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5th of December each year is the International Day of the Volunteer.
It is a day set aside by the United Nations, each year, to highlight
the contribution of voluntary actions in development. In Buea,
Cameroon, the activities to mark this day were organized by
the Buea Urban Civil Society Organisation Network (BUCSONET),
and coordinated by Nkong Hill Top Common Initiative Group. A
two-day activity was done to commemorate this day. First, there
was a radio talk over Ocean City Radio, Limbe on the 4th of
December and an award conference at the Catholic Library Hall,
Molyko Buea, on the 5th of December 2002 in the D-day.
The
Talk Over The Ocean Radio Limbe
This talk
was by two persons of the Buea Urban Network Mr. Anu Folefac
Vincent, the Delegate of Nkong Hill Top Common Initiative
Group, and Mr. Ngi Benjamen, a volunteer at the Catholic Library
Molyko, Buea. It lasted for an hour; 11am to 12noon and was
moderated by a journalist from the Ocean Radio Limbe. The
theme was on "Volunteering for Development' a theme carefully
chosen by BUCSONET to reflect the need of the time.
The
Conference On The 5th Of December
The conference
was held from 10am to 3pm on Thursday the 5th of December,
and was still on the theme "Volunteering for Development".
It was chaired by Rev. Dr. Frank. Praise, a Nigerian Pastor
resident in the United States of America, and moderated by
Madam Eyong Beatrice, an animator with BUCSONET and Delegate
for Women With a Vision, a CIG in Buea. Participants were
from a cross section of society, particularly school leavers
from the University of Buea, and other institutions in and
around Buea.
In his
opening speech the chairperson talked about volunteering as
a desirable attitude expected from everyone. God, he said,
has put in man something that always enables him to be kind.
Volunteering he said was like saying "yes" I want
to be involved and responsible in another man's life. In trying
to develop people, you develop yourself. Rev. Frank Praise
gave his own life testimony of how through voluntary jobs,
he now feels very proud today. " I am now highly rewarded,'
he said.
Paper
Presentations
Four presentations
were done in the course of the conference. The first was by
Mr. Anu Folefac Vincent of Nkong Hill Top CIG. His paper was
on volunteerism and its benefits. Starting with an open question,
"Why focus on Volunteering? he moved on to answer the
question. Volunteering, he said, plays a significant part
in the welfare and progress of both industrialized and the
developing countries, and is the basis of much of the activities
of NGOs. His presentation was done using a chart. The next
question he posed was, "What is Volunteering? In summary
he said this was giving yourself to the needy. Thus it requires
a personal decision.
He mentioned that opinions from volunteers say that volunteering
is not primarily for financial reward. He did not however
accept that volunteering was solely for benevolence without
reward. "A volunteer needs at least to eat.' about the
definition of volunteerism, he said there was no standard
one, but that it reflected various communities. He moved on
to mention the different types of volunteering as defined
by a UN experts group in 1999:
- Mutual
aid or self-help.
- Philanthropy or service to others
- Participation (This allows citizens to contribute in governance.
It mostly involves people who believe in a cause).
- Advocacy or campaigning, an example was the international
campaign against land mines.
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Honoured
Volunteers in Group Picture (Poster produced for the
week by EKAS Arts CIG)
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Benefits
Of Volunteering
Giving
statistics Mr. Anu said if you calculate all voluntary contributions,
it would be 8-14% of the Gross Domestic Product (G.D.P) of
a nation. Still on the benefits, the following were listed.
- Promotes
good governance through civic engagements
- Helps to integrate into society excluded or marginalized
groups.
- Helps to integrate people considered useless
- Helps to promote full employment
- Boosts self-confidence for job seekers
- Leads to creation of new jobs
- Provides access to workplace networks
- Provides opportunity to develop specific marketable skills
However,
for volunteering to be sustained, it needs much support. That
it is our duty to enable this support to come. To have this,
he said there was need for the following:
- An effective support infrastructure through formal volunteer
structures
- Government support
- Private sector support.
