Volunteer work

As a calendar of activities, the volunteers will have a part time working day and field visit in the region - 5 days a week ( the 6th  day for meeting) and one day off, flexible agenda. Meetings will take place in Yaounde at AJVC organization for evaluation and planning.

The main fields where the volunteers are needed in this region are the following:

         Urban renovation or restoration of rural habitats
         Intercultural activities to promote integration and the fight against tribalism and conflicts
         They can develop promotional materials; look for sponsors and partners for the local group and youth organization at the local and region level who will support the association on the strategic plan for a sustainable development.
         Help in the creation of a database of the categories of organizations for youths, their main activities, and the needs they have to better manage their organizations.
         Support the organization and network objectives in the region and town.
         Learn basics communication skills.
         Environmental and health education in schools with the youths clubs and in youths centers.
         Work with some poor families in their farms to help grandmothers and fathers in the villages.
         Help to put in place youth clubs and youths associations.
         Work with existing youths groups.
         Elaborate strategies on training and access to resources in schools and universities.
         Help design communication tools to insert on the electronic platform.
         Help promote youth activities.
         Activities on intercultural awareness.

Cultural & free time

Yaoundé has become famous for its numerous cultural events and festivals, particularly, its "months" devoted to Dance, Drama, Music, Jazz, Choral Music, Fashion, Painting, Book promotion etc. Publishing houses, libraries, bookshops and art galleries. On the book shelves, the literary works of "elders" like Ferdinand Leopold Oyono, Rene Philombe, Francis Bebey are displayed alongside those of post independence writers. The Center and South are culturally dominated by the Beti peoples, which include the Ewondo, Eton, and Bulu, and are linguistically and culturally related to the Fang of Gabon. They are patrilineal, grow root crops and peanuts for their own consumption, and grow cocoa as a cash crop. The Ewondo were early converts to Catholicism. The current president is Bulu, and many prominent authors are Beti. Peoples in the East include the Maka and Gbaya, both with relatively egalitarian forms of social organization.

The region covering Cameroon's Centre, South and East provinces belongs to the Bantu cultural sphere. The group that stands out by virtue of their numerical strength is the Beti-Fang whose traditions abound with mythical narrative stories of their past migrations, tales, legends, epics and song-fables, which are performed within a frame of highly emotional epic music of high artistic standard.  

Learning activities

All of this rich tradition will be a learning experience for all of the volunteers, the culture, the language and the life in the community. The volunteers will gain a lot from the intercultural exchange, they will gain a sense of initiative, the meaning of an active life, new ideas and new ways of thinking, less stereotypes, by knowing a different social and cultural environment. They will be able to put their energy, enthusiasm and creativity to good use by participating in practical activities which they will define. They will learn about taking responsibility and team work and about organizing and management of their time and activities.
We will offer opportunities for volunteers to make a meaningful contribution to international education by living together with Cameroonian youngsters and teaching them a variety of things. The EVS programs include: full-time in-country coordinator; intensive in-country orientation including language training; board and lodging with host families/apartments which will contribute more to an authentic and intense learning process. The international language of football goes a long way in breaking down barriers, be them cultural or language. Either way, volunteers will find that teaching basic sports, democracy, leavings skills to the children is a great way to work with young people, stay fit and discover the beautiful country of Cameroon. Volunteers will use sports as the vehicle to teach important life skills to kids in orphanages, organizations, and schools while also seeing and experiencing the culture, wildlife and countryside. Expect to assist with the caring of the horses and animals and become ‘bush wise’ learning African wildlife. The surrounding reserves are host to the lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalos and monkeys . Experience and become involved in conservation, community life, and ecology projects. Teaching orphans, tracking wildlife and helping on safari is just the tip of the iceberg. You may want to get hands-on in a wildlife rehabilitation centre, a cultural center for youth or communities, learn how to track wildlife or join a research project in a national park or a local project. Volunteering with Jeunesse Verte du Cameroun allows you to make a real difference to wildlife in Cameroon with some of our partners. AJVC also implements sustainable after school programs to teach life skills and the importance of environment and healthy living.

Accomodation & food

We will host the volunteers either in hosting families, either in rented apartments, in hostels near their field work and also in our focal points families in the region. Sometimes we will organize with the chief of the village and the community and town institution. We will look for the better option depending on the region and the availability of accommodation facilities. For the food, it is very easy; the organization will make some provision with the volunteer or the hosting family. Each month , the volunteers will receive monthly allowances, and the organization will provide the food either to the volunteer or the host family depending on the place where he/she will be hosted. The volunteer will also receive support for his transportation. We will support also the volunteer in obtaining the visa.

In county staff

Marie Tamoifo EVS country coordinator   Mary is 35 years old, she has obtained a Bachelor's degree in private law and now she’s is doing an online master on public law, environment, ethics of organizations and professions. During the French and African Head of States Summit that took place in Bamako 2005, she was the African woman representative of youth who spoke in youth name. She organized the regional youth consultation of central Africa towards Africa -Europe Summit that took place in Lisbon in 2007. At the end of 2008, she was elected by the central Africa youths leaders, the regional coordinator of Rejefac (Youth network of central African for forest). She is also the president of “Association Jeunesse Verte du Cameroun¨, based in Cameroon. Marie has dedicated her life to promote and to improve civil society participation and work. She is powerful, dynamic, bilingual and open-minded and she is a pure product of learning by doing. We are all volunteers in our youth organizations; we have some experts though and permanent workers in the association. The permanent AJVC youths volunteers are mainly in the center region in Yaoundé. They have diverse backgrounds, they are familiar with non formal education and talented youths ( 20 young leaders). They work as public relations officer, secretary, documentary, IT , project managers, researchers of opportunities for funding our projects and programs. They are used to work with different networks of organizations and the focal points that we have in the regions, partners and institutions. We have an office in Yaoundé with an advisory board and then focal points run by youth leaders for our network in all the regions of Cameroon.