A volunteer is someone who performs or offers to perform a service out of his own free will, most of the times without payment. Volunteering is not only beneficial to the community you serve but can have many returns for you too.

Learn or develop new skills
Through volunteering, you get to discover something you are really good at and develop new skills. It is never too late to learn new skills and no reason why you should stop adding to your knowledge just because you are in employment or have completed your education. Planning and implementing a project can develop goal setting, planning and budgeting skills. Supervising and training a project team, helps to develop supervisory and training skills. These are examples of skills that can enhance a career but you don’t have to develop skills with the intention of facilitating your career. Performing administrative duties in an organization can enable you develop project management skills. Explore your love for tree planting and you can offer your talents to local organizations as a matter of fact, the possibilities are just numerous.

Be part of the making of your community
Nobody is an island. We sometimes take for granted the community that we live in. People and societies co-depend on each other for survival but growth of such things as commercialism are seeing traditional values being disregarded. Communities are suffering due to the growth of secular societies but at the same time we can really bridge that expanding gap through volunteering. Volunteering is ultimately about helping others and having an impact on people’s wellbeing. What better way is there to connect with your community and give a little back? As a volunteer, you certainly return to society some of the benefits that society gives you.

Generate motivation and sense of achievement
Fundamentally, volunteering is about giving your time, energy and skills freely. Unlike many things in life there is choice involved in volunteering. As a volunteer you have made a decision to help on your own accord, free from pressure to act from others. Volunteers predominantly express a sense of achievement and motivation, and this is ultimately generated from your desire and enthusiasm to help. Sometimes volunteers are regarded as do-gooders and those that hold that view also assume that one person can never make a difference. It may be true that no one person can solve all the world’s problems, but what you can do is make that little corner of the world where you live just that little bit better.

Boost your career options
Many surveys have shown that many leading organizations would recruit a candidate with volunteering experience over one without all because they believe that volunteering can add to skills.

Also, if you are thinking of a career change then volunteering is a perfect way to explore new fields. If you have a passion for the arts but have career in computing then why not volunteer at a theatre troop? Or if your ambitions are to be a doctor why not find out about volunteer opportunities at a hospital – the ideal way to expand your work portfolio in your field and to gain a real insight into your chosen path.

Develop new interests and hobbies
Sometimes we do get locked into the “rat-race” of life and volunteering can give that escape to everyday routine and create a balance in our lives. Finding new interests and hobbies through volunteering can be fun, relaxing and energizing. Help run a youth project for a few hours a week or assist in publishing an NGO’s newsletter. The energy and sense of fulfillment can carry over to a work situation and sometimes helps to relieve tensions and foster new perspectives for old situations. Sometimes a volunteer experience can lead you to something you never even thought about or help you discover a hobby or interest you were unaware of. You can strengthen your personal/professional mission and vision by exploring opportunities and expanding your horizons.

Gain new experiences
Volunteering is a brilliant way to get life experience. Whether you build a library or distribute flyers to raise awareness for a local NGO, you will experience the real world through hands-on work. Volunteers can do almost anything and with the new millennium has dawned an era of infinite volunteer opportunities. For example, it is possible to volunteer in different communities and or organizations and see the direct impact of your actions on some of the most vulnerable people of the world.

An opportunity to meet a diverse range of people
Volunteering brings together a diverse range of people from all backgrounds and walks of life. Both the recipients of your volunteer efforts and your co-workers can be a rich source of inspiration and an excellent way to develop your interpersonal skills. Volunteering also offers an incredible networking opportunity. Not only will you develop lasting personal and professional relationships but it is also a great way to learn about people from all walks of life, different environments, and new industries. Networking is an exciting benefit of volunteering and you can never tell who you will meet or what new information you will learn and what impact this could have on your life.

Send a signal to your employer, teachers, friends and family
People pay attention to your life outside the environment in which they have direct contact with you. For example, your employer would be interested in the activities that give you a good work-life balance, just as academic institutions are interested in your extra-curricular activities. Volunteering reflects and supports a complete picture of you, and gives real examples of your commitment, dedication and interests. Show people what you are passionate about and maybe you will inspire them too!

Volunteer with OFLIC to try it out
The Organization For Life Care (OFLIC) an organization that I lead is a women and child focused NGO. It is out to radiate rays of hope in the suffering masses of women and children. We are interested in working with both national and international organizations. Volunteers would find a healthier and balanced work environment and wide horizons of experience working for us, helping us to reach out to the suffering masses in Cameroon.

