A Cameroon Adventure: Corruption in NGOs

We spent the last week visiting different NGOs that work in and around Yaounde to better understand what development looks like on the ground right now. The first was LAGA, Ofir’s NGO discussed in the last blog post. Keeping everything he said in mind we went to our next one, UNICS, which ended up being more like an enterprise with a strong social responsibility sector. They are a microfinance organization that concentrates primarily on aiding women as they are traditionally barred from getting financial education or assistance. They have the leeway to help women that are somewhat of a risky investment by giving them a sum of money so they can modernize their activities a bit and eventually repay the loan with interest. They have very high return rates but they do not help women that are not already working, so definitely a city NGO and not a grassroots one. Next we went to ANICHRA (African Network Against Illiteracy, Conflicts and Human Rights Abuses) which you can tell even by the name is a very confused and disorganized NGO. Its leader has received 4 awards/grants from the United States that he has proceeded to waste by putting his hands in about 40 different projects, none of which can be fully funded. Just to cite a couple examples, they have a water project, help disabled individuals, buy books for schoolchildren, hold peace studies classes, hold public lectures, run a research office, oh and they gave an old man cataract surgery. Individuals, each of these projects is important and worth pursuing, however, tackled together you are left with an underfunded, wasteful and confused NGO. Everything the Ofir told us about corruption and ineffectiveness was ringing in my head during this entire meeting. We then went to CED (Center for Environmental Development) that worked to help move an enormous pipe pumping oil from Chad through Cameroon to the ocean so that it would avoid indigenous people. And finally Rolufa, that has a ton of cool projects. For instance, the American company Dole has expanded its plantation in Cameroon, displacing hundreds of farmers without compensating them whatsoever. So Rolufa came in to help them work with the land to which they had access to grow fruit, dry it and sell it. We had some while we were there and it was incredible. The project was two fold, help these farmers make ends meet, and raise awareness about their situation by the description on the back of the packages. It was completely successful and Dole offered compensation if they will just stop circulating these packages. It was an interesting week of development discussions, but though there were some impressive ones, overall it made me feel pretty hopeless about the NGO situation here in Cameroon because of the pervasive corruption in all of them (except Ofir’s of course.)

In addition to these visits we had a cultural exchange day when 10 Cameroonian students came to watch a movie about the difficultly of life for young people here and the decision to stay and try to change the country, or leave. We cook about 30 grilled cheeses and made chili for the event so they could have a taste of American food. It was a fun day talking about just how hard life is for people here, actually very easy to forget because we are living with middle/upper class families. We also went to a local restaurant to watch a big soccer game in which Cameroon was trying (unsuccessfully) to qualify for the Southern African Cup. It was too dangerous to go to the stadium because it was such an important game, and we even had to leave the restaurant early because they were losing and post game activities can become quite violent. Finally, we cooked breakfast in French class one day for the group and it was sooo delicious. Good old-fashioned French Toast and scrambled eggs. Overall it was a great two weeks in Yaoundé, now we are off to Kribi and the beach for the weekend to learn about the lives of Pygmies who are extremely marginalized here. And to swim in the ocean!!! First time I will swim since being here can’t wait!