be highly appreciated and addressed expediently
We will like to inform you that handling expenses have been estimated at just about 5 % of the total amount expected.
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me, Mathew 25:40”