MONEY IN EXCHANGE OF NON BIODEGRADABLE PLASTIC PACKAGING IN WUM MUNICIPALITY.

Wum council has just embark on a new initiative so as to financially empower inhabitants who are ready to keep the municipality clean. The Wum council entails to give money to people in exchange for collecting discarded plastic bags. In April 2014, a government ban on non-biodegradable plastic bags below 61 microns had come into effect. The intention was to reduce the millions of bags being used every day, which were clogging up waterways, creating an environmental hazard for animals and humans, and damaging soil fertility.

But many businesses complained that they had no alternative and a black market for the bags flourished. Despite the ban, plastic waste remained a problem. Wum council hopes that, the recent move could encourage people to clear it up by offering FCFA 4,000 for every kilogram of dirty plastic collected, and FCFA 2,000 for every kilogram of clean plastic collected.

 However, the plastic collecting initiative is more than just an environmental strategy. With unemployment high – and with jobs being lost since the ban on plastic bags – the initiative is also aimed at providing young people with a way to gain an income.

While the initiative might provide a small temporary income for some unemployed inhabitants of the Wum municipality, it cannot work out for everyone, and critics insist that it is not a sustainable and lasting solution to the Wum municipality’s high unemployment rate.

BIHAPH GRADUATES PIONEER FASHION DESIGNER

The Bihndumlem Humanitarian Association of Hope and Peace that was created to bridge the gap between the privileged and the less privileged of our society, recently sent forth the pioneer beneficiary of the association’s entrepreneurial empowerment scheme for teenage mothers.

Chumbi Ernestine Nsen, benefited from a two year training in fashion designing. The official graduation ceremony took place at BIHAPH’s Head Quarters in Wum.

Filled with joy, the graduate, Chumbi Ernestine Nsen expressed thanks to The Bihndumlem Humanitarian Association of Hope and Peace for this golden opportunity, and called on other teenage mothers to emulate her example rather than thinking that all is lost.

Chumbi Ernestine Nsen

The Chief Executive Officer, C.E.O of BIHAPH, Mrs. Dighambong Bibiana, presented some start up materials made up of threads, loins and a sewing machine to the graduate, as a sign of BIHAPH’s support.

C.E.O Dighambong Bibian, presenting BIHAPH's gift to the graduate

It should be recalled that BIHAPH is bent at creating a livable society for all, through the empowerment of the young girls, and putting a smile on the face of the less privileged of our society.

Pentecostal churches: God’s worshipers or money launderers?

By Peterkins Manyong, guest writer and publisher of The Independent Observer.
This article was first published in the Guardian Post Newspaper, online edition.

“The Living Church”. That is what a Pentecostal Christian styles his or her church. Their style of worship is characterized by fiery sermons, songs, dancing, theatrics worship, deliverance and healing by which they claim demons are cast and sent out to the abyss .The more the miracles performed or said to have been performed ,the more holy ghost-inspired a Pentecostal church purports to be .
Pentecostal churches are also known as “prosperity” churches because they preach against poverty and profess that true children of God cannot be poor because their father in Heaven has everything. Proprietors of these churches cite Abraham, Job and especially King Solomon who asked God for wisdom and the Almighty God added riches to it.
Given that the mood of preaching is very much the same with every Pentecostal claiming to have let Christ take full control of his or her own life, the logical thing to have done would have been that all these churches conglomerate into one large denomination. But what do we see? Worship houses dotted here and there some with not up to ten worshippers on a Sunday morning. The alms collected for a month can’t pay the rents of the building or apartment housing it; talk less of feeding the pastor and his family. What then should be the motive for setting up such a church?
What is not visible to the common eye is that the proprietors whom are usually very rich people rather spoil their Christians with financial gifts and give scholarships to the children of their pastors or even Christians. This means that the proprietors of these churches rather spend on their Christians.
This leads us to the crux of the matter. The proprietors of these churches are actually owners of wealth they can’t justify their origins. Sources say most of these Pentecostal churches have behind their creation senior civil servants who pilfer government funds thanks to their lucrative positions. Since it is risky to stash such funds in a room or put them in bank accounts, some of the hidden hands behind the setting up of prosperity churches find it safer to open an account in the name of the church. Such funds are not taxed and their owners if questioned would claim that they came through donations by devoted Christians of the church.
In the case of top government functionaries who own churches, there are people whose wealth is not commensurate to the salaries they earn. Some acquire their fortune through payments to fictitious companies they own from the budget they control or through the 30% syndrome. Stories are told of how those who controlled government budget lent out government money on exorbitant interest rates to companies and individuals on the eve of devaluation.
Some of them took huge sums abroad and brought them back after the devaluation with the amounts doubled. Knowing that government can access these accounts, the only account where the money can be safe is the account of the church. Some of these white collar bandits who pass for church overseers are already on retirement, but they continue to invest but claiming that the institutions that they put in place, amongst them banks, schools and churches are church property. This is cleverly done to escape the praying eyes of CONAC and other anti-corruption outfits.
Exceptions to the rule
It should be said in all fairness that not all proprietors of churches are money launderers. Although many possess funds they can’t account for, these sums are genuinely from church members. To persuade their faithful to cough out the money, they organize the healing and deliverance services mentioned above where they claim to have delivered their victims or their children from demonic attacks.
Some of these churches hold their ‘services’ during impressively-attended funerals or market days and later send well crafted pictures to funders claiming that the population in the pictures are their Christians with no place of worship. There is the case of a church which took pictures of student-teachers and parents outside a Bamenda-based college chapel and sent claiming that they were stranded congregational members.
The vehemence with which many Pentecostal churches resisted closure by MINAT/D speaks volumes about them. Many of them are actually family holdings with the overseer being the father and the assistant his wife as in the case of Pastor Chris and his divorced wife, Anita. Some of them, after closure decided to merge with or use the license of other Pentecostal churches to operate. Some cursed the DOs who closed the churches and prophesized damnation for the security forces that executed the orders. Francis Poss, DO of Ndop told this analyst that some Pentecostal pastors whose churches he closed said he was a confirmed candidate for hell and he replied that they were those false prophets Christ said would emerge during end times prophesying and acting in his name.
If the Biya regime is really out to fight corruption, CONAC should not spare Pentecostal churches whose, overseers practice money laundering under the guise of preaching the gospel.

