US-based Cameroonian Assists DAREM

Esmeralda Kale & Marietta Nkweta   with DAREM staff in family photo

 By Christopher Ambe

A Cameroonian woman based in Chicago-USA, Esmeralda Nkweta kale,  January 3, 2023, visited DARAJA REUBE MBORORO DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION (DAREM) office in Buea and donated a video projector to it, promising to help source funding for the association, which empowers under-privileged communities.

According to Madam Zainab Abdullahi, CEO/founder of DAREM, the association empowers vulnerable communities and groups on Gender-based violence (GBV) prevention, does health sensitization, trains less-privileged women on income-generating activities as well as   promotes and protects rights of women and girls, among other duties.

Esmeralda Nkweta Kale,who is the George and Mary LeCron Foster Curator,Melville J Hershkovits Library of African Studies,Northwestern University, USA (the first woman and black person to hold that postion) was accompanied to DAREM office by her sister, Marietta Nkweta, Data Quality Analyst, Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), UK. Both sisters are philanthropists.

Esmeralda Nkweta Kale is wife of emeritus Professor Macdonald Ndombo Kale,who resides in the USA and is interested in the activities of DAREM.

Nkweta Kale said they came visiting DAREM office in Boduma-Buea “because I have heard about them; I am on the DAREM Board and have come to find out more ways in which I can help them foster this project.”

Esmeralda Kale(left) donates projector

She said the education and exposure of women is very important and “if I can help women in less fortunate situations open up avenues of exposure, education and independence, then I am more than willing to help-reason why I am here”.

  Nkweta Kale promised to get a functional website for DAREM, so that it can get national and international presence, as well as source for regular funding from international organizations for the association.

She donated an ultra-modern projector to DAREM to improve its education/sensitization activities.

For her part, Marietta Nkweta said she was impressed by the work DAREM has been carrying out to empower the less-privileged communities, an initiative which, she added, needs much support from people of goodwill and other philanthropic organizations.

The CEO/Founder of DAREM, Madam Zainab Abdullahi who happily received her two visitors in audience, told this reporter that DAREM’s vision is an inclusive world with justice and peace for all.

“Our mission is to promote and protect the rights of indigenous minority group- the Mbororo people in Cameroon especially the women and girls,” she noted, regretting that most Mbororo girls are being denied their rights to education and are instead sent for early marriages.

Esmeralda Kale & Marietta Nkweta in audience with DAREM,Zainab Abdullahi

  Zainab revealed that the Anglophone Crisis has internally displaced

several thousands of Mbororo people (of the Northwest region, Cameroon) who are now in towns such as Buea,Tiko and Limbe,Bangem and Kumba of the Southwest region of Cameroon and that these IDPs are finding it difficult to adapt to town life. (The Mbororo men are turning into taxi drivers, soya sellers and car washers, which was not originally their way of life) 

The CEO said DAREM educates parents of Mbororo girls on the importance of education, so that they send their daughters to school; she noted that DAREM also trains their mothers on income-generating activities, so they raise money and support their children in school.

“We train them and provide start-up capital for them to kick-start their business”, Zainab said, adding that those who receive seed capital are followed-up for six months to ensure proper management of the grant.

“ In 2022, DAREM trained 500 Mbororo women on income-generating activities and they are doing well…we have succeeded to enroll many of these girls in private schools.We have the Anglo-Arabic Primary and Secondary School in Buea where these girls can go and feel religiously and culturally protected,” she revealed.

She appealed for financial support from Cameroon government and donor organizations to help DAREM impact more on less-privileged communities.

 DAREM, which has been in existence for eight years, has branch offices in Bamenda (Northwest Region) and in the West region of Cameroon. Most of its workers are volunteers.