Road to Bamenda

A young boy eats bread outside the AJEN Group's meeting house.

Day 4

February 4

In the village of Namba, near the town of Manjo, is where we visit the Association des Jeunes de Namba, or AJEN Group. Namba is in a French-speaking province, so an interpreter, Rochelle, has come along with Humphrey, Hilda and I. This stop is a little less than half way to Bamenda, where Heifer Cameroon’s headquarters is located. After we visit the group, Hilda and Rochelle will return to the Douala offices where they are hosting the Heifer Senegal group this week. Humphrey and I will continue on to the Western Highlands, where I’ll spend the next couple of days visiting projects. I am told the people from the Western Highlands are the most industrious and hard working in all of Cameroon.
The first person I visit in Namba is Walter Atoh, treasurer of the group. He has a simple wooden frame house with tin roof and dirt floors. Inside the main room of the house is a long bench, a couple of chairs, and at the back of the room is his new motorcycle and his beat-up old motorcycle.
I talk first with Emmanuel Youyep Yonko, president of the group, who stops in while we are sitting down to talk to Walter. Emmanuel tells me before getting involved with Heifer, the members of the group were doing the most rudimentary farming with only a few pigs.
Heifer’s training on the very basics of how to properly feed and care for the pigs has had a transformational effect on the pig farmer’s who have adopted the practices. The farmers in Namba used to feed the pigs only cassava yams and some grass instead of the mixture of feed they now process on their own. The group used its profits, along with a government grant, to purchase a grinding mill, which is utilized to create a surplus of feed for group members at all times and also sell to the local community for affordable prices.
From Heifer, the group members also learned to use elevated pigsties, which are better for maintaining the health of the pigs and also lessens the impact on the quality of the community’s environment.
“Before Heifer came, each of us had only one or two pigs. Now days some have up 30 pigs, 40 pigs,” Emmanuel said. “The pigs of six months old today are bigger than the pigs of two years old then. The difference is real and it’s tangible.”
Like most of the group, Walter has a young family. From the sale of his pigs, Walter was able to pay the dowry to his wife’s family so that they could be married and two weeks after that he purchased a motorcycle for transportation for his family and for business use.
“Without Heifer Project I would not have been able to do any of these things,” Walter said.
“Nutrition has really improved for my family. We are now able to now eat meat every month.”
Walter said the experience and knowledge they have received from Heifer they have in turn used to help other farmer’s that have not been exposed livestock and agricultural techniques.
“This is very important,” he said “We are taught in trainings that the knowledge you gain you have to share with others. We respect the Heifer Cornerstones of sharing and caring.”
The AJEN group has Passed on the Gift (POG) of 40 piglets to other members and groups since its inception.
Serges, a delegate of Cameroon’s Ministry of Livestock, stopped by for a visit while we discussed the expansion of Walter’s pig operation to newer stalls that had just been constructed. Serges said the government can help provide the technical support to the areas that Heifer projects areas that
“It is a good collaboration [between Heifer and the government],” Serges said. “What Heifer has done is just like dropping oil into water and it expands everywhere. I am here in these communities seeing the results.”

Walter Atoh and his wife at their elevated pigsties.

The grinding mill that the AJEN Group purchased has saved farmer's money and been profitable for the group.

Emmanuel and one of his twin sons inside his chicken coop.

Emmanuel and his wife and son near their elevated pigsties.

Next, I visit Emmanuel’s home and surrounding farm. We first stop to look at his pigsties, and then we go to his chicken coop, which is part of his plan to diversify his livestock.
From the profits from his livestock and farming, Emmanuel has installed indoor plumbing to provide fresh water for his family, something I haven’t seen in any of the homes we’ve visited so far. He has also been able to purchase furniture, a television and even a satellite dish.
“With the dish we have all the channels and there are things on the TV that interest children very much,” he said. “My children don’t go to the neighbors now. We now have the latest information from around the world.”
Like any good mother, Emmanuel’s wife gets out all of the family photos for me to see. Emmanuel points out how thin and unhealthy he was just a few years ago.
“When Heifer arrived here we were all so slim,” he said. “But now we are healthier – we look nice.”
When I ask Emmanuel is his quality of life has improved, he tells me that he does not need to speak about it, that it speaks for itself.
“The chairs and table are all that I inherited from my father. All of this I have acquired through Heifer,” he said.
“We have been able to pay children’s school fees.”
The group members experienced a change of mentality, Emmanuel said, when they received the training from Heifer and then were able to visit other projects to see the progress that had been made.
“The exchange visits we had near Bamenda helped a lot,” he said. “We saw what the other farmers there are doing and we understood we were not really working hard. We then came back here and expanded the size of our work.”
Another major change came about from the gender equity training, Emmanuel said.
“We learn how to treat our wife at home. How she can be involved in activities. We have really changed our behavior at home,” he said.
“Relations have improved and everything has changed because we were taught that some jobs are not only reserved for women and women can also do work men do.”
It is not only the relationships at home that have changed for Emmanuel.
“Thanks to Heifer, I am able to be acquainted with the big government authorities in the area. I can now discuss issues with livestock delegate or the agricultural delegate,” he said.
All of the life-changing experiences that have taken place with the AJEN Group over the last decade have been shared with surrounding neighbors and groups.
“We have trained the POG (Passing on the Gift) group that Heifer is working with now,” Emmanuel said. “We have trained other groups, non-Heifer groups, that are around. So the community has become stronger.”

The AJEN Group have made tremendous progress in the decade they have been involved with Heifer Cameroon.

Like the Signal Hill Group in Buea, the AJEN Group has prepared a lunch spread of fried plantains, fresh fruit, roasted nuts and freshly baked bread. We join about 20 of the group members in the meeting room where they introduce themselves and thank me for what Heifer has done for their community. I feel humbled by their warmth and appreciation and in turn thank them for having me in their homes and sharing their personal stories. They think of me as Heifer – a representation of the entity that has helped them – and it is difficult to explain that I am merely a writer and photographer here to capture their stories.

Hilda has been cautious of what I eat at the different projects, as I was also warned beforehand about the dangers of eating food prepared in rural areas. Hilda has been motherly to me on this trip. She was surprised when I told her I was 27. She told me that I am still a baby. She packed me a lunch for the day, but I won’t eat it until later that night when I arrive in Bamenda at the hotel, with its barely functional rooms, strange lounge and bar area, and lack of clean towels.

–Jeremy Glover

Some children in Namba getting water from a pump.