Mile 19 Community
4th Leadership Retreat Follow-up Meeting
Tuesday to Friday, November 18-21, 2008
About Mile 19
Mile 19 still has remnants of the dense tropical forest it was in the early 1920s when founders arrived, from Kack-Muasundem in kupe-Muaneguba Division, to farm the area. They came in small groups, stayed in make-shift structures while establishing farms in the forest for limited periods before returning home (Kack-Muasundem) every year. But as the farms grew in size, their development needs increased. The developers stayed longer in the new farms and began living apart, building semi-permanent houses in farmsteads. By the late 40s and early 50s, several families were already well established in their farms, when political turmoil broke and the need to regroup again became evermore urgent!
Mile 19 was one of the popular locations for new settlements, along the then new national/trans-African highway linking Kumba, Tombel and Loum. The move to Mile 19 was initially gradual. In 1972, only 11 houses were counted there with a population that was scarcely up to 60. Now, in 2007, the population has grown to 586 in 72 households, thanks to incoming migrants from within the Kupe-Muaneguba Division and other areas of Cameroon. People retiring from salaried employment in companies and public services including former employees of para-publics such as the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) have been moving in. The Government Primary School in Mile 19 also serves neighbouring villages including CDC Ebubu, Cocoa, Muasung and Muyuka Camps, Peng, Store, Mile 20 and Mile 18, helping to weld communities.
But, the growth and changing status of Mile 19 brings problems of its own that add to those that were there before and are yet to be solved. These include lack of education opportunities for all, inadequate access to safe drinking water, dust pollution especially in the dry season, insufficient hygiene and sanitation, vulnerability to diseases, poor health, income generation deficiencies, impacts of other shocks such as loss of income from produce market price downturns, and inflation, together with the differing aims and commitments in the community, conflicts that arise, and inadequate organizational skills to address the issues with competence, peacefully. Development was so often disrupted, poorly planned and implemented, fuelling feelings of frustration and bitterness that sometimes grow superstition, spread falsehood, and erupt in violence between individuals, in homes, within and around the community.
Community Leaders realised that calm reflection was needed to help resolve the issues. They sought and obtained community support to "Retreat", not so much as to run away from their responsibilities, but to look at them anew, find and consolidate peace with one another, develop their identity and thank God for the ever present opportunity in their responsibilities to grow and achieve meaningful transformation. EITD Research was asked to organize the "Leadership Retreat" which held in Kumba, October 10-13, 2006, with the specific objectives of reflecting on issues facing the community, prioritising the problems and developing intervention mechanisms for them, increasing mutual trust and communication ability, enthusing participation in village community life, and improving living standards for all in the community.
A result of the meeting was an Action Plan, which the leaders have been implementing with varying degrees of ease and hardships, reporting back to the community, sensitising with new thinking on the issues, reorganizing and addressing the problems based on agreed priorities in specific areas such as education, agriculture, health, water, drainage, hygiene and sanitation. A detailed census has been completed and results are forthcoming. Issue area committees have been increasing activity under their respective chairpersons and the community itself has been unrelenting in demanding accountability and results. But some capacity problems remain, and much of the community recognises that.
Hence the need for regular follow-up Meetings involving the whole community and mobilising the much needed internal and external resources to sustain development and improve security in the community and around the world. The first such retreat follow-up Meeting held in Mile 19, March 13-16, 2007. Its success mobilised preparations for the second meeting, which held March 25-28, 2008, in Mile 19. During the Meeting, the community resolved to hold other follow-up Meetings triennially to help realise development plans of the community in three years. The third Meeting held Tuesday July 29 to Friday August 1, 2008. The fourth Meeting will be holding Tuesday to Friday, November 18-21, 2008, in Mile 19.