by Marcia Florkey

In the marketplace Yaounde, Cameroon, entrepreneurship is undertaken by women - often primary family providers - who sell produce that they have planted and harvested. Image by: Marcia Florkey Source: New World Outlook Children in preschool in Cameroon begin an educational process that may lead them to business ownership, the benefits of which may extend past their own communities. Image by: Marcia Florkey Source: New World Outlook

New World Outlook, March/April 2006

After two hours’ travel on a hilly dirt road in the Northwest Province of Cameroon, West Africa, the narrow valley opens on a vast hillside of young palm-oil trees. Women of all ages work together in this remote area, caring for their young children and babies among them and cultivating these trees that contain hope for their families’ future.

“Palm oil is a necessity of life here in Cameroon,” explains Maria Morfaw, the international coordinator of the Village Women’s Organization (VIWO) and founder and developer of the Palm Oil Plantation Project. “Palm oil is used every day in every household and yet is grown only in the southern areas of Cameroon.” VIWO, with help from the Cameroon Ministry of Agriculture, planted more than 7000 palm-oil trees on two sites. The General Board of Global Ministries, through grants from International Ministries with Women, Children, and Youth, has supported the project with funds for fertilizers, cultivation tools, and a basic oil press. The hope is that within the next two years, the mature trees will provide enough oil for the women to sell locally and regionally.

“It is much more expensive for families to purchase the oil that has to be shipped from other parts of the country,” Morfaw states, “so this will provide stability to the communities and a source of employment and revenue for the women and their children in the future.”

A Caring and Sharing Economy
In his letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks to the very principle that the Village Women’s Organization is living out—a call to generosity, sharing, and a giving of self: “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.” (2 Corinthians 8:15) But in this world of expanding globalization, where the rich are becoming richer and the poor continue to become poorer and the annual income of the richest 1 percent of the world’s population is equivalent to that of the poorest 57 percent of the world, how can this scriptural mandate be carried out? Maybe it is simply by what these women from Cameroon are doing: creating an economy of caring and sharing.

Traditional roles of women in the developing world have changed little in the past 50 years. There is still a great need for improved living conditions, increased educational opportunities, adequate food, and medical services. In fact, women’s additional and multiple economic roles have led to increasingly difficult living situations. These economic roles include:

• market production—usually under-paid work for the production of goods and services intended for the market;
• subsistence production—unpaid work producing goods for home use (food, clothing, pottery), which can be marketed but are either not marketed or undermarketed;
• care work—unpaid work looking after a household (cooking, cleaning, raising children, and looking after other family members, friends, and neighbors) that is vital for maintaining and reproducing the labor force and keeping the social fabric together;
• unpaid work—in church-based and secular civic associations.

Yet the future can hold hope and promise, as the women of VIWO in Cameroon have discovered. What does an economic structure based on caring and sharing look like? A publication produced by the Justice, Peace, and Creation team of the World Council of Churches, A Caring Economy—Alternatives to Globalization Addressing People & Earth (AGAPE), says a caring economy at its core exemplifies the values of equity and justice but provides care that goes beyond equity and justice as defined by governments or civil society. In other languages, caring is actually defined as being present and attentive, one’s eyes to others needs, “worrying” about others. A caring economy would ensure the provision of basic needs for all and would value the essential care work created, affirmed, produced, and distributed equitably by women and men. It is an economy in which all human rights—including women’s economic, social, and cultural rights—are upheld and protected. A caring economy moves away from values of accumulation and profit to values of redistribution and reparation, where plurality and contextuality (rather than a universal homogeny) are celebrated. A caring economy includes caring for the earth for future generations and implies a move from free trade to a just and responsible trade that does not exploit marginalized people or the environment.

Women in Cameroon
General Board of Global Ministries Regional Missionary Catherine Akale, a woman from Cameroon, sees the ingenuity and strength of women every day as she proclaims the gospel through leadership training seminars and economic development opportunities that she provides to women in sub-Saharan Africa. “Women throughout Africa are involved in all phases of the economy,” Akale explains. “Often they will plant, cultivate, harvest, and take to the market agricultural products, all the while caring for children or elderly parents. They have adapted and done so much in order to supply the essentials for their families, as often they are the primary providers.”

