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Where present and past volunteers share their experiences:
I wish I could come back to Belo, one day. This is one of my biggest dreams...
Hubert Gorbaczewski-Kuzniak
My experience with BERUDEP has been one of the most beautiful and rewarding in my life. I have spent six months working for BERUDEP, sharing ideas, doing small things and helping with big things.
When I came to Cameroon I wasn't quite sure what I would be doing. It's been many weeks before I have adjusted to the new environment and culture in a way that enabled my proper functioning and productivity. Culture shock is something barely perceptible, nor can it be described, but at the same time it can be very strong and makes you feel in a particular way. It is all those small things that you could never know they existed if you hadn't lived through them on your own. Once you have gained this kind of emotional insight into "the other" way of life you begin to act naturally, and whatever you do comes as a natural extention of the friendship and love that you begin to feel, or acquire, in respect to all and any element of this beautiful world of Kom, be it physical or spiritual.
At BERUDEP I have been helping Dagmara to run the Orphan Project which required a lot of attention, ideas and energy in order to survive. Other than that, I have used my skills and passion for visual imaging to create brochures promoting BERUDEP's projects and BERUDEP itself, a newsletter, photostories with short press-like articles for both internal and external use and other PDF publications. I have also created a number of guides for BERUDEP staff and trained the staff in the area of computer usage and software plus the art of reporting in writing and creating necessary documents in accordance with the international quality standards.
Whatever I was doing with BERUDEP came natural, with time. My consciousness was evolving as the time was passing and then I was learning what contribution I could provide with the knowledge and skills I have. I think it is really difficult to plan what to do before coming to Cameroon because there are so many areas of need here that only by learning and understanding them on-site can they really be understood and given proper action.
The people of the Kom tribe are an amazingly hospitable people, warm and naturally ethusiastic. In Belo I could feel that everyone is my good friend, although I didn't know most of the people personally. This wonderful atmosphere being the gist of the Kom culture, produced naturally and in an obvious way by the Kom people, was making me cheerful and loving each and every day and encouraged me to be productive in a way I never felt back home.
I wish I could come back to Belo, one day. This is one of my biggest dreams...
Hubert Gorbaczewski-Kuzniak
Poland
2007
"I would recommend working with BERUDEP to anyone...just be prepared to lose a piece of your heart to the beautiful town of Belo and all it's amazing citizens."
Hi, my name is Amanda and I was a volunteer with BERUDEP for 9 weeks during the rainy months of september, october, and part of november. I'm an american, and I found BERUDEP through idealist.org. Before traveling to Cameroon, I was under the impression that I would be an HIV/AIDS educator in Belo, but after spending some time visiting the different programs there, my mind soon changed. I met a volunteer there named Andy who had been there 6 months, and who had created a number of working programs in Belo, and who still had ideas for new ones. I was immediatley intrigued by his idea for a project called Milk for Malnutrition, and soon jumped on board to help with it myself. We recieved funding from a donor in the states that would cover the costs to buy a female goat who had just given birth to 2 kids, as well as pay for the expenses of housing and taking care of the goat. Berudep staff and volunteers soon became family to a total of five goats, and the project was put into motion. The goal of the project was to teach the citizens of Belo about the importance and nutrional value of goats milk, as many of the citiznes kept goats. I also participated with the orphans after school project while there, as well as taught one day a week at a nursery school, helped to teach at the deaf and blind school in Kitchu, and worked as a tutor for deaf orphans. Working as a tutor with the deaf was by far the most rewarding aspect of all that I did while volunteering. I would recommend working with BERUDEP to anyone...just be prepared to lose a piece of your heart to the beautiful town of Belo and all it's amazing citizens!
Amanda
USA
2006
"I felt safe in Belo and very supported and encouraged by the BERUDEP staff"
I volunteered for Berudep for two months. I worked in the ALMBDC school for able and non able children. It was brilliant. I taught my own class of 7 to 12 year olds all subjects. I had great support at the school from the staff and from Berudep. I felt very confident and able to teach the children. Belo is a beautiful place with very friendly people. I felt safe in Belo and very supported and envouraged by the Berudep staff.
