Biography
Short summary of your background:
Born on September 09, 1974 in Mmen, Menchum Division of the North West Region of Cameroon; Obtained First School Leaving Certificate (F.S.L.C.) in 1988 from Catholic School, Old Town-Mmen; G.C.E. Ordinary Level in 1993 from G.H.S. Wum; G.C.E. Advanced Level (in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry) in 1995 from G.H.S. Mbengwi; B.Sc in Biochemistry in 1998 from the University of Buea-Cameroon; Master of Engineering (M.Eng) in Agro-Industrial Processing in 2005 from National Advanced School of Agro-Industrial Sciences (ENSAI) Ngaoundere-Cameroon and Course Certificate in Solid Waste Management and Engineering in 2008 from UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft-the Netherlands;
Presently working at the National Assembly of Cameroon at the Questors Service since September 2007; Project Coordinator of “Association for Sustainable Development of the Rural Population” (ASDRP) since 2006; Experience in Food and related industries, Medical Laboratory Science, Computer and Information Technology and Teaching.
Languages you can speak/write:
English and French
What inspired you to take this initiative?
I realised that because of lack of education and special skills among many youth in the village, the following consequences were evident:
- Lack of employment among the youth;
- Rural exodus and involvement in many crimes in the urban areas;
- Social exploitation (prostitution, hard but lowly paid jobs );
- Economic dependence of the youth on their parents most of whom are poor;
- Poverty in general.
I thought of what to do in order to contribute to solving these problems and came to the conclusion that training the youth to acquire special skills could be the best option.
With the skills, the youth will become economically independent and responsible, thereby having a better focus for the future.
One of our projects consisted of sponsoring less privileged children in tailoring and hair-dressing. I then thought of what would become of these children after training, and then brought up the idea of creating our own training centre where beneficiaries would not pay training fees (reducing our expenditures) and the little profit made would be used to sustain the project and other projects in the years ahead.
What is your (future) dream regarding this project?
My future dream for this project is three-fold:
- Introducing new departments (like computing, decoration/designing, craft work) in addition to the already existing tailoring and hair-dressing sections;
- Reducing the rate of unemployment by over 30% by the year 2015;
- Making the training centre a reference knowledge pool in the entire village.
What would you like to say to future participants in your project?
The contributions of future participants will enable us to share ideas and use our synergic efforts to obtain the best results from the project. So we will appreciate open- mindedness, objective scrutiny and criticism on the part of participants, while we promise a welcoming attitude for all proposals.
We would like future participants to know that the village Bafmeng, where the project is located has so many desperate children and so there are as many problems as possible to be addressed as regards poverty alleviation. It is thus one of the ideal places
in Cameroon for humanitarian volunteers (especially foreigners) to visit.