Should you be interested to volunteer with a non-profit organization in Cameroon, contact us at:
ofliccam@gmail.com
Tel: (237) 77 70 24 18

Another Christmas season is hovering around the corner, the streets are hitting up, with commerce and décor, on every lip, one can hear its ‘party time’, ‘time to celebrate’ what? Many don’t even know. Some don’t know its Christ’s birth day yet they are celebrating with others.

Is it going to be a replay of last year in Cameroon? One can only wait to see but as we look up to celebrating this day that comes up in the next few days. My one whole wish is not to be another protagonist in a fiery saga as the one that befell me last year.

In the main time, a look at preparations and what is happening and how some Cameroonians look at the Christmas season can be enriching…

By the 20th of December, all schools in Cameroon vacated for the season, as the students return to their homes for the Christmas break, they will celebrate the birth of Christ in distinctly different ways.

Christmas celebrations vary from family to family; however, regardless of traditions, being with family at Christmas is the most important aspect of the season.

At the other end of the string, some families do their traditional practices during Christmas time because it's the only time when all of them are meeting together. The season is characterized by weddings and family reunions. While most people (Christians) think of December 25th as the time when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, personally, I regard it as a time when he is born in people’s hearts. This gives me the raison d’être of celebrating and marrying with others.

Christmas is a spiritual occasion that should focus on prayer, praise and the Bible. Today, the traditional Christmas feast in some Cameroonian communities consists of chicken and rice, etc, the meal frequently includes dancing and singing and people just enjoy celebrating the birth of the son of God.

As elsewhere in the world, Christmas is a merry time when presents are exchanged, but there is more to it as a family. What do you think?

1st December 2005 has been a great day in Cameroon, I personally participated in the UNICEF organized event at the 20th may boulevard Yaounde Cameroon where the celebrations marking world AIDS day were being commemorated.

This year specially, emphasis besides the theme ‘Stop AIDS, Keep the promise’ was placed on children as the hidden face of the disease. Organized by the UNAIDS and UNICEF under the patronage of the First lady of Cameroon was heavily attended by the members of government and diplomatic corp.

‘Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS’ was also the highlight of the event this year as UNICEF and UNAIDS wants the world to pay particular attention to children who happened to suffer the weight of this pandemic more that any other category of people.

The messages presented by firstly the children after a march pass implored the decision makers present to take the fight against HIV/AIDS seriously especially as they suffer the most from this illness. It was a moment full of emotions as the children let their parents know just how much they are suffering.

Then followed a series of speeches both from the government and representatives of the international organizations in Cameroon. Each of them took turns to evaluate the work done already and to pledge their commitment for the years to come. Of particular importance to me was the revelation by the Minister of Public Health that tri-therapy for HIV would be available to pregnant women free of charge in 2006.

I was particularly satisfier noticing that young boys and girls cured up around testing facilities to do their VCT. This only told me stigmatization is gradually fading out from the Cameroonian community.

Until 11.30 PM, my cell phone work me up from sleep, the caller was a friend and I wondered angrily why he should be calling that late into the night when he shouted into my ears’ my test was negative. This guy whom I had taken over a week to convince to go for a test ended up going and thought it wise to let me know his results even if it had to the last thing he did for that day.

At the end of it all, 2005 seem to have been a years in Cameroon that got many more Cameroonians wanting to say no to this pandemic. I only hope this desire would persist.

Welcome to another World AIDS Day - the international day of action on HIV and AIDS which takes place every year on 1 December. This year in Cameroon like in any other country in which the UN is present, World AIDS Day is about wearing the Red Ribbon with one arm turned blue, as a sign of support for people especially children living with HIV and a symbol of hope for the future. The blue has been added to denote the emphasis on children after the joint statement by UNICEF and the World Health Organization.
WHO and UNICEF is ‘United for children, United against AIDS’. Through this particular highlight, they wand to pass through the disturbing facts of the missing face of AIDS - Children are the missing face of AIDS. Every day, almost 1,800 children under 15 become HIV-positive and 1,400 die of AIDS-related illness.
World AIDS Day is about people getting the facts about HIV and AIDS. It's a day for people to get involved through many ways. No matter how you decide to mark the day, you can help create a more AIDS Aware society in which everyone takes action, so please make sure you show off your Red Ribbon or Red Ribbon spiced with blue if you are uniting for children and against AIDS on 1 December! As for me, I’m united for Children and against AIDS.