Darya
UK
2006
"There has not been a moment (aside from my first eye-clinic day) that I have doubted the wisdom of being here-- I am satisfied, overjoyed, and in wonder at this very very special opportunity"
Dear Friends,
Silvery winter greetings to you all. Here the days are warm, though the evenings grow cooler. The weeks are intermingled with busy hard work, delicious local honey, cultural miscommunications and confusion, delightful vivid discoveries, continual self-humbling and serious bouts of laughter.
Reflection: My first substantial journey in a developing country, and I do not mind the simplicity and lack of possessions that appear in each moment... Simplicity in the majority of households that cook their rice or fufu corn in large cast iron pots over low glowing fires in small pits in the dirt floors of their smoke-filled kitchens. Smoke that stings the eyes as one stares at the coals or gazes out the open doorway at the cool glittering night sky. Simplicity in the small caravan bus taxis who's long-since de-apholstered internal sidings bear the hand-printed indelible marker messages: "no smoking," "no fighting" and "no vomiting." Simplicity in my relatively upscale home where baby Grace sleeps on the couch and has no toys but an empty plastic water bottle filled with rocks to shake, or a plate she's quick enough to grab and clatter delightedly before we've cleared our meal, where she is held and tickled and played with by 10 or so cheerful neighborhood children on the front porch in the afternoon sunshine.
I do not mind all this. It is beautiful and grounding and connects me somehow to some roots of life from which I've grown distracted. These are roots that we in the western world of "plenty" hardly need to notice or maintain because the minerals and waters of survival virtually spout at us from the "soil" of grocery stores and a functional economy... a luxury which at once allows for great joys and discoveries and acquisitions, and also for forgetfulness and detachment from the nourishing basics that enable us to live with contentment. This is the forgetfulness and disconnection that helps make possible our manic hungry striving for MORE food, more toys, more experiences... often without ever really noticing we are already full.
I am not proud to say that there is a whole other category of things I also don't seem to "mind": I am not bothered by the beggar with the the face deformed by leprosy, nor by the children in disintegrating sandals selling oranges and calling to me, "give me something!" Whereas in San Francisco, I feel touched by such moments of need, here perhaps the need is so great that I feel overwhelmed, defensive, clinging to what small forms of material security I possess. Rather than connecting with and emitting compassion in this land where I blatantly have more, I feel frustrated and hardened by being targetted, picked out in a crowd for my whiteness, expected to provide and funnel a piece of my country's wealth to those who have almost nothing. I momentarily get the image of being grabbed at, reached through, as a porthole to a better life, without any regard for the human being of myself who represents that fantasy and that need. Perhaps I feel resentful of being "used" as an object and a resource. And perhaps I get panicky as I already have less than I'm accustomed to, no matter that it's still more than enough; and so I don't feel comfortable giving either of pocket money or of my already-inundated emotional awareness and caring. I am not proud of the fact that I see these things around me and I am not touched.
Blessedly, circumstances have found a way to circuitously reach my heart. Because here's what I mind: I mind that xxx, a gentle dedicated 46-yr-old BERUDEP staffmember whom I work beside each week as my companion and peer, has a 4-yr-old son who is sick with a white tongue, a fever and an inability to eat, cannot fight off illness because he is undernourished, yet is not taken to the doctor until he can't move his neck, because there is scarcely money to pay the doctor; the child is then given meds, and recovers, but now there is no food to keep him nourished. xxx sits back in his chair at the end of a long eye clinic day with me and smiles calmly, saying, "Yes, today all my children are well, thank God... but it is hard: Rice is so expensive right now..." I mind that xx xx, a beautiful elegant intelligent BERUDEP staff member in her mid 40's who treats me with kindness and feels like a friend, who works long hard days educating ostracized widows in health and hygiene, preparing medicinal plants, attending local AIDS Control Committee meetings, and participating in the Torchbearers sessions where they pray for and raise money for the "needy," explains to me that she used to prepare Puff-Puff at 4:30 a.m. each day (delicious balls of fried dough) to sell at the market but can no longer do so because she doesn't have the resources to buy flour.
I believe these moments, where companions whom I care about and feel equal to expose their need unintentionally, these moments are my opportunity to quietly open my heart without fear. Not to force myself into external acts of "generosity" but to start to understand and recognize that even those targetting me on the street are hard-working fathers with sick sons, are beautiful women trying to afford flour, so that gradually I can taste compassion, and can start to find a sincere and healthy path to being of Service on this planet.
