If Poverty Had a Name

‘If Poverty had a name, it will be called Tansa Rose’, commented in a melancholic mood a reporter of Cameroon’s public Radio (CRTV). Tansa Rose is this 35 year old woman who died while giving birth to 4 babies in Kumba-a populous city in the South Western Region of Cameroon-recently. As shocking as this news is, it is common place in Cameroon to hear of women dying while giving birth so much so that nobody is surprised that in the 21st century; 3 years to the so much talked about 2015 dateline for the achievement of the millennium development Goals(MDGs) and not too far from 2035-the year Cameroon dreams of becoming an emerging nation.
In Cameroon, far from being neglected, Maternal Health has been at the heart of politicians’ manifestos and development policy documents. But the importance of maternal health has never been translated into concrete actions by these politicians once elected into office. After all, which Cameroonian will not remember the famous “Health for all in the year 2000 “slogan and the now ever present “emergence by 2035” argument?
One will never really know how sincere those politicians and policy makers that created such lofty slogans as those above were but one thing one can be certain of is the fact that women like Tansa Rose die while giving birth at home because they are too poor to get prenatal and postnatal care.
Tansa Rose as 1/3 of women in developing nations was the sole bread winner for her family and her children like all those whose mothers die while giving birth to them are 3-10 times likely to die before their second birthday than those whose mothers survive according to the UN in its We Can End Poverty 2015 report and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) State of the World’s Children 2007. This coupled with the uncertainty of what the future holds for late Rose’s babies in terms of health, education, and opportunity for them to live worthy lives revolts me as while precious resources are being invested in white elephant projects that are doomed to failure, thousands of Cameroonians continue to die because they cannot afford the services of health care professionals or stay in remote areas with the nearest health facility hundreds of miles away. This is shameful and must be change if Cameroon is to ever become the emerging country it so much dreams of becoming because a nation whose women and children plagued by ills of all sorts cannot achieve any development worth its name.
Access to health care for men, women, and children of a nation’s present and future generations must be at the heart of any nation’s development policies. For, “People are dying unnecessarily because they do not have clean water, enough good food, or basic medical care-which is what economic development means for us. The most basic human right of all is the right to life itself, and a life which is not made miserable by hunger, ignorance, or preventable disease”, argued Julius Nyerere in his Plea of the Poor to the world.

Summer Holidays: A Thriving Season for Child Trafficking and Rape in Cameroon

According to the International Labour Organisation, more than 600 000 children (Most of whom are girls) were victims of child trafficking in 2005.Most of these victims are girls who do not go to school or are school dropouts. Horizon Jeunesse (Youth Horizon), an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) based in Yaoundé (Cameroon’s capital city) claims that, about three million the Cameroonian children are working or being trafficked in conditions of near slavery (http://ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=34063).These children are often taken away from their parents by their relatives who promise to provide the children education and training but once in town these children are forced to prostitute, hawk and in most cases end up as street children.

Child trafficking in Cameroon is most rampant in its rural areas. Child trafficking like forced/premature marriages, child labour, massive rural exodus, high rate of school drop outs, drastic drop in agricultural productivity, high vulnerability to diseases due to poor sanitation and housing conditions and a high child mortality rate are results of the neglect and abandonment of rural areas by policy makers and are a consequence of the inadequacy of  current policies for the fight against poverty, disease, and illiteracy in rural areas-when these even exist .This explains why parents of victims and the victims themselves are ready to pay any price to see greener pastures which they have been promised by human traffickers.

Summer holidays constitute the peak period for child trafficking in Cameroon. The month of May marks the end of the academic year in Cameroon and therefore the massive exodus of pupils and students from rural to urban areas in search of greener pastures. I am then not surprised that movement into major urban centers in Cameroon has scaled up in recent weeks.

In fact, I have noticed that, as years go by, the number of children leaving their villages to ‘work their school fees’, as this is referred to in Cameroon, is ever increasing while the average age of these children, who while on holiday, hawk, peddle, and carry out all sorts of activities that will enable them go back home with something with which to pay their school fees and buy their school needs, has sensibly reduced.

While I understand that agriculture is the main means of subsistence for a majority of people living in rural communities of Cameroon, and that the fact that agriculture is in crisis, has greatly contributed in making them more powerless and vulnerable to disease, and climate change, I am also completely opposed to the practice of using children as a source of revenue for the family. I am wounded in my soul whenever I find a child who carries a load which out weights him/her just because they are selling one thing or the other so that his/her family can survive.

Also, the fact that Sexual abuse and rape are on the rise during summer holidays in Cameroon is an  indicator that with the desire to make their ends and those of their families meet comes exposure of these tender souls  to horrible acts such as rape and other forms of sexual assaults. In fact it is no longer news in Cameroon when information that a rapist who, with the pretext of buying 2 pieces of Chewing Gum (costing less than 5 cents),lure these children to isolated areas or into their homes and sexually assault them.

Acts like those described above are not only  criminal but destructive and wicked because of the trauma and long lasting negative effects they have on the reputation, self –esteem  and on   the sexual and reproductive health of the victims. While these despicable acts call for the toughest and harshest action against its perpetrators, prevention remains a better cure. Enough is enough! I am tired of seeing the future of the children of Cameroon given to rapists on a platter of Gold. Let’s be responsible enough to stop sacrificing the happiness of these children on an Alter of the ‘fight for survival’.

