SHUMAS integrated Bio-Farm

 

The only centre with four components of renewable energy all in one place.

-Nformi Stephen Njodzeka Ndzerem

Stephen Njodzeka Ndzerem is the President General of SHUMAS; Strategic Humanitarian Services and the President General of the Nso Development Association NSODA. He hails from Bui Division specifically from Kumbo and has been the President of the Nso Cultural and Development Association for the last five years. SHUMAS, one of the most impacting NGOs in Cameroon is an organisation that he personally set on the ground about 20 years ago. He was interviewed by Francis Ekongang Nzante Lenjo.

In what domains have you been intervening with SHUMAS?

SHUMAS is a development Non Governmental Organisation that focuses on Integrated Sustainable Rural Development and on helping the urban poor. In order to propel us to reach everybody and a majority of people in the poor rural Communities and poor urban areas we have eight programmes. Firstly, there is Agriculture. In this domain we have the SHUMAS Bio-Farm and Renewable Technical Centre which is located in Kumbo where we train youths, women farming groups and admit students from all over the country and from different universities; University of Dschang, Ngoundere, Bamenda and all other Universities around the country and some out of the country. We admit them to do their internships at the SHUMAS Bio-Farm. At the Bio-Farm we have three types of trainings.

Tell us about your training programmes..

 First there is a two year programme where we train youth as professional farmers who can actually earn something and who can come out of their projects and set up their own training and become employers rather than going round looking for employment. The centre started about ten years ago and we have trained so many of them and I must also indicate that this 2-year programme is executed in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and of Livestock through the programme called AFOP and training actually is subsidized by the Government. Those at the Centre are given some assistance everyday for their feeding and those who finally graduate and write their projects receive about 1.5 Million Francs CFA to benefit from this project. The importance we attach to it is because of the huge potential that Agriculture has to actually kick poverty out of this country. The programme has been going since 2011 and lots of students have graduated and we have settled about 80 of them already. Our catchment area actually covers the Noun Division, Mezam, Ngoketunja, Bui and Donga Mantung Divisions. We also have the ten-month programme for those who cannot afford to come for a longer period. After training we do support them and here they have a registration of 10.000 Francs CFA. Training too is free but they provide for their feeding and we also provide them with plots where they cultivate what they will consume during training. After the training, we give them between a hundred and three hundred thousand Francs CFA. At the moment we are recruiting for the ten months because we are already finished with those for two years of training so there is still an opportunity for those who want to come to the centre. Another form of training is the short training course. These are specific tailored trainings in which people sometimes come in to get training on Bio gas systems, Renewable Energy or other specific trainings like on pigs and sheep. We receive about two hundred students on internship every year from different parts of the country and from outside the country who come to do their internship. We also have lots of study visitors who come to simply see what is there. The SHUMAS integrated Bio-Farm is the only centre in the world which has four components of renewable energy all in one place. We have the wind energy, solar energy, hydro energy and energy from the Bio-Gaz. Here we organise training in June when we train people on renewable energy with some of our experts from Spain and Switzerland. 

 Out of Agriculture, what other programmes are you involved in?

Education also comprises a very important aspect of our activities. It comprises about 70 to 80% of our budget. We construct and equip schools, from government schools, Baptist schools, Presbyterian and Catholic schools all over the country but we give preference to Government Schools and every year we construct about 80 classrooms around the country. Presently we have constructed over 800 classrooms in all the ten Regions of the country. We give preference to the Northwest Region and even more preference to Bui Division because while growing in Bui Division I saw the poverty that encouraged me to create SHUMAS so I feel that duty to see what I can do to change the situation.

What main school projects do you have in Bui?

 I must also state that in Education in Bui Division we have a good number of projects going on. We have the Government Technical College Jeibai in Djottin Noni, which just started today and the government Technical College Mbokive in Oku Sub Division which is almost completed. We also have Government School Ichim still in Oku. This year we concentrated in Oku and Noni because we have done very little in these two Sub Divisions compared to the others. We just handed in this school about a month ago in Douala. We built a laboratory and equipped it. The laboratory is worth 35 million and the Chiefs of Douala were impressed and decided to name one of the streets in Douala as Nso Street. We were very proud about it and consider it to be very good Cultural Diplomacy.