Talking about taking action, Young people across Cameroon and neighboring countries are among the main victims of a resurgence of the deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic. In the run-up to World AIDS Day on 1 December, freshly released data from the Health and Demographic Survey indicates that the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV is increasing steadily. In the 10 Provinces of Cameroon for which data was available, the Northwest turned out with the highest prevalence closely followed by the East Province.

I am very concerned about the resurgence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, especially amongst young Cameroonians; we need to remind young people of the risks linked to the epidemic, and that it is still a very real and growing threat. Raising awareness will be one the main priorities of the forthcoming years on combating HIV/AIDS, which should in particular foster dialogue and co-operation with civil society to help get the message across.

Major social challenges, such as the spread of HIV/AIDS amongst African youth and Cameroonian youth in particular, need cutting edge research. By working together at the African level, we can be more effective and innovative, and make new ways to prevent the spread of the disease a reality much sooner.

This year I carry along the sad memories of Fongwa Justine a good friend of mine. Justine got involved with the so called ‘internet love’ she was ‘dating’ one guy – a Cameroonian living in Germany. This guy came home last may and that’s when both of them started having unprotected sex until the guy traveled back. One evening, Justine came to me with tears in her eyes and handed to me an email she had printed out. When I read through, I realized she had all the reasons to cry. Her boyfriend had latter on fallen sick and went for an HIV test that turned out to be positive. He was advising her to go for her own test.

But I told her I wondered why she was crying when she had not yet been to the hospital, that’s when she told me her own results turned out positive some days latter when she went for the test. You can imagine how this passed through me like a razor.

Since then, it’s been from one illness to the other that Justine has had to endure, I visited her most of the times at home and in the hospital. She told me she wanted to give a testimony during my activities marking the world AIDS day but as fate would have it, she passed away two months ago to the date scheduled for her testimony.

No matter where your are, no matter who you are, no matter your age, and no matter what you are doing, the HIV is around the Conner and you need to take all the precautions.

“Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.” In keeping to the theme for this year’s celebration and as we would be stopping the AIDS in other to keep the Promise, we must remember to stop our own selves from the AIDS and keep the promise to our selves then it would be well with everybody else.

It was a Friday afternoon in Yaounde, I was resource person to a three days seminar on domestic violence, and my presentation was entitled “Mitigating domestic violence and filling the gabs with genuine love” talking to a cross-section of women and men from development NGOs, I passed on my message, capacitating them to stand up and fight domestic violence stating from their respective homes and then expand to the communities in which they would.

My audience was very attentive, imbibing all I had to say and asking questions where necessary, at the close of the day, I went home satisfied, knowing that I had imparted knowledge that would be replicated in different communities latter on and my objectives would have been on their way to realization and this was my reflection as I drove home concluding this blessed Friday.

Sunday morning, I was coming back from church so happy to have listened to a pastor preach as if he had attended my lesson the previous day. A dynamic Pastor, he handled the sermon so well bringing out biblical explanations of why domestic violence should not be condoned in the Christian community. Had I know earlier on this was going to be his theme; I would have invited my seminarians to come for filed work.

Reflecting over this as I slammed on my honk inviting my security guard to open the gate, I notice a woman was descending behind me. The gates were flunked open and I drove into the yard. I had barely settled down over a glass of orange juice when the guard came in to announce that a woman wanted to see me. Well I almost shouted on him for accepting visitors at such an hour when I had earlier on given firm instructions that I don’t entertain visitors on Sundays immediately after Church service but he insisted that the woman was in pain and crying. This told me something way up and so I ordered that the woman be shown in right away.

As unbelievable as it turned out to be, the woman was one of my seminarian the previous Friday, she was actually the woman who was tailing me. Her face was swollen and she had all the brushes one can imagine all over her body. She told me that she was coming back from the hospital and decided to stop by to have a chat and advice from me.

It turned out that she had a fight with her husband on Saturday, only a day after the seminar. She told me the fight erupted during a dispute over some money (her money) she used to pay the child’s school fees without the husbands consent. And the reason she gave for not informing the husband about her intension was that he would have collected the money and that would be it while the child stayed on out of school for fees.

I did a few phone calls, calling a friend of mine who’s a senior commissioner of police and another social welfare worker. When they arrived, she recounted her story and I told my friends to deal accordingly with the husband if it turns out that he had no justification to put the wife under such pains.

On Tuesday, ill be stopping by to know what how it all ended. Already, I’m planning to use the law to teach that nasty husband of hers that gone are the days when men still torture their wives physically for what ever reason. Barely a few months after I handled the first case of domestic violence, this is yet another and I’m determined to use this one to put and end to this whole pathetic scenery.

Talk to you soon