Volunteer Experiences
Author: Merit Hietanen
Placement: 2 months at placement 0149
Period: August - September 2007
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I
volunteered for only two months in August and September 2007. Although I feel
this is a very limited time period, I think I have been able to do many things,
which will not only affect me as a person, but also many Cameroonians and even
more people at home in Finland, where I am from.
My work for the project has
been very dispersed and in the beginning I felt my task was something my
expertise did not cover. I am a human rights and politics student and I was
supposed to help with acquiring funding for the micro-credit scheme and various
other projects. While I have no trouble
trying to find funding, I was unable to make applications, which require
financial statements and excel tables that are completely out of my field. I recommend for you to
ask what you will be doing during your stay and perhaps there are
some things that you can prepare already at
home.
Key to the stay is communication. Always discuss openly any
problems and matters you have, preferably with Evelyn, the president of the
project, and they will be solved. You are going to stay in a completely
different culture, especially if you are from anywhere but Africa and remember
that people in Cameroon might not recognize if you have a problem with something
unless you come out and explain it.
I then proposed that I would develop
the child sponsorship project in the Unique School in Batoke. I was able to get
some 50 new sponsors from Finland and other places in the world and I feel it
has been just as important for the children as many Finns, who have been deeply
interested in the culture
and the life of the children they are sponsoring.
In case the project continues well after I leave I think it can develop to a
meaningful project that allows cultural exchange as well as the possibility of
education for various students.
I also started developing Mbonweh a
new website in order to find more easily funding in the future as well as
provide sponsors and volunteers with better information since the project is in need of
volunteers.
I think one of the most important things of the stay is
cultural exchange. Learning about Cameroon and telling people how things are
done where I am from. You learn from each other. Especially my
weekly emails to a
huge number of people at home have expanded knowledge from Cameroon and certainly
made many people think of ways to help a developing country. I also work
as a freelancer and will write articles and make radio for the Finnish Broadcasting
Company about the Cameroonian women and think this advertisement might
be very valuable not only to the project, but also
Cameroon as a country. Also just the fact of going
to a micro credit meeting as a "white man" and
giving the time to interview women and give them your support is a motivating
tool that they value highly. To me it has been an invaluable
experience.
As a volunteer you do not need to worry about security. You
are well taken care of, to an extent that sometimes it becomes too much to a
person who likes a little adventure. I would say that Cameroon is quite safe and
where we are staying, I have not felt unsafe walking the streets even in the
evening. But it is good to be cautious; we for example had a burglary in the
house in the evening and lost most of our valuables. So lock your doors, is my
suggestion and will certainly be Evelyn's as well after this
incident.
The nature here is incredible,
probably most incredible in the world. Cameroon is a miniature Africa with its
rainforests and savannas, its anglophone and francophone provinces. So give some
time to see it in its entire splendor, which will of course be easier if you are
staying longer than I am and choose another time of year than the rainy season.
More time will
also make you
less annoyed about the ineffective ways of going about the
day.
Volunteering here will
allow you to meet so many interesting and sweet people, will allow you to be
innovative and creative and have responsibility in helping many people. I am not
expecting two months to change the world, but I am sure that it was meaningful,
although before I left I thought it would be better just to send the money
rather than to spend it on a flight ticket. The water might be cold and the
cockroaches might be disgusting, but that is just part of all the fun.