The Chairperson
of the conference raised an important question: "Why
do we think volunteers do not often have support for their
activities in our society?
Participants gave a number of answers.
- First,
that our society has still not yet regarded volunteerism
as having a place.
- People are still ignorant about what it is all about
- There is also the issue of trust. Goodwill establishments
tend to mistrust some activities of volunteers, so the volunteers
should work hard to establish trust in everyone.
About
ignorance, participants suggested that mass sensitization
campaigns be carried out through the radio, T.V, publications
and conferences to create awareness about the need to volunteer.
BUCSONET was called open to soldeir this responsibility.
Mr. Ngi
Benjamen of the Catholic Library Molyko on his part led participants
to enumerate the numerous obstacles to volunteering.
- Unemployment
- loss of traditional values of good will
- Lack of organizational structures
- Inadequate skills by volunteers
- Fear of challenge in some institutions
- Religious differences and suspicion
- Ignorance.
The participants called on BUCSONET to fix a date to discuss
possible solutions to all of these.
The
Greatest Volunteer
Madam Winifred, a representative of the Christian Communication
Network in Molyko, declared to the attentive participants
that Jesus Christ, the son of God, was the greatest Volunteer.
She said if we emulated the activities of Jesus, we should
all long to be volunteers.
The United
Nations Volunteer Service (UNV)
Madam Eyong Beatrice of Women with a Vision made a much-awaited
presentation on the UNV highlighting what it does and how
to volunteer for the UN.
She informed the audience that forms to become a member could
be gotten from UN focal points, in the case of Cameroon, the
UNDP office in Yaounde.
Award
Of Certificates And Prizes
This was the last activity to commemorate the day and a very
lively and cheerful moment. During this time, BUCSONET together
with some well wishers awarded certificates of merit and prizes
to exemplary volunteers from different organisations for their
outstanding voluntary activities.
Among
those publicly recongised and appreciated were:
- Honourable
Justice Chief Ayah Paul Abine-he received three certificates
and a prize for the appreciable work he does in his orphanage-Saint
Valentine Orphanage in Buea Station
- Mrs Njogho Acha Alice of Muyuka, received an award for
her voluntary and tireless effort to make sure the government
stopped video clubs from projecting pornographic films.
- Madam Temeching Patricia of Shalom InfoTech, Buea, was
appreciated for devoting many years and much time to moral
up-bringing of kinds, the empowerment of women and other
good will voluntary activities.
- Mr. Zadock Mogri of HOTPECC, Mile 14 was nominated and
appreciated for the up-keep of orphans and disabled persons
at HOTPECC, Mile 14.
- Mr Nana Ibrahim of Great Soppo, Buea, had an award for
his endless fight to create awareness amongst the youth
about the disease-AIDS.
- Mr. Samuel Mofor received an award from the management
of Union Bank for always willingly giving some of his time
and knowledge to the service of the community, especially
in health campaigns.
Apart from these persons, the selfless voluntary services
of the Buea Red Cross Society carries out were also acclaimed.
The public was called upon to emulate these volunteer actions
which create a healthy society; open new doors and lead
to the development of our communities.
The
Outcome Of The Conference
A major
outcome of the conference was the opening of a Volunteer Register
at the office of Nkong Hill Top Common Initiative Group, situated
at Campaign street, Great Soppo, Buea. The Delegate of Nkong
CIG, Mr Anu Vincent Folefac, encouraged the youth and elders
who have valuable skills to render, to register themselves
under this service and state their areas of interest. The
register together with an information service will be open
to everyone and to institutions that need the services of
Volunteers.
"Volunteering
could be on easy means to acquire job experience, which
every employer demands from prospective job seekers,"
he cautioned a number of school leavers at the conference
in Molyko. The Molyko conference ended with a group photograph.
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