By SAH TERENCE ANIMBOM
At a time when the entire humanitarian corps put together can only respond to 20% of the entire humanitarian needs of the war affected populations of the North West and South West regions of the republic of Cameroon, the need to build the capacity of humanitarian actors in emergency humanitarian interventions is dire. Aid has often reached the wrong people in the ongoing humanitarian aid distribution in the North West. Sometimes, the intervention is poorly managed. It is on this backdrop that Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Foundation, a Cameroon born N.G.O, that now operates internationally with branches in Ghana, Switzerland, Kenya and soon to go operational in Nigeria and other countries around the world brought together 100 religious men and women from many religious establishments including Muslims to build their capacity in humanitarian intervention and coordination.
In a two days workshop sponsored by UNICEF through LUKMEF, participants were drilled on the core humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality, with a special input of the principle of ‘Do no harm’ as well as the core humanitarian standards (CHS) that describes the essential elements of principled, accountable and high-quality humanitarian action. Other areas of particular impact were child protection respond services, Gender Based Violence, and UNICEF’s specific intervention. Participants were made to understand the notion of GBV, and to know the available response services for GBV as well as for child protection response services and the child protection referral pathway for the North West.
There was also a focus on safe-guarding Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC) in times of crisis like in the North West region, where many children have lost their parents and homes to the ongoing war. The presenter of the module, Tanyi Christian stressed that such children must first of all be treated as humans before being given help and that communities or individuals hosting such children must take absolute care of them as they are usually at the most vulnerable stages of their lives which can lead to extreme radicalisation or depression if they are not well handled.
To Tanyi Christian, CEO of LUKMEF, the choice of religious leaders for the training is justified by the fact that they are usually the last persons to leave a war zone. “In a community that is broken or highly affected to the extremes, it is very likely that the one man you will still find there will be the religious persons”, Tanyi opined, saying “LUKMEF cannot do it all alone, therefore the need to properly integrate them into the humanitarian response process.”
According to Pastor Innocent, the neutrality and non political leanings of religious leaders sometimes make them free minded and have nothing pushing them away. “It is for this reason that we think we can capitalise on our presence and efforts towards assisting the needy to build our capacities so that we can better deliver” Pastor Innocent said.
Community humanitarian assistance in the North West especially in the far-off divisions away from Mezam remains a big challenge.
