NJINIKOM:UNCELEBRATED HEROIN MASTERMINDS PUBLIC HYGIENE AND SANITATION
Theeyeopener24:
Why have you decided to personalise public hygiene and sanitation in Njinikom?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
As
someone who is in the health field, knowing what it is to be in the health
field, knowing what it is to be in a clean and unclean environment. When you get the history of diseases in your
community especially in a village community like ours where you get phone calls
from friends and relatives on daily bases telling you of deaths resulting from
stomach pain, consulted a traditional doctor who operates without any
diagnosis. In a situation where the rate of illiteracy is very high, people have
limited knowledge of medical science and the changing environment or lack the
knowledge to draw the dichotomy of a clean and unclean environment they can’t
know the benefit of a clean environment one needs to ponder how to help!
Theeyeopener24:
What is that thing that pricked you directly?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
I
had an interaction with Sister Xavaria Nteimusi, the then Matron of St Martin
the Pores hospital Njinikom. When I asked for the diagnostic manual and the
statistics of mortality rate, kind of recurrent diseases and I realised that
basic preventable disease were very common coupled with the poor nutrition. I
discovered that everything was kept on a time bomb. I took off by enrolling
people on the Mutual help insurance scheme hoping that it will help the
situation and it did not work out because 38 people that I enrolled could not
renew the insurance and told sister that they were waiting for me to renew the
scheme. This was wrong. This was not my vision. I was frustrated and the matron
too. I meet with the people later that year and discovered that they were even
able and healthy people. When I went around the community, saw and took photos
of children with big stomachs, taunted kids, I said to myself that I must do
something better than the insurance scheme and thats where I took the public
sanitation approach because the greatest harm to health is bacteria, when the
environment is contaminated, nobody is save.
Theeyeopener24:
After the realisation of the public toilet, it appears you are drifting from
the central toilet to a situation where most individuals can have a toilet.
What justifies this drift?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
People
have to get their own toilets for us to have a healthy environment. My research
on shared toilets shows that though with a public toilet, for us to have a
clean environment, individuals must have their own residential toilets within
their homes. Sanitation in Europe was worse than what we have in kom today.
Primary care should be our prime focus and for us to introduce this, we need to
focus on sanitation, hygiene in the homes. Shared toilets are not good. If many
people use the same toilet with no good care, diseases will be recurrent. If
there is a toilet in every home, it’s more centralised and you can prevent diseases.
For us to have a clean environment and for us to be healthy and stop going to
the hospital for the same thing and dying from something that is easily
preventable, what will happen if cholera hits? We can prevent these by keeping
our environment clean and that begins by reducing open defecation. Advanced
countries have moved away from this and are now focusing on longevity.
Inadequate sanitation affects all facets of life.so
my
goal is to reduce by half inadequate sanitation with the Njinikom council
enforcing the laws. Here, I think we are in the right step.
Theeyeopener24: You are resident in the USA
and you are implementing this project here in Njinikom, how will you coordinate
the activities to make the project work?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
It’s a partnership
approach with the Njinikom council and the IRINA project initiative. We come in
with the little money we have and the council, through its sanitary team
enforces the laws that are already existing to make the project work. The
public toilet is doing well and I do not need to be physically present for
things to work. I have a committed team that do not operate I work! I have
supplied a good stock of disinfectants, toilet papers, dispensers, sprays, cleaning
equipment and liquid soaps. I have told my home based team to wait for me, I need
reports with copies to the mayor. I interact with my team on frequent base so
sustainability is not a problem. Each time my team is sending a report to me, a
copy must be deposited with the mayor.
Theeyeopener24: what is
the level of community response to your initiative? Are you a satisfied person?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
One
thing about me is that I love doing charity work. Some of my relative call me
“charity”. Nothing makes me happier than when I’m doing something to help
another person. That’s me. I do not take pride in things like this but it keeps
me going. when I read the comments of the visitors book at the public toilet in
the market, they speak of excitement, surprise and some visitors from Holland
and could not believe that such a facility exist in Njinikom. i was surprise
that when maimi Sunday Ngam visited us in USA, she came looking for me and said
Njiinikom people are mouthy now because they now have a public toilet. The
people are proud of it. I need people to use it especially on market days. i
intend to conduct a research on how the toilet contributes the market now and
to fine out if the toilet has cause many people to transact in the market now.
Theeyeopener24:
how many people shall benefit from this residential toilet project this 2016?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
As
many as I can provide. I was thinking of 20 and has back out of that taught.
The partnership approach of cash and kind contributions will determine how many
people to benefit. If we have more people with in kind contributions for their
individual toilets, that will be better. It’s a 5-10yr project.so long as we
can do aggressive education, we believe many individuals will signed up for
their individual toilets.
Theeyeopener24:
Apart from master minding public sanitation and hygiene, what are you in for?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
I
do not sleep! I have all kinds of projects in my mind for Njinikom and kom as a
whole. At times I want to do a public library in which I have thousands of
books already here in Njinikiom. If I had a piece of land, I would have loved
to do and elders day care centre. If I had enough finance I would put all these
dreams of mine to reality. You have to take care of children and the elderly
too. They are very dear to my heart. I do annual charity too to orphans through
food donations, toys and soup.
Theeyeopener24:
you are based in the USA where many sons and daughters from Njinikom are based.
What is their response to your initiative?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
They
are very impressed. Most of the people I have talked to say it is a good and marvellous
initiative. Some of them tell me they can now visit Njinikom frequently because
of the public toilet as opposed to the past because some of them do not have
toilets in their homes. Some say I like drinking in Njinikom, but where to
urinate is a problem adding that their worries have all been sold with the
public toilet now. For now, the initiative is solely my sponsorship. Some of my
5 colleagues now want to help and a church called salvation church of god. I
opened go fund me and it fetched me only 90dollars and that’s nothing. I send
out fundraising emails to every kom man or woman, boy or girl, I saturate their
inbox but did not get any response.im proud to have one friend in the name of
Kenneth Mbah who chips in something annually like 250 dollars last year and
that great. I just need a handful of friends like Kenneth and we shall move
mountains. The residential project is long term and if people can help with
materials, stones, wood donated, we shall spend less.
Theeyeopener24:
Are you preparing the way to join politics?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
I
wish I was a politician. To be honest
with you jean, I have taught about that. Some of these politicians use the
peoples vote for personal gains and this makes me sick. Politics in Cameroon
like elsewhere is never the best game. i go to occasions and people introduce
me as future parliamentarian. If one day, I came to ask for their votes, I will
be doing that to give them back to them through more project realisation just
like those I’m doing for now.
Theeyeopener24:
what is your message to the entire Njinikom community, home and abroad?
IRIN
NJUAKOM
Any
Njinikom man or woman like to talk. Let’s do it now. Let’s swing into action
and be proactive, transform words into action, let’s get into the habit of
doing things for our own community and people. The elderly, children and the
malnourished. There is nothing greater than living in harmony and solidarity.
Let’s be our brothers and sisters keeper. Development associations can
contribute by helping with community work. It’s all about us. I want a
mentality change from thinking about “Munyongo money”. All at home could want
to go to America, Britain, and Germany because somebody built it to be good,
beautiful and conducive the way they are now. I am an American citizen, but
that is not my home! Home is home I want to make my home good such that others
will want to come here to and I will be proud to receive the person. In as much
as we criticise the president of Cameroon and his government as guilty of
bribery and corruption, those of us who are in a position to help should try
our own. When we start asking yourself what I have done, we shall have a better
security and a better kom.
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