You've not heard from me in quite some time, and many of you have written me beautiful supportive interesting messages, to which I've not responded. Two excellent reasons for this lapse in communication are: Primarily, I have encountered much difficulty with my hotmail, which seems often to stutter in Cameroon. The second and more recent reason is that I was flat-out physically sick for a good week and a half. The discomfort started out with my typical "flu-like symptoms" that many of you know I am prone to, but 4 days of non-stop rest did not improve things, and then I developed other symptoms including two nights of dizziness and nausea. End result is lab test negative for malaria "but that means nothing" the doctor explained and put me on malaria meds. This spell has been uncomfortable, but also challenging in that I'd just barely begun feeling productive in my part-time eye clinic (yay! an exciting development that includes non-prescription reading glasses rigorously bargained for in the city of Bamenda). Luckily I have lots of time... :) Today is my first day out of the house, and I'm moving slowly.
There has not been a moment (aside from my first eye-clinic day) that I have doubted the wisdom of being here-- I am satisfied, overjoyed, and in wonder at this very very special opportunity. Thank you all for your caring and support, both in getting me here, and in keeping me loved.
Peace, Joy, and Warm Holidays to you!
Margaret Eisenberg
USA
volunteer in 2005/6
"...these past four months have been quite full of challenges, joys, and successes. I am very happy to be living in Belo, Cameroon, Africa and working with BERUDEP..."
After having worked with BERUDEP for four months now, my “first impressions” are various. Coming from the developed world (USA), it is always a challenge to live in a drastically different culture within a developing country. Nevertheless, BERUDEP is an awesome, local NGO with whom I am proudly volunteering. I am learning so much from BERUDEP, and, hopefully, they are learning from my experience and education as well.
The environment in and around Belo is gorgeous – rolling hills, covered in plush green vegetation. If you like trekking, Belo is an awesome place to go. Daily access to fresh produce is exciting, and access to a relatively fast internet connection is quite comforting to us foreigners to keep in consistent contact with home.
Baine (my husband) and I came to Cameroon with a mentality of being students of the culture. Before we dove into our work, we first wanted to learn from and absorb as much of the local culture as possible. Although we have not done everything perfectly, this process of first, humbly learning and observing has been a huge help to us dealing with culture shock and in making our work much more effective.
Having an undergraduate degree in social work, I have spent most of my time helping BERUDEP develop and improve social programs that will effectively meet the needs of their society. I have thoroughly enjoyed this process as BERUDEP staff and the local people have been extremely helpful, kind, receptive and enthusiastic about these programs.
Baine and I have both been given a lot of freedom to choose in what areas we want to work and freedom in our actual work. Being extremely motivated people with a relatively decent amount of experience, this freedom has been good for us. Overall, these past four months have been quite full of challenges, joys, and successes. I am very happy to be living in Belo, Cameroon, Africa and working with BERUDEP right now. I very much look forward to the next five months.
Laurie Craft
USA
volunteer in 2005/6
"I have no background in business, but I have had the opportunity to learn a lot about marketing and accounting."
My name is Baine Craft. My wife (Laurie) and I have been volunteering with BERUDEP for four months. Initially, I was surprised by the many projects in which BERUDEP was involved. There is such a variety of work to be done for someone with any skill level.
While here in Cameroon, I have been working in a variety of capacities with BERUDEP. In some of these work areas, I feel prepared to make contributions. For example, I have been teaching Biology, Mathematics, and English Literature at a local college (secondary school). However, in some of these areas, I feel like I am learning new skills and developing existing skills. For example, one of BERUDEP’s many projects is to buy honey from local farmers, bottle the honey, and sell it – thus, generating income for bee farmers and a market for their product. Over the past four months, I have been trying to enhance that market by creating accounts with food markets and shopping centers in Bamenda (a nearby city). I have no background in business, but I have had the opportunity to learn a lot about marketing and accounting.
For another example, I have been writing grants for several of BERUDEP’s projects. While I have been involved in grant writing in the past, I have not been involved as much or as frequently as I have here. I find the experience that I have had in grant writing to be an exceptional learning experience and preparation for my future career in academia.
