Our impact.
Our approach to this Pilot Phase I of Project Energy For Life Cameroon is that of ‘discovery’. We have the benefit of being able to work with Fon Ngum IV himself, the Oku Committee on behalf of the recipients as well as our advisory board to learn from the community.
Our goal is to get insights into the best way to improve the socio-economic, education, health and welfare of the people in Elak Oku. The boxes help us to identify current conditions and challenges, and of course, show us the day-to-day impact of Bronco’s distributed solar power and Unite for Health’s medical kit on people’s lives.
Discovery will help us identify the baseline indicators in order to measure the Project’s Phase II impact to achieve our goals.
“We can read joy from their faces. They are very happy. I have not noticed any family with negative impact.”
Who received a Project Energy for Life Cameroon box?
Glory Ting and her family
Glory Ting is divorced and lives with her six children and two grandchildren in their old family house. She feeds her family by subsistence farming, and sometimes she also labors on other people’s farms when her own work is done. It’s a common practice in the village to labor on a neighbor’s farm for a daily stipend, especially during tilling, weeding and harvest seasons.
After her box arrived, she told us, “my first night was good. We had lights and the children could read their books and see their letters fine. I and my neighbors, we enjoyed the way we see the box and the solar. We charge our phones fine and we didn’t have to beg from other people.”
“There are periods when I can’t afford kerosene for my bush lamp for the children to read their books.”
Glory Ting (holding the baby) with her family and a happy neighbor, Mama Charity (in the colorful dress).
“I feel very happy because when something comes like this one, it’s not just for one person but for everyone around them.”
Maxceline Kuyang and her Family
Maxceline is a single parent with four children who lives in the family compound with her father, Fai Nkah Ejang, a wood carver and the Chief of Manchock. She is also a subsistence farmer, as most people are in Elak Oku.
At the time the Project Energy For Life Cameroon boxes were about to arrive, Maxceline was pregnant. She gave birth to her child the day the boxes arrived. Both mother and baby are doing well.
She told us, “a lot will change now and I won’t move around to beg to charge my phone. When my child is sick, I will just do a primary check at home before going to the hospital.”
“God has blessed me, so thank you very much.”
Maxceline, her family, her father, and her box, with Mr. Ngwanse (left) and Ferdinand (right) of the Oku Project Committee. The little boy in the front is holding a Bronco solar-powered lantern which can also charge a cell phone.
Maxceline and her newborn baby.
Two Bronco solar powered USB portable lanterns. When charged, they can go anywhere and can also charge a cell phone.
“Solar…it’s like having wonderful magic at home.”
glory ting | recipient
Patrick Mkong and his family
Patrick Mkong is married with four children, two in primary school and two in secondary. His wife’s name is Confidence Ngansai. Patrick is a subsistence farmer and bee-keeper, producing Oku white honey on a very small scale. He sometimes collects dry wood from the forest to sell as another source of income.
Two of his children are sicklers, as well as his wife, which means they live with sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder that causes painful anemia crises. Most people in Cameroon with sickle cell die before their 21st birthday, if not well taken care of.
Patrick tells us he always rushes to the hospital when one of the children is in a crisis, and has to spend all his meager earnings on drugs. He feels that, as a young man, it really weighs him down. Now the family has the medical kit, basic necessities like painkillers and being able to take someone’s temperature will serve them well.
It’s important to note, the recipient families (and their fortunate neighbors) will quickly be able to detect the high fever associated with malaria with their thermometers. Malaria is an ongoing, common and very serious health risk in much of Africa.
Patrick says they used to have to beg a neighbor who could afford a solar panel to let them charge their cell phones. Now he doesn’t have to.
“Poverty is the root cause of jealousy.”
“I am one of the poorest young boys in the village, so I have gratitude for this gesture with my family.”
Nkol Caroline and her Family
Nkol Caroline is a PTA teacher in Civic Bilingual Nursery School Elak and lives with her two children in a rented single room. Her PTA salary is small.
She told us that they face many challenges because of the lack of electricity. In school, the kids can’t learn to use a computer. When you send a child home to do his or her homework, the child will come back saying they don’t have lights in their house to do their homework in the evening. Even inside the school, the classes are dark, especially when it’s rainy. She tells us that she closes the windows from the rain and tries to teach the children, but she’ll only be able to get them to sing and dance because there is no light for them to study.
When Caroline’s own children are sick, she takes them to the pharmacy. If she thinks the fever is really high, she takes them to the hospital, both of which cost money. It’s hard to manage medical expenses on her PTA level salary, so any visits that can be avoided is precious money saved.
“It is very good like for my mother who is a high blood pressure patient.”
Caroline and her kids outside her house, with Ferdinand of the Oku Committee.
Caroline in her classroom.
“I don’t know how I can express my feelings, but I am very happy.”
HRm FON NGUM IV at the palace
HRM Fon Ngum IV has reported that many people live at the palace, including his wife and the baby First princess, other palace wives and the late Fon’s children. Everyone is already benefiting from receiving the solar power and medical kit.
He is also well aware that the Fondom lacks well-functioning health facilities and he knows that is potentially dangerous to his people. He told us, “I don’t really want that now, especially now that I am on the throne.”
The Fon considers it a “great honor” to receive a Project Energy For Life Cameroon box, and hopes that the project can give “all the compounds in Oku those solar energy and medical kits.”
“The palace wives, the Nchindas, all of them, they are going to benefit from all these things, because it has been a great challenge.”
“Health as they say is wealth.”
Mr. Ngwanse, the electrical technician, and Nurse Nguijio Babay of the Oku Committee working with the families to teach them how to use the solar equipment and the medical devices:
“With the medical devices, we are testing not paying.”
— A project energy for life cameroon recipient | elak oku
