By Tata Mbunwe
A young man based in Tiko, Bawak Eugene, has extended a helping hand to children at Sonne Camp of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) in Tiko, South West region, donating school materials to support their return to school amid financial hardship faced by workers of the Cameroon Development Corporation.
Bawak, who carried out the back-to-school visit alongside his brother, said the gesture was inspired by the struggles he witnessed firsthand in the community.
Many parents, he said, are finding it increasingly hard to afford basic school needs for their children.
“What I saw there really touched me,” he told MMI News Monday, September 21.
“Many parents are struggling to afford basic school needs for their children, and some families are forced to choose between putting food on the table and sending their children to school properly equipped.”
The Sonne Camp is one of numerous camps hosting workers of the CDC and their families. Situated along the Tiko-Douala road, the camp has no electricity, running water or a school. Dozens of children living there have to be transported on motorbikes daily to Tiko to attend school.
The lack of social amenities has compounded life for residents, and this is worsened by the lack of regular remuneration for plantation workers.
CDC, which has been bankrupted by repeated Separatist attacks on workers and the corporation’s estates, has been unable to pay workers for several months across its numerous rubber, banana and oil palm estates.
The situation is particularly dire for labourers at the Sonne Camp, many of whom have been forced to choose between putting food on the table and properly equipping their children for school.
“The difficulties are enormous because firstly our husbands work at the CDC rubber estate and they are not being paid. Right now we are in a serious crisis. Only God can see us through this back-to-school,” said Ambe Mercy, a mother whose husband works and lives at the Sonne Camp.
“We are having a very tough time. They haven’t been paid for several months, yet they continued working. It’s not easy to even have food on the table, talk less about back-to-school.”
The constraints faced by residents of Sonne Camp are a snippet of the challenges faced by hundreds of thousands of families impacted by the ongoing armed conflict in the Anglophone regions.
The armed conflict, which started as an industrial strike by English-speaking lawyers and teachers in Cameroon, has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, destabilising sources of income for many parents.
The CDC, a once vibrant company that had the second highest number of employees after the state of Cameroon, was brought to its knees and ordinary workers are the once paying the price.
However, thoughtful actions like that of Bawak Eugene are bringing hope to families across the English-speaking region. Although his contribution may not be enough to solve the Sonne Camp’s many problems, it brought hope to young learners and their parents and reminded them that they have not been forgotten.
His experience with the families at Sonne Camp, he said, showed him that they need greater support.
He appealed for more people to step forward and assist children whose education hangs in the balance due to circumstances that they can’t control.