NAYD CAMEROON

Project Update on BAPESU’s Awareness Campaign for the Protection of Endangered Great Apes in the Tubah Upland Forest (Cameroon)
BAPESU began in December 2008 a three months awareness campaign for the Protection of Endangered Great Apes in the Tubah Upland Forest. The campaign aims at at discouraging the hunt of chimpanzees for bush meat by the local population and at discouraging bush burning. The project has attracted much attention and interest from many individuals and groups, ranging from researchers; American Peace Corps working on Tubah Watershed catchment’s improvement, to the Tubah council administration, the delegation of Forestry and Wildlife, other local NGO’s that are MEBONU Foundation, COBEX (Community Based Extension Initiative Group, just to cite a few.More

World Aids Day 2008 success celebration by SGAC Cameroon Chapter
The Student Global Aids Campaign, Cameroon chapter organised some activities with theme “STOP AIDS, KEEP THE PROMISE AND LEADERSHIP IN THE FIGHT”. In open common conferences organised at different institutions campuses, by the student global aids campaign, Cameroon chapter S.G.A.C. being a youth organization with mission and vision to Fight AIDS, TB, Malaria and work with vulnerable children and orphans also included a good and very vital topic family health including Reproductive Health (RH) and STIs after reviewing all school officials deemed it necessary to visit them through out the World AIDS Week (November 26th to December 1st 2008).More

BAPESU has recently been granted funding by Rufford Small Grants Foundation for a project titled 'AWARENESS CAMPAIGN FOR THE PROTECTION OF GREAT APES POPULATION IN THE TUBAH UPLAND FOREST' (Cameroon). This project will run for period of three months from December 2008 to February 2009. This project aims to help in the conservation of the great apes population in Tubah Upland forest through a community awareness campaign. The great apes face threat from habitat loss, illegal burning of forest, local conflicts, capture and sale of live specimens, and expansion of agriculture. This project will discourage burning of the forest and hunt for bush meat and will cover two villages which span the forest (Bambui and small Banbanki). It will help to educate and enlighten the local people on the importance of conserving the great apes in their natural habitat in order to prevent extinction. For more information on the project click on the link below
www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/projects/christian_tabifor.

A conference on ‘the Place of Toxicology in Cameroon Universities’ is to be held November 01 at the University of Buea. The organisers are looking for paper abstracts on “Creating Awareness on Toxicology amongst Students in Cameroon Universities” with sub themes of Medicinal Chemistry, Drug Development and Discovery, Food Quality and Safety and Environmental and plant Toxicology. A PDF summary is available here

Life & Water Development Group – Cameroon (LWDG) introducing Bio-Sand Filters in Cameroon
Bio-sand filter construction projects in Cameroon have been one of our top priorities during the past nine months. This is because we strongly believe clean drinking water is very important in our lives. LWDG has been working in partnership with Thirst Relief International, a US based NGO as their country representative for the past one year. During 2008, Thirst Relief International has financially sponsored 500 bio-sand filters in four different communities of Cameroon. More

Celebration of the International Day of the African Child 16th June 2008 (Buea-Cameroon)
The occasion hosted by the Delegate of Social welfare for the south west province has amongst other dignitaries the representative of the Governor who whilst at the centre told all society to consider children special. By this time all their needs in good child up bringing will be met. Short plays, speeches and songs, a quiz graced the day. More

Reducing Crime
While we do not like to talk about it or even think about it, crime is on the increase throughout the world. The number of burglars, muggers, robbers, purse snatchers just to name a few, is growing at an exacerbating rate. Every youth as a resident, working with neighbours can help reduce the crime rate. More

Young People’s Health and Development Conference Nigeria (April 2008)
The University of Ibadan, Centre for Population and Reproductive Health and Obafemi Awolowo University, Department of Community Health with technical and financial support from JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG, SCHOOL of PUBLIC HEALTH and with collaboration of WHO conveyed the meeting in Abuja Lincoln Luxury Hotel. Mr. Ntiokam Divine, Founder President and Mr. Eric Berinyuy, National Coordinator represented SGAC. The conference was followed by a series of Workshops facilitated by Dr. Jane Ferguson and Dr. Bruce Dick of WHO and Julia of UNFPA. More

BAPESU Seedling Project Report
The seedling project is organized by Benevolent Association for the Protection of the Environment and the Socially Underprivileged (BAPESU). The target group for the program were the young people of the Mezam Division, NW Province of Cameroon. More