            

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Saint Elizabeth National Residential Nursing Home for the ageing is a rehabilitation centre. - Coordinator

 Langwa Elizabeth Fikela, coordinator of the Saint Elizabeth National Residential Home for the ageing and for rehabilitation has disclosed that apart from just being a residential nursing home, the centre rehabilitates and also takes care of abandoned orphans. She says the desire to care started from childhood and emphasizes that it is a gift from God. As she grew up, this tendency to gather old helpless people and take care of them grew. She begins by explaining how this urge pushed her into nursing. She was interviewed by Ekongang Nzante Lenjo.

From childhood I loved to care so I think it is a gift from God. This pushed me into Nursing especially Geriatric Nursing which focuses on the old. You cannot only take care of the old people and leave the young behind. Experience has shown me that there are many old people with no one to take care of them and at the same time they have orphans of their children with no one to take care of them. We also come into contact with some aged people who are suffering from stroke and this is usually challenging to the family especially when there is no one to actually sit and take care of such cases. At the Rehabilitation Centre we also come into contact with mental cases and with cases of stroke and people in this state usually put the family down because there is usually nobody to sit down and take care of them. When you meet old people they are usually with the orphans of their children with no one to take care of them. That’s why I take care of old people and orphans.

So what is the first thing you do when you meet such cases?

When we meet them, the first thing we do is that we take them to the rehabilitation centre and try to rehabilitate especially the mentally unstable ones to try and come back to their normal condition and while in their unstable mental condition they also feel cared for. This stops them from feeling as if society has abandoned them.

Tell us something about the origin of this institution.

We started in Babungo and while there we covered Babungo, Baba and many other neighbouring villages. We had about 15 elderly people and around three to four orphans that we were taking care of. We take care of some of the people in their homes. Some families love their dear ones usually prefer that such care should be given to them at home. In such cases we arrange and send workers to go there. In the morning they can bath them and wash their clothes and in the evening another person can go there to take care of them at night. We still have people who come from Babungo and Baba. Once we came across an old man of about a hundred and fifty years in an abandoned house in the bush. We took him and brought him to the center and we are offering him care. When he started staying with us he became stronger. This pushed the relatives who had abandoned him to become interested in him again and they took it as a challenge and decided to take care of him.

Where exactly is your rehabilitation center?

Presently we have transferred to Sop in the Jakiri Municipality in Bui Division. Sop is located between Jakiri and Kumbo. There are many families with people who fall in the category of people that we cater for. The message I have for them is that they should stop thinking that it is only in the developed countries that these services are provided for. We also notice that in our society most old people are abandoned to themselves with nobody to take care of them and they die in very deplorable conditions. The disabled people also have the right to be catered for and to live normal healthy lives. In Cameroon we don’t offer this care. I use this medium to tell the people that we have a place to take care of those people suffering from mental instability, old people who are unable to take care of themselves, abandoned orphans and those suffering from stroke with no family member to take care of them.

Do you have some partners who support you?

I thank the Ministry of Social Affairs especially the Divisional Delegate of Social Affairs for Ngoketunja Division. We have worked with them for a long period and they have been so supportive providing us with wheel chairs. We equally thank the Regional Delegate of the Northwest Region. I also thank the individuals who always come and support us with food and the churches especially the Catholic Christians that have been coming and offering support to us. I also encourage anybody who is in a position to help to support us in any way possible. There are some that are abandoned and we are just helping them. Some need clothes, shoes among other things. The orphans that are here are going to school and there is nobody sponsoring them. Some don’t have shoes and uniforms with which to dress and go to school. If the spirit of God touches you that you should come and support this center then you are welcome and God will bless you.  

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