Local Partner: Lelewal Foundation
Background and objective:
The fact that the Baka people are the poorest of the poor makes it difficult for them to get access to modern health facilities, since they do not have money to pay for their treatment. These necessitate a lot of capacity building of the platform members and community leaders on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and genetic resources.
The project “Continued Support to the Baka Traditional Healing and Health Care System” aims to strengthen the already realized outcomes from previous project which are the Baka Traditional healing Platform and awareness raising on the dangers of HIV& AIDS and poverty alleviation, creating community farms in five communities to reduce hunger and malnutrition. The project will benefit directly around 2000 persons and 10 000 indirectly. The project output and outcome will be integrating the platform of Baka Traditional healers with other traditional healers in the South Region of Cameroon. Around 500 people will be screened for HIV &AIDS, 200 women trained on reproductive health.
Traditional healing has come back into practice and the healers have group themselves have gathered under their platform making good business from their traditional knowledge. Corona virus was prevented within the communities by using a plant from the forest. Indigenous Baka people have a vast reservoir of traditional medicine and African psycho-metaphysics healing systems and can treat many illnesses that do not have cure with modern medicine. Youths before this initiative were not interested in knowing about their traditional healing systems. Indigenous Baka people are all attached to their culture and traditions and need to own a public spaces to manifest their traditional healing systems.
Local partner information:
Lelewal is an indigenous peoples non-governmental organization founded by a group of indigenous peoples in 2003 and legalized in 2006. The organization was born out of the dire need for advocacy to ensure the respect of the rights of indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups in the Republic of Cameroon especially as stipulated or enshrined in the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and other related human rights instruments and standards.