Plight of Cameroonian Youth: The Challenge of Living in a Morally Decaying Society - Walters Samah, PhD: CAPED International (Cameroon)
Uncertainty, insecurity and even fear of the future are amongst the problems that confront youth in Cameroon. After providing an overview of the challenges that face Cameroonian youth, this article argues that though prospects are grim, the youth must not wait but act to reverse the tides. More

Pictures from recent Student Global Aids Campaign conference held in Cameroon - report can be downloaded here

Cameroon: How Long Can the Calm be Maintained? Chi Primus
Cameroon is a relatively calm and peaceful nation, located in a sub-region of turbulence. It is surrounded by countries that have witnessed military coup d’etats and/or serious civil unrests. However, Cameroon has luckily sailed through out independence relatively untarnished by such events. The calm that reigns in Cameroon can be largely credited to the peace loving and enduring attitudes of ordinary Cameroonians. More

Is Cameroon’s Peace Stable and Sustainable or Fragile and Quizzical? Christian Tabifor (2 comments)
When Cameroon’s taxi and transport drivers syndicate launched a strike on the Monday 25th February 2008 to express their discontent and call for an immediate dwindling of the hike in the price of fuel at the pump stations, many people thought it was to be transient and that activities had to continue normally the next day. This was not the situation for it was just a trigger move than span to provide an avenue for the mass of Cameroonians that live in misery, marginalization and all forms of injustice to go down the streets with much anger to exhume their discontent with the present regimes ill management of the state. More

NAYD Cameroon second general assembly held Feb 08 - minutes can be downloaded here and rules and regulations here

Proposed Project on INVOLVING NSONGWA YOUTHS IN THE PRESERVATION OF THE NSONGWA VILLAGE WATER CATCHMENT
Project Focus: Sensitize young people on the prevailing problems affecting the preservation of the Nsongwa Village water catchment and interventions required to redress the problems. Resources (technical, financial and material) will then be provided for utilization to the young people to implement the identified interventions aimed at ensuring the sustainable preservation of the catchment. Full details here

Proposed Project on MEDIA SENSITIZATION CAMPAIGN ON POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
Project Focus: Sensitize young people on the concept of national poverty reduction strategy papers vis-à-vis Cameroon’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), with the intent to building their capacities to harness the opportunities that it presents, while identifying the gaps that exist therein to appropriate stakeholders. The main tools of sensitization will be the radio and the television. Full details here

The Cameroonian Police: Forces of Law and Order or Forces of Lawlessness and Disorder? - Chi Tansinda Valerie
The human rights situation in Cameroon is taking a very rapid downward trend. This is because; the systems put in place by the government to protect the rights of individuals are instead abusing them. It is not uncommon for forces of Law and Order in Cameroon to shoot to dead unarmed civilians and even at themselves over petty squabbles in both private and public places. Recently police officers fired life bullets at unarmed motor-bike riders who were publicly manifesting in Bamenda killing two and wounded several others. More

Summary of the street paper project in Cameroon - Chi Primus
The ‘street paper project in Cameroon’ was conceived a group of common initiatives, known as "Issue CUS” against the backdrop of the high and disturbing rate of youth unemployment and the low representation the concerns of youth people in the mainstream media. The project therefore seeks to provide a platform for social interaction of young people, while offering them some basic life-transforming skills and employment opportunities through the production and marketing of a magazine.

The immediate objectives of the project are:
• To create a media space able to carry the opinion of the young people
• To nurture and engender a social dialogue amongst young peoples
• To reduce the rate of unemployment among young people
• To create a network of fruitful exchanges and solidarity
• To train young people on life skills.

For the effective realization and sustainability of the project, the following activities are envisaged:
• Acquisition of working space (location)
• Ordering and reception of the equipments and other materials, and installations.
• Recruitment of the salesmen and other temporary personnel
• Publication of the magazine
• Training of the salesmen.
• Marketing of the magazine.

The ‘Street Paper’ concept is an international project initiated by International Network of Street Paper. In Cameroon, the project is expected to kick-off in early 2008 and will be attached to the Ministry of Small and Medium Size Enterprises. The project installations for a start will be based in Cameroon’s administrative capital, Yaounde from where it will be spread to other major cities. In addition to the training to be obtained by participating organizations/salespersons, they will obtain at least 40% of the sales from the magazine.