As for daily life in Belo, Cameroon, it is quite pleasant. I have found the people to be kind and generous. The area in which we are living (i.e., Belo) is not too hot during the day and cool at night. Belo is surrounded by hills and mountains covered with green vegetation. I have had the opportunity to go hiking several times on hilltops and through the bush. It is exciting to go to the weekly and daily markets and shop for fresh fruit, vegetables, and bread or beautiful local crafts.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience in Cameroon and working with BERUDEP thus far. I am looking forward to the next five months of working with BERUDEP. I hope that they will be filled with similar learning experiences, challenges, and good times.
Baine Craft
USA
volunteer in 2005/6
"I have been lucky enough to spend 7 weeks working with Berudep in Cameroon and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time."
As I am a medical student I have been working in the rural health centres. These include Samrucare in Fundong and the government health post in Njinikom. I have also given health talks each week to the group of widows that meet in the CREN centre in Njinikom; these have ranged in subject from nutrition, hygiene, prevention of disease, simple treatments for common diseases and resuscitation. I have also been able to spend a short time with some of the orphans at this centre.
I have met with Fulani women in Fundong for similar health talks and advice. Rachael and I have created a health document to be used by Berudep staff so that the health talks can continue in our absence.
I spent one day each week at Mount Zion Clinic in Bamenda and found this to be very useful and enjoyable.
I was lucky enough to travel with the Director to Mayo Darle in the Adamawa Province and spend a week consulting and advising patients. It was very interesting to spent time in a different area of Cameroon.
I spent two days working at the Health Post in Abuh. I really enjoyed my time there and feel that this or other more remote villages would be good places to send future volunteers coming with a medical focus. It would be important to give them some time working in larger clinics with residence doctors before they travel to the remote villages so they can become acquainted with drug doses and common complaints.
In conclusion I hope to stay in touch and keep working for Berudep in the UK. I would be very happy to be a contact for other volunteers who intend to come form the UK they could contact me on my email
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. I would like to be kept updated on the chickens project in Njinikom and hope that we will be able to set up a link with Bees Abroad so that my mother can begin to sell Berudep honey in our town.
Gemma Cunningham
UK
2005
"BERUDEP staff warmly welcomed me"
I left Sydney, Australia in June with the little knowledge about Cameroon and the people. When I arrived my first impression of the country were the police discretions at the airport. Getting visa on arrival at Douala airport was harder and more frustrating in every way imaginable than I had envisaged. It was ‘by hook or crook’ that I finally got the visa.
Despite all the mysterious experiences at the airport, my first month in Cameroon and with the BERUDEP in particular has been rewarding. Everyone from the local community in Belo; the youths, widows at Centre for Rehabilitation and Education in Njinikom (CREN), the local Council officials including the Mayor and Brigade commander and BERUDEP staff warmly welcomed me.
I started work within the first week of my arrival. Counselling widows at CREN was one of my first tasks. After three weeks in counselling using interpreter my first challenge was to train local staff on interpreting skills. I conducted two days training on Translating and Interpreting Skills, which was followed by Child Protection Training a week later. These training were attended by all the BERUDEP staff in Fundong, Njinikom, and Belo and Bamenda sub-divisions. The trainings were evaluated by the participants as very essential and valuables as they always and all the times act as interpreters when the international volunteers arrive.
I appreciated BERUDEP staff for their enthusiastic participations to acquire the knowledge and skills, which they need to have to carry out their duties. I will be looking forward to conducting some more training in August and September on: Project proposals and submission writing, counselling skills and financial reporting skills.
The fact that the staff here have strong psychological needs for engaging in this type of work – such as the genuine need for work which is meaningful rather than simply financial lucrative make contribution to the community development. Therefore; I believe training locals counterpart should be part of the job of any international volunteers. Skills transfer enables locals to be sustainable after the international volunteer leave.
Thank you
David Gatwech
Australia
2005
"The relationships I made with the staff and community will forever remain sacred in my heart"
Working with BERUDEP changed my life. I searched for a group for months, and knew I was home when I found BERUDEP. My experience in Cameroon was amazing. I was able to experience so many incredible opportunities that would not be available to me here in the states. I helped to deliver 3 beautiful babies, helped carry a bee hive across the village, helped the community by teaching about health, nutrition, exercise, stretching, hygeine and sexual health, helped families and children and more than anything, I helped myself to learn more about my purpose here on earth. I would recommend working with BERUDEP to anyone who has a desire to learn, express, and share. The relationships I made with the staff and community will forever remain sacred in my heart.
Contact me if you have any questions at:
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Alexandra Kurhan
USA
2004
"There is a lot to share with people different from you and at the end you come back to your country with a different mind..."
