Abangoh Orphanage Visit
on The Road Less Travelled (Cameroon), 06/Sep/2010 08:55, 34 days ago
The Cameroonian AIDS/HIV Nutritional Health Care Foundation (CANHCF) is a non-profit association, aimed at reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS on the Cameroonian population by providing the essential nutrition and nutritional education to individuals infected with the disease. I became involved with this organization as a random act of knowing a friend of a friend of a friend. Before I left for Cameroon a friend of a friend had put me in touch with Zepporah, a Cameroonian living and working in Ottawa. She gave me some information about Cameroon before I left. When I moved to Bamenda we got back in touch because Zepporah is part of CANHCF and they were trying to get a project organized with an orphanage in the north west province. Luckily one of my colleagues was able to pass on some contact information for the Good Sheppard Home (GSH) Orphanage in Abangoh. Zepporah with the help of the other CANHCF members raised money to provide a year’s supply of rice, milk and oil to the orphanage. Because the members of CANHCF are in Canada, Zepporah asked me to help with the purchasing and delivery of the food items. So this weekend I delivered three 50kg bags of rice, two 20 litre cans of oil and one 25kg bag of milk to the GSH orphanage to supply them for the next 6 months.The kids checking out the food we brought when we unloaded the car.Sister Jane and some orphans standing by the food.One of my friends from tennis, Victor, who has a car offered to help me pick up and transport the food items. When we arrived at the orphanage a bunch of children came to greet us and went to fetch Sister Jane, the manager of the orphanage. Everyone was extremely happy to see us and thankful for the food we brought. All the children wanted to shake my hand and say thank you and many of the smaller children just hugged my legs. It was a very heartwarming experience. Sister Jane gave us a tour of the orphanage and showed us the main building where there are dormitories for the girls and boys, a kitchen, a mess hall and some other accommodation rooms for visiting volunteers. We met a lot of the children, there are 75 currently at this orphanage, although there is a second orphanage in Batibo (an hour away) where there are another 30 children. The orphanage has beds for 80 children but can accommodate more since the babies sleep with older children and they have old dormitories that they could also use. Two years ago American churches provided them with funds to build a new building which was lovely and is quite nice for the children.The Orphanage's main building.I will be going back in six months with another food delivery. I ask any of you would want to donate to a worthwhile cause to consider CANHCF. Although it was a very nice experience to bring some joy to some children’s lives today, it is heartbreaking that children are abandoned there (it is common here for parents to abandon disabled or epileptic children) or are orphaned because their parents die of HIV/AIDS. Some of the children were sick and Sister Jane does her best with her limited income from the poultry farm, but I am sure any donations would certainly make a difference to their lives. We met one little baby who was very sick, who had been left at the orphanage in the middle of one night by her family because it is likely they couldn’t afford to care for her and she is slightly disabled. Hereis the CANHCF website:http://www.canhcf.org/Sister Jane with twin orphans who were brought there when they were 3 days old.I would ask anyone who was going to send me anything at Christmas to instead donate to CANHCF as the children at Abangoh really deserve your thoughts and kindness more than me.One of the workers laughing with a baby.