Dragos Costache and Vilcan Dan, two aspiring graduate political science students spent one month in Cameroon during which they researched into the plight of the Baka pygmies, a minority group in the country. One day after their arrival, they were in for a rough ride to a no-light, no-water and mosquito-infested locality known as Mindourou.
Mindourou, a village about 200km from Bertoua, headquarter of the East Region of Cameroon is noted for the presence of logging companies whose activity in the equatorial rainforest directly affect the lifestyle of the pygmies. It is also a locality in which the Bantus and the Baka pygmies have a long history of cohabitation.
Our volunteers set off with meetings with local administrators in order to see if special considerations were given the pygmies as required by their status as a minority group. These interviews and talks were followed by strenuous trips on foot to different pygmy camps where, with the help of an interpreter, our two volunteers learnt what the pygmies themselves thought of the whole situation.
Talks were also held with the authorities of some logging companies as well as NGOs or CSOs running pygmy-oriented projects such as "Organisation d'Appui aux Initiatives de Developpement et Environment" and “Projet Enfants Baka” in Mbengbis. After two weeks in Mindourou, Dragos and Dan then moved to Douala where they chipped their might in helping a local NGO COFEPRE (Collectif des Femmes pour la Protection de l'Environnement et de l'Enfant) in their ICT sensitization campaign amongst women. After a week as ICT instructors, the ever-willing and cheerful volunteers then worked for the MANRANTHA ORPHANAGE where they took care kids as young as 1 and as old as 18. A gift they so thoughtfully left behind on the day of their departure from Cameroon was heartily appreciated by the poor little orphans and it will for sure, continue to light up their faces for a long period of time.
