Handicrafts and Appropriate Technology

Aaron Kaah Y

Some 70 kids in Bamenda have learned new ways of keeping the environment clean by recycling news paper waste in to shopping bags. The idea at the behest of the Centre for Appropriate Technology was facilitated by some three German Volunteers from the German Society for the Advancement of Culture (DGFK)- represented by Renate Perner and the Senior Expert Service SES-Germany represented by Prof. Norbert Pintsch and Marlis Bartkiewitz Schmid.

Opening the one week training workshop at the CAT head office in Bamendaon Feb. 13 -2014 the volunteers team leader Prof. Norbert Pintsch said the project was aimed at enabling children and kids to understand that they had a responsibility of keeping the environment clean at a tender age. The professor attributed the task of serving the environment to a global fight which needed all hands on deck. He said kids by their nature learned through practical observations reason why they thought it wise to bring this income training to Cameroon children. Apart from helping to keep the environment clean he said the project was going to enable kids source income for some of their needs and make them self reliant. In response to the new ideas the CAT Country director Njini Victor thanked the three volunteers for keeping Cameroon at heart and for helping to build the capacities of their kids clubs on important capital issues like climate change and environmental protection. Mr Victor said such trainings and project were helping to put CAT and children in the global map as main actors in the fight against polluted environment.

The kids drawn from within some ten CAT school clubs in the city of Bamenda enjoyed themselves during the training sessions as they overwhelmingly saw how news paper waste could be transformed in to shopping bags for an income. The children through practical demonstrations were taught why polythene papers were a nuisance to society and its disadvantages. Lecturing on the children the prof. -emphasised that because of it non degradable nature, polythene bags were a great danger to nature. He cited its impacts to pollution and some health hazards. The kids were told to inculcate the habits of proper waste disposal and to make good use of their waste news papers. In response to the training and mentoring the kids produced over 100 shopping bags which according to the Director of CAT were affordable and low cost. During the end of the workshop the kids excitedly took home their bags as souvenirs from the trainings. The bags cost in between 10-25 FCFA and can be use to carry books to shops and for local shopping. At the end of the workshop the kids were awarded certificates of merit and training as a sign of encouragement and motivation to the task of keeping the environment clean.

This year’s program for the CAT volunteers also witnessed an open door tombola and high animation with the kids. Reacting to the trappings of the Kids Mme Mbunwe Clarisse a parents for one of the kids who was fortunate to be at the Bazaar thanked the CAT and the Volunteers for being at the forefront of keeping children busy with new ideas in an era which called for self reliance development at all levels. Mme Clarisse appealed to the volunteers to make it back to Cameroon if they could next year for another remarkable and fruitful training.