Hunting for Peace

Vital Stats

Sarah T

people helped200
People Doing It 7

The Problem

The Bakola, Bagyeli, Bedzang, and Baka – known here as the 4-B, but pejoratively as “Pygmies”–comprise an intensely marginalized group that remains largely excluded from access to schooling in Cameroon. They are linguistic and ethnic minorities who live in varying degrees of isolation in the forests along Cameroon’s southern border. As hunter-gatherers who rely on the forest for every element of their livelihood, they generally do not participate in the Cameroonian market economy, and therefore have no source of monetary income to meet the costs associated with school. To obtain non-forest items, they are dependent on NGO handouts or trade with their Bantu neighbors. These Bantu neighbors often manipulate 4-B social, political, and economic isolation to their own advantage, creating unfair trade terms or hiding information from their 4-B counterparts.. Children’s daily journeys from their forest encampments to school are long and hazardous. The 4-B mode of subsistence causes children to miss school in order to help their families hunt, leading to high rates of absenteeism and disease. They are stigmatized, bullied, and humiliated by both fellow students and teachers. These factors combine to limit the participation of 4-B children in Cameroonian schools, which in turn perpetuates their marginalization. The 4-B repeatedly fall victim to exploitation due to their exclusion from decision-making processes impacting their livelihoods, largely because they do not have the language skills or civic knowledge necessary to organize, participate, and defend their own interests. RAPID is the only organization that serves the Bakola-Bagyeli community, and it is plagued by severe shortage of funds. While RAPID does incredible work with what they have, its tight budget restricts opportunities for innovative approaches to meeting Bakola-Bagyeli needs.

Plan of Action

Building off of my research results from the previous year, I have established a program with a Cameroonian NGO whereby we distribute and train puppies to serve as hunting dogs to encampments in the area. I laid out a vision, timeline, and measurement methodologies for the project, and secured a $1000 donation to commence the project. Réseau des Actions Participatives aux Initiatives de Développement (RAPID), the Cameroonian NGO, has provided budgetary and logistical information, and carried out the legwork on the ground. In February, RAPID delivered 35 puppies, roughly two months in age, to 10 encampments between Kribi and Lolodorf. With increased funding, we will conduct an in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis into the dogs’ effectiveness at boosting school enrollment, attendance, and achievement among Bakola-Bagyeli students. The idea for the project came during my research period in Cameroon last year, while interviewing a woman named Silpen who had a hunting dog – the second I had seen in all the encampments I had visited. Hunting dogs have long been part of Bakola-Bagyeli hunting teams, but the dogs, like this one, are usually strays that wander into the encampments. Their health and temperaments tend to make them less than poor hunters. Silpen explained how hard it is to hunt without her child’s help, which is why her son has such poor attendance at grades at school. I asked her, and each encampment subsequently, if quality hunting dogs could help address the problem, and they answered yes. Hunting for Peace purchases puppies from a breeder for $15 per dog, distributes them to families at a young age, whereupon the families work with the trainer to transform them into skilled hunting partners. These dogs are monitored to ensure that they are fed and well kept by their families, and their owners are monitored to ensure that the children attend school regularly and perform well. Possession of the dog is conditional on regular school attendance, and children passing their exams each year and passing on to the next year of school. In order to be cost-effective and purposeful, we decided to conduct a one-year pilot, with 35 puppies distributed among 10 encampments. With roughly 20 people in each encampment, this amounts to 200 people participating in this pilot. The puppies were distributed in February, and have spent the past months growing old and large enough to hunt, growing accustomed to their owners and homes, and being trained to hunt. They will begin hunting as soon as they are capable. We will monitor school enrollment, attendance and performance during the coming school year, from August 2011 to June 2012. We will compare data from participating families to control group families who are not participating in the pilot. Using quantitative analysis, we will determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between the control and pilot groups. Using qualitative analysis, we will survey families’ experiences with the dogs. These analyses will demonstrate the effectiveness of the program, and determine whether or not it should be scaled to other encampments and schools.

Education

Education Inequalities

Homelessness and Poverty