Canadian Executive Service Organisation. Jag Dhillon in Cameroon. Dec 9th

C.E.S.O.

Our member Jag Dhillon is a volunteer with them and on this trip he went to Cameroon in Africa.

There are 4,000 volunteers in Canada.

This is an organisation of Professional people who have been employed as such for 25 yrs or more and volunteer their time on projects sponsored by the Canadian government.

Jag has done 25 projects so far with 4 of them being in Cameroon in Africa.

The local community there is Widikum and it is on the Pan Africa highway.

They lacked community planning. They had high poverty, child labour, no local water and sewage problems with the consequence health problems.

They needed a plan for future development.

It often took 4 hours to get to town, just 20 kms away.

Many meetings took place and the identified two major problems.

A stable price for their main produce which is Palm Oil and a bank to handle the transaction and money deposits with a stable interest rate.

They were able to set a rate of 2.25 per litre for the palm oil and set up a co-op bank with a steady interest rate of 6%.

This has provided the community with stability.

Now they can plan for the future.

They have now established a garbage truck for clean up purposes and a new ambulance has been ordered.

Harreson thanked the speaker.