Mile 19 Community
3rd Leadership Retreat Follow-up Meeting
Tuesday July 29 to Friday August 1, 2008
Special Events
These are get involved events, running between 4.00 pm to 5.30 pm during the Leadership Retreat Follow-up Meeting. You are welcome to any or all of them. Details including speakers and animators will be added as they are confirmed. The events are:
- Organization and Project Cycle
- Religious/prayer Meetings
- Seeking Justice in the Community
- Home Economics Demonstrations
- Optional Tours
- Dance Workshops
- Sports
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Organization and Project Cycle
There are several types of, and approaches to, organization in our communities, towns and villages.
But much of the organization is not development project oriented or based at
scales that would generate wealth and impact poverty significantly. Also,
development project organization is not often perceived as systems of variables
interacting in cycles which, if properly understood and pursued, enable
recollection, increasing refinement of goals, activities and achievements.
Mr. Ngale
Victor will be exploring these issues at the Mile 19 Community Leadership
Retreat Follow-up Meeting; in three project cycle phases: (1) Community
organization around projects [Tuesday July 29]; (2) Moving from project
plan to practice [Wednesday July 30]; and (3) Evaluating and improving
project achievements [Thursday July 31]. Mr. Ngale is a Senior Civil
Engineering Technician whose experience in community development spans thirteen
years in various capacities and organizations. He is currently the Programme
Coordinator of SIRDEPRO, Sustainable Infrastructure for Rural Development
Project based in Kumba, Cameroon. His email contact is:
ngale2vic@yahoo.co.uk.
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Rev.
Pastor Elias Ngome will be running prayer meetings that may be of particular
interest to Presbyterian Christians attending the Mile 19 Community Leadership
Retreat Follow-up Meeting.
Mr. Nzalle Ernest Elah, Catechist of the Roman Catholic Church in Mile 19, will be organizing prayer/catechisms during the Retreat Follow-up Meeting as "a Minister of God called to preach the Word of Faith". There will be singing and daily readings.
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Seeking Justice in the Community
Existing Cameroon laws do not adequately take the changing circumstances of communities into account. Can communities come up with their own legal guidelines on issues and avoid wasting much money, time and other resources as they do now in central government legal processes? Can such guidelines facilitate or improve relations between (1) community members themselves and (2) community members and a third party? Could the guidelines secure general community interests against third parties and empower communities to advocate and defend their rights nationally and internationally so they are not lumped with investments that are not in their interest? PENS LAW FIRM in Kumba will be generating discussions on Land Use and Litigation, Family Law and Succession, and Criminal Law and the new Criminal Procedure Code. They aim to improve existing laws by helping communities such as Mile 19 come up with legal guidelines on the community burning issues.
Barrister
Pende Eddie Nelson will be leading the Seeking Justice in the Community Special Events at
the Mile 19 Community Leadership Retreat Follow-up Meeting. He is the founding
partner in PENS LAW FIRM and holds an LLB (Hons) degree from the University of
Buea, Cameroon, with a minor in management sciences. He is also the founder of
Rural Health Foundation, a health and human rights advocacy non-governmental
organization. Barrister Pende is currently involved in negotiations with the
government of Cameroon on behalf of about 3000 former employees of the National
Produce Marketing Board (NPMB) for the payment of their terminal benefits
following the liquidation of NPMB. His is particularly interested in the defense
of women's rights and the promotion of jurisprudence in communities. He can be
contacted at:
ruralhealth2000@yahoo.com.
Mr.
Njume Ivo Ekeme will be assisting Barrister Pende in the Seeking Justice in
the Community Special Event. He has been an associate at PENS LAW FIRM for the
past five years. He holds an LLB (Hons) degree from the University of Buea,
Cameroon, and a Diploma in Law from the University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria. Mr.
Njume also read journalism at the Institute of Mass Communication Technology, in
Jos, Nigeria. He looks forward to becoming a full fledged legal practitioner
with special interests in constitutional matters.
Mr.
Mulango Stephen Mulango will be serving as Secretary for the Seeking
Justice in the Community Special Event. He is an interne at PENS LAW FIRM, also
with an LLB (Hons) degree from the University of Buea, Cameroon. Mr. Mulango is
very much into family law and succession, and wants to become a legal
practitioner. He can be reached at
lawyerdikalo@yahoo.com.
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Come, meet Ms. Metuge Bridget Mesame at the Mile 19 Community
Leadership Retreat Follow-up Meeting, and learn to make Vim (cleaning powder) at
home, keep your kitchen clean/healthy, and cook mouth watering plantains and
bitter-leaves. Learn to use egg shell, powder soap,
wood
ash and fine sand to make cost-effective dirty pot and pan washing powder for
use in your home. Watch how Ms. Metuge stores food, prepares and cooks it, and
get advice on how to keep your kitchen environment and practices clean and
healthy. Join in the cooking and eating of delicious plantains and
bitter-leaves, using palm oil, dry fish, pepper, maggi, onion, salt, and other
spices.
Ms. Metuge was born in 1975 and is from Mile 19, Kupe-Muaneguba Division, in the South West Province of Cameroon. She teaches home economics in the Government Secondary School (GSS) Nkamlikum, Kumba. Her email address is brimetuge@yahoo.com.
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Mr. Ebonge Calvin Atabe will be organizing optional tours with
Mr.
Nguh Felix Akella. The tours will take interested participants to farms,
neighboring villages and towns including touristic sites such as hills/mountains
and water catchments. They will be taking-off at 4.15 pm from the Community
School signboard by the public highway to the various destinations and returning
by 5.30 pm. Explore our mixed farming systems and the different crops (cocoa,
plantains, bananas, cocoyams, cola nuts, coffee, pineapples, grapes, pears,
plums, pepper, oranges, etc.) that we grow in various combinations, live! Enjoy the
lush green of this season, the biodiversity on display, the many birds and other
wildlife in our farms and on the way to neighboring villages and towns.
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The different tribes residing in Mile 19 are preparing to show and teach you how they dance, and have been dancing to the sound of various instruments including their own vocal chords. Learn new songs and move to the rhythm of drums from long ago in Bakossi, Ngi, Orocko, etc.
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Mr. Akwe Kingsley Epie will be happy leading people in keep-fit exercise regimes during the Mile 19 Community Leadership Retreat Follow-up Meeting. The exercises would include jugging/running round the school field, stretch-up, pumping, sit-ups, sideways claps, hopping, leg swings, etc. Sessions will start at 4.30 pm on Tuesday (July 29), Wednesday (July 30) and Thursday (July 31). "Please join us and see if you can keep-up with our pace and/or follow your own. Come prepared to sweat!"