By Francis Ekongang Nzante
The BIHNDUMLEM Humanitarian Association of Peace and Hope BIHAPH has launched a six month Programme which is aimed at “providing space for an increased citizen participation and civic engagement as major tools for the mitigation of Conflict Transformation and Peace Building in Shattered Communities by the Crisis in Bamenda I, II and III. This Programme for the launching of the activities of the project took place at the Catholic Pastoral Centre in Bamenda on Thursday July 15th.
This project is inspired by the fact that “true peace can rarely be imposed from the outside. It must be born from within and between Communities through dialogue.”
The BIHNDUMLEM Humanitarian Association of Peace and Hope which works in Collaboration with the Swiss Embassy in Cameroon has the following key insights: -Conflict Identification, Mediation and negotiation.- Building Local leadership capacity to address conflicts and violence. -Public Legal Education “Peace, My Right, My Responsibility” -Arts and Culture as a unifying tool. -True use of Cultural Traditions as a tool for change. -Victim's story centered approach towards Trauma Healing, Reconciliation and Peace Building. – Small Community Infrastructure Projects. “Lets maintain peace, Build our community and improve our lives together.”- Active Non Violence Training. Principle of Do no harm. “What we share is more powerful than what divides us.”
BIHAPH is also engaged in Conflict Prevention, Poverty Eradication, Fight against hunger, Gender equality, Promotion of Girl Child Education, Humanitarian Assistance and Peace Building.
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The CEO of BIHAPH Mih Bibiana Epse Dighambong Bibiana explained that the strategy or approach that will be used in executing the project will involve mobilising and sensitising opinion leaders at the community level. These include Religious and Traditional leaders, Quarter Heads, Women’s Groups and the Mayors. She further said that the process will take a two way approach where the citizens will be able to ask their leaders what it takes to be involved in Peace Building. Another means she explained will be the using of means available at the grass root level like Traditional Dances, mediums like the fire side that people use in the roasting of maize during harvest seasons, poems, and songs. “We will also draw inspiration from artistic works to see how they can be used to bring peace. A hungry man is an angry man. You cannot be talking about peace to a hungry man. We will as such identify needy ones and empower them in activities that will help them become agents of change.”
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Madam Dighambong Bibiana further said that since peace was an ongoing process, BIHAPH would form zones of peace after training in accessible communities where the people that are responsible will not have to strain to meet each other. “For example if we go to Bamenda II, we will find out how many quarters are there. If there are thirty quarters, we can divide them into three zones of ten quarters each depending on their proximity.” This she said will permit them to meet regularly and talk about their challenges like kidnappings amongst other things. She said in this way they will be able to network with BIHAPH in order to address major issues. In the long run the people will be capable of working on their own to seek ways of forgiving people that killed even their loved ones.
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Nueh Anita, the Programmes Director of BIHAPH said community leaders and youth groups had already been contacted and that they were going to move into the communities to work with the people since it wasn’t possible to have space to host a large number of people. Vigilante groups she said were also going to be created to survey things that are going on in the various quarters to make sure that people are not involved in activities that will compromise peace or infringe upon the rights of others. “We already have a team that will do the follow up during these six months and render account to us.” She further said training workshops would be carried out and that everything would be put in place to make sure that people put in practice what they learnt.
Caryn Dasah, President of the National Women for Peace who was present at the event said “peace comes through negotiation, understanding, and respect. Every peace initiative must include every member of the society. It must be a bottom-top approach.”
Meantime the Regional Delegate for Women’s Empowerment and the Family said “we have to work hard to restore the peace that we had before. Everything has been grounded and this project for peace in Bamenda I, II and III will hopefully change things.”
The occasion was rendered colourful by Traditional Dances presented by the Nchongso Women’s Social Group with a dance song which focused on love and peace. Another beautiful dance presentation was made by the Aghem Women’s Dance Group which focused on the theme “we are not left out in the peace building process.”
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