This is evident on the streets of Yaounde, Cameroon, where hundreds of women have set up shop as vendors, selling everything from cell-phone voucher cards to cups of coffee and fast foods from portable carts. Some also own small sewing and tailoring shops. Creativity and ingenuity are not in short supply among the women, but the lack of capital, basic education, and small-business training often hinder the women’s ability to maintain and grow their businesses. A dream of Akale’s and the Office of Ministries with Women and Children would be to enable women of The United Methodist Church in this region of Africa to produce items that are needed, first of all, by their communities but that also could be exported for sale to women in other parts of the world, such as the United States, to complete the “circle of caring and sharing.”

Women in Papua New Guinea
Teresa Rynkiewich also believes in this “circle of caring and sharing.” Teresa and her husband, Mike, served as Global Ministries missionaries to Papua New Guinea from 1997 to 2002. During those years, Teresa worked with women’s organizations of the church in leadership and economic development and biblical study skills. She particularly noticed the beautiful and useful baskets and bilums (strong woven carrying bags) the women made and so began sending their goods to churches in the United States to sell, providing increased income to the women in Papua New Guinea. Upon their return to the United States and Mike’s appointment to teach at seminary, Teresa continued to think about the women of Papua New Guinea and the international women she came in contact with through the seminary community. “Many of the women were spouses of students, and making handmade items to sell was a way of helping their families,” says Teresa. “I began thinking that God had more in mind for them and the women in Papua New Guinea.

Tess’ International Handicraft Shop "Village Women - Global Crafts" is the theme of Tess' International Handicrafts, which carries unique artwork and crafts from more than 40 countries around the world. The goods may vary widely, but the mission is the same: to provide economic stability to the producers and the mission story to the purchaser. Tess' International Handicraft Shop, Inc, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization located in Wilmore, Kentucky. For further information, Teresa Rynkiewich can be contacted by phone: 859-858-0802, or mail: TessInternational@earthlink.net.

Tess’ International Handicrafts
The doors opened for Teresa to begin Tess’ International Handicraft Shop in April 2003 to provide a retail outlet for international arts and crafts as well as fair-trade foods. “But I knew from the beginning it had to be more than just selling items,” said Teresa. “It had to be a ministry to tell the mission story.” Therefore all the items, many from United Methodist-supported projects, missions, and ministries, have a tag telling the story of the producers, mission projects, and the churches they represent. “The vision of Tess’ International Handicrafts is to bring together the producers and the buyers for a greater understanding of the church in mission and to bring dignity and hope to international women. In addition, we hope soon to add an option for United Methodist congregations to purchase a large variety of items that they can sell in their communities as a way of supporting the women and telling the mission story.”

The women of the Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA) in rural Pakistan are some of the suppliers to Teresa’s shop. “Older girls and young women have little access to education beyond primary school and almost no opportunities for jobs in rural areas,” says PODA founder Sameena Nazir. “So in order to provide additional education and income, we created an informal education project on human-rights awareness and income-generating skills through recycling paper for paper-maché art products.” The young women have become skilled artisans and in addition to income have gained new dignity and respect for themselves and within their families. The boxes and ornamental items they have created provide a necessary link to tell the story of and learn about the lives of young women in Pakistan. Both Nazir and Rynkiewich see this as vital in building understanding among the cultures, in telling the story of Pakistani women and in creating a new economy—an economy of caring.

While the effects of globalization and economic conditions worldwide are complex, there is much to learn from women like Maria, Catherine, Teresa, and Sameena. Their collective thoughts and actions prove that an economy of caring is possible. Their work offers hope that a just, global economy could and already does exist where sharing, collaboration, and resources are distributed fairly. Our responsibility is continually to challenge our own actions so that “the one who has much doesn’t have too much and the one who has little doesn’t have too little.”

Marcia Florkey is the Executive Secretary for Ministries with Women and Children, Mission Contexts and Relationships. She recently visited Cameroon, where the Village Women’s Organization and GBGM missionary Catherine Akale are located.

Catherine Akale can be supported as a covenant missionary through Advance giving. Her missionary code is 13951Z.

	See Also... Topic: Agriculture |  Christian love |  Communities |  Economy |  GBGM programs |  Globalization |  Human rights |  International affairs |  Women |  Geographic Region: Cameroon |  Source: New World Outlook
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Date posted: Mar 07, 2006