Catholic Church Donates Food to Internally Displaced Persons in Yaounde.
The Saint Peter and Paul Anglophone parish in Simbock-Mendong, in the nation’s political capital, has decided to put a smile on the faces of some internally displaced persons who left the two English speaking regions for Yaounde due to the current socio political upheavals. The parish priests Rev. Father Giles Ngwa organized a mass for peace and together with Christians provided some basic food stuff to the victims in Yaounde.
Johnson ETAPE
Saturday September 22nd, was the day some Anglophone Cameroonians who fled the war in the South West and North West regions and are residence in Yaounde had some consolations via the goodwill gesture of the Catholic Church in Mendong. On that day, the parishioners organized a feast and a goodwill mass for the internally displaced and distressed. One of the internally displaced, Susana Ebude who now reside with her daughter and son in-law in the Biyem-Assi neighbourhood of Yaounde said that after the goodwill mass, they were gathered around the esplanade of the Mendong Cathedral for the feast. She said various dishes were prepared by women of that congregation who were supported by the men, under the leadership of the parish priest. “I ate fufu and eru; while many women and children ate rice and fufu corn.” She said attention was paid to the most vulnerable among them who had no family members in Yaounde and were hanging out in churches and other public places. Commenting further on their mode of accommodation, she said internally displaced were living up to ten or more persons in a single room; while others hang out in the public places.
Apart from the meals, she said raw food items were distributed to most of the internally displaced persons, though she refused to take home any raw food. Mama Ebude explained that when she saw the misery under which some of the internally displaced lived, she could not pluck up courage to take any raw food or other essential needs when at her daughters home she had more than enough to live on. Apart from the food she said, she said some of the internally displaced went home with toiletries, soft drinks and others non-alcoholic beverages. When one of the leaders of the church was asked whether the largesse was part of the humanitarian aid collected by the government which was now being distributed to the internally displaced, he replied with a no. “We have no idea whether the government has collected any humanitarian aid which is being distributed to the Anglophone refugees and internally displaced persons. All of what you see us giving out come from individual’s contribution by members of their congregation,” the elders stated.