 The government, parents, and all those involved in child trafficking should not ignore the heavy psychological and health burden that the enslavement of their children represents. Children are the future of our world and merit to be treated better. No degree of poverty, pain, and suffering should ever justify their enslavement.  Vigilance of the government and civil society organisations has to be heightened at this moment for this summer holidays to be free of human trafficking and forced child labour. An abused child is not only simply abused; he/she is denied the right to happiness and is robbed of all dignity.

Vanessa,Her Solen Baby and the Plight of Women In Cameroon

« Those women that are marching pass [the first lady] at this moment should know that the best way to celebrate the 8th of March is boycott the parade to force the authorities not to necessarily give back my baby, but to put an end to the traffic of babies in public hospitals». This the outcry of an inconsolable mother to press men last march 8th as women celebrated International Women’s Day in pump and pageantry the world over.

For more than half a year, she has been deprived of her baby-a baby which she has never had the time to hold in her arms-because stolen from her a few hours after she came into to the world.Its been 7 months of anguish, anger, and grief that Vanessa Tchatchou, has gone through and her ordeal seems not getting closer to an end any soon.

Vanessa Tchatchou is this 17 years old Cameroonian girl whose baby was stolen from her on the 20th August 2011 at 2:15 PM,a few hours after been delivered of a healthy and beautiful baby girl at the Yaounde Gyneco-Obstetric and pediatric hospital in Cameroon-she was delivered of her baby at 7h43 minutes on the same day.

A Silence Too Long to Be Innocent.

6 months later and after much speculation on what might had really happened at that hospital, the government finally reacted on this issue on the 2nd of February through its spokesperson; the minister of communication. At this press conference held in Cameroon’s captal city, the minister declared that the culprits had been apprehended and confessed of having buried the child in a Yaounde neighborhood after her sudden death.

The above version of what might have caused the disappearance of Vanessa’s baby was widely seen by Cameroonians as been fake, given that an influential female magistrate was found with a baby girl(which was not visibly hers)-the age of vanessa’s baby- which she claimed was her baby. Suspicion that this magistrate might be the thief of the baby grew because she made so many contradictory statements concerning the baby found in her home in Yaounde. She first claimed she had given birth to the baby and when NGOs and Civil Society Organizations(CSOs) mounted pressure on her for a DNA test to be conducted on the baby she claimed was hers, she first refused and later on said she had adopted the baby a week after she was born.

A DNA test was finally conducted on the baby found at the magistrate’s home and there have been recent claims that the DNA does not correspond with that of the mother whose baby was stolen. This claim is also viewed by Cameroonians as been unfounded as questions concerning the respect of the formalities for the adoption of a child in Cameroon by the magistrate are still been posed . We live in a country were it could take from between a month to one year for permission to adopt a child to be issued by the competent authorities. But, that this magistrate took just a few days to obtain permission to adopt this child raises a lot of questions.

Vanessa:Courageous to the End

The courage demonstrated by Vanessa and her family in the past months, despite the fact that they had been threatened and bundled out of the hospital yet she decided not to leave until her child is found and returned to her, the indifference of the hospital staff and government officials to the suffering of Vanessa and the arrogance of the magistrate has revolted many Cameroonians who have staged a series of activities to demand that Vanessa’s baby be found and returned to her. Students, politicians, Civil Society Organizations(CSOs), and anonymous persons have initiated and/taken part in activities which were all violently dispersed by the government-with arrest of participants been made.

Women support groups and other associations who planned to demonstrate on International Women’s Day to demand that justice be made in this case during the traditional women’s march pass(Mentioned by Vanessa at the beginning of this article) organized all over the country on this day were threatened and taken away from ceremonial grounds. And so ended another March 8th with nothing; nothing at all being done to find and return Vanessa’s baby.

Reactions:Putting the Cart before the Horse

Reacting to this situation last month, the minister of Public Health Dr Mama Fouda issued a decree limiting the number of people who are authorized to accompany a woman to the maternity and putting in place other security measures in hospitals and then on the 9th of March 2009, the director of the hospital Pr Dooh Anderson was sacked and replaced. This in my opinion is not enough. Justice should be done to Vanessa!

Vanessa with support from a number of civil society organizations have sued the Minister of Social affairs Catherine Mbakang Mbock, the director of the hospital Pr Dooh Anderson, and the female magistrate(Caroline Mejang). But given that all these people are very influential and powerful, can justice follow its real course without being distorted by the colleagues, friends, tribesmen, and political friends of these people? Time will tell.

Wake Up Cameroon, Stand Up for your Children’s Plight!

The ‘stolen baby affair’, as this is refered to by the media in Cameroon is a wake up call to the Cameroonian judiciary system which must be exemplary in ruling on this issue as this girl has been unjustly deprived of the fruit of her womb for more half a year now. A human rights abuse has been committed by persons in the highest spheres of this country.

In a country for which the achievement of Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) is seen as key to its emergence, issues that have to do with human rights, the safety of health institutions, the security of goods and persons, and the credibility of its judiciary system are treated as a matter of urgency, with the highest diligence.
Cameroon belongs to Cameroonians and every single Cameroonian deserves to have justice done. Wake up Cameroon!