November 20 2007 - Letter of Thanks from Advance Africa
Dear naydcameroon,

I had a record response to last week’s e-zine and record new subscriptions. Thank you for helping get the word out about excellent opportunities at Advance-Africa.Com. Every week, we locate more and more scholarships and grants. Recent additions include scholarships with no age limit or college degree requirement, scholarships for primary and secondary schools, funding for marginalized groups and scholarships for women. Others include funding for journalists, scholarships for refugees, scholarships for continuing students in Africa, vocational training scholarships, travel grants, research grants and conference funding. You will be impressed by this week’s newsletter which covers the above and more. Click here to read the newsletter. Finally naydcameroon, if you are passionate about issues of education and health in the developing world, if you are ready to make an impact in developing countries, email me any scholarships/grants that may not be on the website. And as always, help spread the Advance-Africa.Com buzz!

Kind regards,
Joe Ngugi.

Working for the Promotion of Living Values Education in Cameroon - Walters Samah (CAPED International)
Based on an earlier training received in values-based Education, the Executive Director of Campus for Peace & Dialogue (CAPED) International, Dr. Walters Samah, took an active part in a series of workshops on values-based education organized in the towns of Yaoundé and Douala (Cameroon) by the Swiss Association for Living Values. As co-trainer/facilitator and member of the local organizing committee, Dr. Samah provided support to a team of experienced LVE trainers that came from the UK, Switzerland, Ghana and Senegal. More

Tunza Regional Children’s Conference 30th July – 3rd August 2007
Wanke Nanga Tatiana Aminatou from BAPESU was one of over 300 children from all over Africa and Norway that were present at the above conference. TUNZA is a word in Kiswahili (the common language of most East African countries) that means to “treat with care”. The programme is based on a strategy that aims to provide young people with information and tools on how to “treat Mother Earth with care” and how to Act for a better world. This conference prepared the children for the Tunza International Children’s Conference that will take place in Norway in June 2008. At the conference the children deliberated on a variety of topics concerning Africa. The Conference was organized by UNEP, UNICEF, UNESCO and the Cameroon Conference Committee. More

NAYD Cameroon - First meeting
On the 30th of June 2007 NAYD Cameroon held its first meeting with the following member organisations; ICCHRA-CAMEROON, BAPESU, MAYA INITIATIVES, AHURTOD, POSSCUB, CACEPED INTERNATIONAL, GREENPLANET CIG, YECEDAT CIG, GOAHEAD and PAID-WA. Both the country coordinator for NAYD Cameroon Chi Primus and CEO of NAYD were present. Some of the major resolutions attained were:

- Candidates vying for any post of Responsibility in NAYD Cameroon Office must be 70% active in attendance of meetings.
- Those present at the first meeting were considered as founding members.
- Each youth member association will be represented maximally by one person and one vote in general assembly.
- NAYD Cameroon will create Honorary Membership. These honorary members will include public gurus, celebrities, and successful people in various walks of life/role models. NAYD-Cameroon will use these persons to hinge for support in fundraising and promoting its imageYaoundé and its head office shall be Yaoundé the political capital of Cameroon
- Some priority programs will be put in place since the network is still at the incipient stage of existence and subsumes capacity building programs on leadership, group organigram, structuring, organizational development, and grant writing
- Some thematic areas of intervention or department were set to take charge of respective projects as they apply. These department are namely: Health & HIV/AIDS, Governance and Human rights, Environment and Nature conservation, Education, Communication and Information Technology (ICT)
- A project bank will be set up whereby projects will be taken and submitted for sponsoring when the opportunity arises.

Through transparent voting, responsibilities were assigned to CHI Primus as Country Coordinator, Dr. Walters SAMAH as Administrative Officer, SHEY Aloysius as Program Officer, NKEM Bellami as Finance Officer, Raoul NTCHANKOUNTE as Treasurer, Christian PHUEBONG TABIFOR as Communication and Public Relations Officer.

An appeal for a website
BAPESU (Benevolent Association for the Protection of the Environment and the Socially Underprivileged) is highly appealing for the donation of a website (domain registration and hosting) from kind individuals, organizations, companies, business etc. This will make us achieve our mission with efficacy and efficiency. If you or someone would like to help BAPESU, please contact us at donate2bapesu@gmail.com Tel. +237 7749 13 45 Fax: +237 3347 11 86

Peace Conference Report (PDF format) here