 

WUM COUNCIL REHABILITATES MUNICIPAL ROADS AS A MEANS OF FOSTERING DEVELOPMENT

Wanagwen overside

“Where a road passes, development follows”, is a maxim Cameroonian politicians have over laboured into a cliché. It shows the importance of roads, be they farm-to-market paths, paved or just earth roads. All need maintenance to be relevant in the New Deal’s race to have Cameroon “emerge” out of “under development” in the magic year of 2035. this maxim, the Mayor of Wum Council understood it well reason why some streets within the municipality, were recently graded in order to make them motorable so as to facilitate movement of goods and people.

Building, maintaining and upgrading roads are important to the economic development of the municipality which is why the Mayor of Wum Council, Dighambong Anthony, always lays emphasis on road construction and maintenance.

 For the past weeks, the municipality has been a bee hive as graders, compactors, front head loaders, water tankers,trucks and other heavy duty equipment, were seen, rehabilitating major roads within the municipality, this to the satisfaction of the population who always came out in their numbers, to say "THANK YOU Lord Mayor". These realizations have been made possible thanks to your collective and individual prayers without which, we would not achieved much. To that, Wum council says, may God richly bless all of you for making our municipality, the Land of Great Hospitality.

BIHAPH PROMOTES SANITATION AND DIGNITY OF GIRLS BY GIVING THEM SANITARY PADS

Mrs Dighambong Bibiana C.E.O BIHAPH Wum

Today more than 75 per cent of people affected by humanitarian crisis are women and children. And adolescents aged 10-19 years constitute a significant proportion of the population in many conflict and post-conflict settings. In response to today’s humanitarian challenges, BIHNDUMLEM HUMANITARIAN ASSOCIATION FOR PEACE AND HOPE BIHAPH continues to provide life-saving services to prevent and respond to gender-based violence and provide information, services and supplies for sexual and reproductive health.

Our focus goes beyond meeting immediate needs to reducing risk, building peace, strengthening resilience and supporting long-term development.
By investing in women, girls and young people we will accelerate progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, strengthen prospects for peace and security, and transform humanitarian action. Promoting sanitation and dignity of girls via provisions of pad and educating them on the nolmacy of menstruation. Menstruation is no longer a taboo it is normal and girls should be schooled on this. Heart to heart and soul to soul for a better respond to the needs and plight of humanity and our world.Networking connects people with a common purpose- serving humanity

AT LAST A BOUNCY BABY IS BORN INTO THE MENCHUM FAMILY

SDO Kamga Charles and Mayor Dighambong Anthony making use of the newly installed Wum Community Radio

After nine months of gestation, nine months of desperately waiting, the anxiety of waiting finally boiled down to the enthusiasm of having at last a veritable communication tool in the hands of the entire Division. No doubt the adage, he who laughs last laughs best. The oldest Division in the Region now has a Radio. The Wum Community Radio, broadcasting on Frequency Modulation 99.9 MHz, has come to stay. The coming of this radio marks the beginning of a new era in the development vision of Wum Council, since communication is an unavoidable tool in the process of development.
Ndefru Melanie, Ewi James Reagan, Ghong Carine Ndum, Aji Camilus and Elvis Penn, will have to write a new history for this Division as a whole, and Wum municipality in particular, as they shall have the daunting task of informing, entertaining and educating the listeners.
The birth of this radio, is a plus since communication is a cornerstone in the development process. The idea of communication in participatory development, draws attention to the emphasis on two-way communication processes, and a departure from one-way communication approach that involve disseminating messages, transmitting information, or persuading people to change their behavior. Participatory development communication, gives preference to horizontal approaches that involve encouraging dialogue centered on problem analysis and a search for solutions, as well as bottom-up approaches that aim to raise the awareness of decision-makers. These approaches are based on a process of community communication reasons why the Wum community radio, has been created to complement our dialogue process.

Mayor Dighambong AnthonyMvo at the Cabin

The relevance of communication to the development of our municipality is an established pattern in development studies. It is borne out of the realization that development is human-centered and thus requires communication for its full realization. Communication is the key to human development and the thread that binds people together. Therefore, development efforts cannot be successful without planned communication because its flow determines the direction and pace of dynamic social development. This is the obvious reason why the National Community Driven Development Program, PNDP, stood by Wum Council, to make sure that a communication tool is given to this old division in order to foster its development.

PNDP cautioning radio staff to make good use of the equipment supplied.

 This write up has just provided an overview of what the council and her development partners have been doing in terms of planned development within the municipality. It is hoped that you will find it very useful. Wishing you the very best in your reading.

COMING SOON....

TO BE RELEASED SOON.