"I worked for 6 months with BERUDEP. It was probably the most full months in my life, because i learnt so much! I worked as an administrator in the organisation, taking over Michelia's work (the previous volunteer). I've been needing some time to really adapt to my new life, understand the culture, understand BERUDEP's functionning, and choose what i wanted to do. I foccused on
an internet project (begin a Cyber Cafe in the village), which is still in process. I was also doing a lot of administrative tasks, getting contact with other International NGO's, and travelling with the Director and the staff to meetings or fares to represent BERUDEP. I also built a project to raise funds in France. The project is meant to make BERUDEP become self-sustainable in buying and selling honey from and for the bee-farmers the organisation is training. I'm still following up this project from France.
In the line with this work, i met so many people, and got a huge experience which i could never have in France. BERUDEP is really giving you liberty to choose what you want to do and to take your own initiatives. It's sometimes not easy to have so much liberty, but when you are motivated you can do so many things. But what enriched me is not only the work i did with BERUDEP. It's also the contact with the people. Africa is SO different, and i spent a lot of time talking with the people about politic, culture and so on. From my European point of vue, Africa has a different way to see time, and a different way to see money. It's something i had to understand and to adapt, and it was really interesting to me! I had a recorder that i used to interview the people and i'm now to set up a radio program that i will send to radios in Europe. There is a lot to share with people different from you and at the end you come back to your country with a different mind...and you want to travel again!
Don't hesitate to contact me for any details about my experience, or to contact the other volunteers who have been working with BERUDEP. We will all be grateful to share our experience and answer your questions!
Maité Cordelle
France
2003/4
"the results of the work are felt often in the joy, appreciation and genuine results seen in the people and their communities"
First a big thank you to BERUDEP for providing me with an excellent opportunity to gain an amazing experience and to grow as a person interested in helping the world become a better place.
I gained a lot from being a BERUDEP volunteer and a more valuable experience personally than I had expected from my aim of helping others. BERUDEP were 100% responsible for this because as an organization they made me feel welcome and comfortable and a valuable member right from the beginning. I had the freedom to choose where I thought my interests and talents lay and how much effort I put into the organisation. This freedom and flexibility led me to find and develop the areas in which my real interests lay and to put in maximum effort in a completely voluntary manner. In this way BERUDEP can play a large role in developing the skills and giving confidence to many other volunteers too.
I developed confidence in my own abilities because working in a small organisation allows you to produce whole products and projects, seeing them through from beginning to the end, and to try out new ideas and test theories. The feedback I got from both the organisation and the environment we were working in was quick and this fuelled a momentum of energy and activities with tangible results. The BERUDEP aim is for poverty alleviation in the long term, but working as closely with the people as BERUDEP do, the results of the work are felt often in the joy, appreciation and genuine results experienced by the people.
In the time I stayed with BERUDEP, they received credits of hundreds of dollars for agricultural text books, started a relationship with the organization called CCD, who are completely dedicated to community development, built a website, carried out trainings in school holidays, won prize money in recognition of excellence in using Vetiver grass throughout the country, received work for the director as Vetiver consultant in the Congo, received requests to replicate some of our Eco-Tourism activities in other parts of Cameroon as well as requests to teach bee keeping to thousands of people in the North. These are just a few of the achievements I saw happen over and above the usual activities in a short space of time in which many other organisations could achieve less than half of these.
My position with BERUDEP meant I spent time talking to the people in the rural villages, hiked the countryside, stayed in mudhuts with local families, wrote project proposals, visited schools, attended meetings, attended expos and conferences, designed an Eco-Tourism programme, helped build a website, documented past and present activities, taught management in training courses, helped with the presentation of BERUDEP labelled products, wrote articles for newspapers and magazines and was interviewed by a national newspaper. This kind of experience would be hard to equal in any other organisation or country in a period of less than 10 months.
I feel on leaving BERUDEP, quite apart from the satisfactionI have gained in knowing I dedicated 10 months to a wonderful cause and saw wonderful results directed towards the people who needed it the most, I could now enter any industry within my interest areas and be successful in it. I have no regrets and so many good memories and lasting friendships.
Feel free to contact me by e-mail if anyone has any questions about becoming a BERUDEP volunteer.
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Michelia Ward
New Zealand
2003
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