Saturday, April 21, 2007

Solved! A 2007 year-old Problem

Wednesday, April 18th, 2007. That's the date to remember as the day when everything changed in the village of Gouria, in the Extreme North, Cameroon, West Africa. That's the day when engineers probing for water found a mother-lode underground water lens in the village, and that's the date when life expectancy took a quantum leap forward.

Water is the stuff of life, and for a village that ran completely dry for many months of the year, a source of clean, potable, and sustainable water supply within the village is a major development, and the latest chapter in a period of only seven years.

During that time education came to the village in the form of the very best private school in the entire extreme north. Malima Primary School is realizing outstanding results. Then came health care in an accessible clinic; and the next major event was the connection of the village with electricity; and now, the jewel in the crown, Water, water, water.

To say that those of us who make up the G8, otherwise known as The Malima Support Group are happy is to grossly understate the case. We believe it to be a sign that this was ordained to happen by the speed with which it took place. On Monday, April 16th the first try took place but resulted in an unsuccessful attempt. On Wednesday, 18th, a second attempt was made and tapped into the very thing that was almost too good to hope for.

The knock-on effect of this development is so awesome that it is hard to envision all at once. We can expect better health, better year-round nutrition through a more balanced diet; more plentiful food supply through the ability to grow more varied crops; and yes, ultimately, a longer life expectancy.

For children not yet born they will inherit an environment within which will exist the framework for a quality of life that simply did not exist before.

So well done to the China Geo-engineering Corporation in Cameroon; and well done to all of you who kept the faith. Well done to Felix and to all of us, and especially to Judith Burnett, Congratulations! Your dreams have come true. How special is that?

The taste of success is so very sweet.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

What a difference one person can make!


I was just thinking about how things get started, and what does it take to make a difference. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that it almost always takes one person with a vision to start change. The Wright brothers are generally credited with having taken the lead towards modern aviation, but I'll bet that only one of them awoke to explain his dream to the other.
And so it was in the case of The Malima Project and the great success that has been achieved. It took one person with a dream of one day establishing her own school in a place in which it was truly needed.
A young woman by the name of Judith Burnett, from Bristol, England had that dream, and found herself in the right place at the right time to receive a request from a resident of the village of Gouria, in the Extreme North of Cameroon, West Africa, asking, " can you help to bring education to our village that has been ignored for so long?"
In 1999 Judith's project began very modestly with a one-room school house on the prairie. When the first classes were held there were far more children outside the building then inside. I have been taking stock of what has been achieved since then. It makes formidable reading.
Judith is now joined by seven other friends, and we call ourselves The Malima Support Group. (MSG).
That one-room building has now been joined by three other double rooms, and will soon be joined by another. The school now has slightly more than 200 regular attendees in elementary education, and a Kindergarten of more than 100 students waiting to enter the mainstream education at the correct age. We hold adult education courses for the parents who never had the opportunity to have an education.
We soon realised that none of our children actually existed from a legal sense as none had birth certificates. That has now be remedied, and parents now routinely register their newborns.
None of our children had been vaccinated, so, a program had to be developed of childhood vaccinations.
As the children gained the ability to read the need for a library arose, and so the village now has one.
Electricity main lines went right overhead the village, but no-one was connected. MSG brought electricity to the village, starting first with the school. That was an earth shattering development as with one giant leap the village is brought into the 21st century. Nothing will ever be the same.
The daily routine of a housewife centers mainly around the need to obtain sufficient water, firewood, and to grind enough grain, a long and exhausting labour intensive task. So, the MSG, through the generous donation of a walking angel arranged to install a Mill, taking advantage of the newly arrived electricity. The hours that will be saved with this device is mind blowing.
Two more walking angels and a Nissan 4X4 was made possible as a gift to the school and the village. Now they have an ambulance, and a general workhorse that can be even more valuable than they are in modern society.
Throughout Africa, there is a problem known as "A failure to thrive Syndrome". This is due partly to a lack of resources and a lack of knowledge about basic nutritional values. We arranged for a class to be conducted in the village for 15 prime candidates who will share their knowledge with other villages in the area. That was an unqualified success.
The proof of the pudding is in the graduation figures. Normally, for the Extreme North graduation numbers are between the 20 to 30% range. We have had two classes graduate from Malima Primary School. For both years the figure was 100% of the children passed their final exams with Malima, and more telling, 100% passed their entrance exams for secondary education.
That's not magic, but it is very close to it!
The women of the village have long been under appreciated. Now they are to have their own center where they can learn new skills and share some serious quality time with one another.
What's next? Water. The eternal problem, or so it seems. If the engineers now probing for an underground lens meet with success, the knock-on effect will be absolutely Huge!
Wish us luck!

Friday, April 6, 2007

Water on our Minds

Water, the very stuff of life is the biggest concern for the people of Gouria. During the rainy season when the rains actually come, it is a time of plenty. The crops grow in abundance and the grasses grow tall, and all's right and green with the world.

Should the rains fail to come, a very bad situation becomes worse leading to such misery that is beyond the imagination of the outside world to comprehend. Even under "normal" circumstances the situation reaches an appalling state. This year, The Malima Support Group in Valencia, Spain, with the help of many people who have donated funds, have authorised and paid for two initiatives: (a) We will experiement by using guttering on the rooftops of the school buildings at Malima to collect the water during the rains; and huge industrial plastic containers is where the water will be stored.

(b) During the week of April 2nd, 2007, a firm of engineers are seeking out an underground lens from which water can be brought to the surface via a borehole. It is so very important that the drill is successful, but there can be no guarantees, so we shall just have to cross our fingers that we shall be successful. If so, a problem that has existed for over 2007 years will be solved.

Further, a new method to Africa will be tried in Gouria, that being the science of Perma Culture, whereby collected water will be used for irrigation through perforated tubing producing a slow drip to crops. This will extend the growing season with the knock-on effect of improved year-round health prospects for villagers.

Added to the recent introduction of electricity to the village, Gouria will have taken a giant leap forward into the 21st century. Can you imagine how thrilling that is for a people so long ignored?


Eugene