In our village the
stable food is corn fufu made from corn which is eaten with huckle berry
or other vegetables and we could eat this for the 5 of the 7 days of
the week. My father, though illiterate, made sure that all of us completed
elementary primary school that is done here in Cameroon for a period
of seven years. With his limited means, he could only afford to sponsor
myself and my elder brother above the primary school level. We are now
charged with the heavy duty of taking care of the children left behind
by my late father.
I have to mention here this unique characteristic peculiar in our family
which is that of stammering. Of the 21 of us, 17 are stammerers and
paradoxically neither my father nor any of his wives stammer. In my
parental family tree spanning for four generations, there are more than
100 individuals of which 42 are stammerers. A human geneticist interested
in studying the genetics of stammering from the National Institute of
Health in the US has shown an interest to study our family. He has made
two visits to Cameroon in the year 2002 and collected blood and speech
samples from the 42 members of my family. He is presently studying the
said samples in his laboratory in the US. An article about this study
was recently published in the website of the STUTTERING
FOUNDATION OF AMERICA SFA. Also a paper has been presented about
stammering in our family by myself at the recent symposium on stammering
on the Internet.
Schooling for myself as well as my relations has always been a nightmare.
We grew up in a society that is very insensitive to the plights of those
with disabilities, including stammering. In school we were often looked
upon as outcasts and were often an object of ridicule, teasing, bullying,
name calling and other unacceptable behaviours by our school mates and
even some teachers. I remember how often I use to fight or cry when
teased or bullied by these persons.
In 1986, one incident occurred in my family that I will never forget
up till today. One of my cousins who had a fiancee who wanted to marry
her was refused marriage by the parents of the boy on the pretext that
my cousin, since she was a stammerer and since stammering seems to be
hereditary in our family, was going to transmit the 'stammering virus'
to the progeny. This demoralised her and she wanted to commit suicide.
That pushed us to try to create a self help structure to sensitise people
about stammering.
This is how the SPEAK
CLEAR ASSOCIATION OF CAMEROON SCAC came into being. This is a self
help non profit making charity recognised by the competent government
services in Cameroon to group stammering persons. I have to point out
here that the situation of stammering persons in Cameroon is very difficult
due to the absence of speech professionals to take care of them. In
the absence of these persons, many stammerers resort to the available
traditional, crude and at times very unpleasant methods of cure. Due
to the good work that SCAC, whose activities I co-ordinate, has done
in Cameroon, it has been admitted as a member of the INTERNATIONAL STAMMERING
ASSOCIATION ISA and the second country from Africa to be a member of
this Association. Since February 2002, I have been admitted as a full
member of the INTERNATIONAL FLUENCY ASSOCIATION IFA. More information
about SCAC can be got from our website at www.stuttertisa.org/cameroon.
Further information about stuttering can also be obtained at http://www.stutteringhomepage.com.
How FIOH has
helped us
It is thanks
to FIOH's UK Chairman that we contacted his daughter, Clare, a speech
therapist from the West Swindon Health Centre who is visiting us as
from the 19th October to the 3rd of November 2002 to see how she can
help us with her speech therapy knowledge so as to fill the vacuum that
exists here due to the absence of modern speech therapy for stammerers.
Not withstanding the difficulties that I faced in school I was able
to go through the Secondary School and had my GCE O level in 1982, the
GCE A level in 1984 and a Bachelors degree in Law from the University
of Yaounde in 1987.
Being of the marginalised and less privileged class, it was always my
dream to work for people who are marginalised. That dream was realised
when in 1995, I applied and got my membership into a local NGO here
called STRATEGIC HUMANITARIAN SERVICES
(SHUMAS) which is partner of FIOH.
Later, I was appointed Zonal Co-ordinator of this association in two
strategic provinces of Cameroon, ie the Littoral and the South West
Provinces.
As Co-ordinator of SHUMAS in this area I have supervised SHUMAS projects
in these regions aimed at fighting against poverty amongst the youths
and women groups and supervised activities aimed at conserving and protecting
the ecosystem of the Tropical Evergreen forest.
