In Far North, girls, cows share common price

The Inspector of Primary and Nursery Education of Touloum in the Porhi Subdivision in the Mayo-Kani Division of the Far North Region, Henri Bay, has said, before the girl child education campaign came into focus, parents in the different villages of the Region saw every girl child as an object that could be given away in marriage for 10 cows. He made the revelation to The Post in his office recently.

“Every girl was equal to 10 cows in many villages of the region, especially in my local Toupouri community here,” he said. To him, such a mentality in many poverty-stricken parents in the area cannot easily be eradicated.

He, however, observed that since UNICEF and the Japanese Government launched the campaign for the girl child education in the Region, many parents have begun to change their mentalities by giving more value to their girl children. They now see a need to send their girl children to school, instead of just selling them off in early marriages for 10 cows each.

It is in a bid to eradicate such a backward mentality that UNICEF is carrying out a sensitisation campaign for the girl child education in communities around 30 schools in the area.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Basic Education (2011), only 54 percent of children complete primary education. Most girls, according to the study, drop out in the heat of parent, peer and societal pressure and end up in early marriages.

Lack of education in the area, experts say, has swelled the ranks of poverty and ignorance in the area. It is for this reason that the Japanese Government and UNICEF initiated the Integrated Intervention Project. The initiative is tailored to improve on children’s health and education in the Far North Region.

According to UNICEF officials, by the end of 2014, the Japanese Government would have spent about FCFA 8 billion in the various projects in two years.

This year’s health project that is expected to impact on a total of 676,142 people, is going on in some five health districts. The focus of the project, The Post learnt, is on 121,367 children that fall between ages of six and 59 months.

The project also borders on HIV-AIDS and the protection of the child. It also focuses on infant mortality that has a very high rate in the region. About 168 out of every 1,000 children born, die before five years due to malnutrition and other related health problems.

Going by statistics from the UN agency, 42 percent of children in the Far North Region are suffering from malnutrition; 8.6 percent of such children are victims of acute malnutrition while 1.8 percent of them are hard hit by severe acute malnutrition.

It is reported that the health of the inhabitants, especially children, is seriously threatened because of unhygienic practices. That is why many children are vulnerable to diarrhea and cholera.

Statistics show that 22.7 percent of the inhabitants of the region still empty their bowels in the open air. On other social issues, studies hold that only 38 percent of births are registered in the region. This shows that a majority of women here still deliver in the hands of traditional birth attendants without neo-natal care.

In order to stem these problems, the Cameroon Government, in collaboration with UNICEF and the Japanese Government, are carrying out projects in the nutrition, health, water and hygiene, education, child protection and HIV-AIDS domains. They intend to achieve their objectives by mobilising social partners in an all-out sensitisation campaign against unhealthy habits and mentalities.

To UNICEF experts, special attention is being paid to the fight against malnutrition because of its long term negative bearing on the society. They hold that it retards the physical and intellectual development of children.

It is also reported that the State of Cameroon loses a good chunk of its Gross Domestic Product, GDP to malnutrition.