The British academic and development practitioner Robert Chambers, in his book Rural Development: Putting the Last First, wrote in 1983:                                                                                         

Rural poverty is often unseen or misperceived by outsiders. Dr Chambers contends that researchers, scientists, administrators and fieldworkers rarely appreciate the richness and validity of rural people’s knowledge or the hidden nature of rural poverty.’ 

“Rural poverty deserves a higher priority than defence. Yet we found that over 50 per cent of the research scientists in the world engaged in defence work,) in 1980 although there was a stock pile, of nuclear weapons with one million times the destructive power of the Hiroshima bomb, the USA and USSR were spending well over $ 100 million per day on upgrading their nuclear arsenal, compared with a derisory $ 60 million per year devoted to research into tropical diseases research (Stuart 1980 p5 Walsh & Warren 1979).”

His Majesty Dr Raymond-Tchakounté -II– must read book is available here: https://amzn.to/2KRHtSW                                                                                             The Bridge MAG image

Chambers,-the Essex- born social reformer, is best remembered as one of the leading advocates for putting the poor, destitute and marginalised at the centre of development policy. Surely it is not too fanciful to believe that-.

Chambers may have been an inspiration for His Majesty Dr  Raymond Tchakounté II, the 13th traditional chief of the Fetba dynasty, who himself has a background in the economics of development and who decided to open up to The Bridge Magazine on February 10, 2012, while in Paris to ensure his duties as vice-president of the France- based international humanitarian NGO- “Fetba Planète du Rêve Rural” (in English, “ Fetba – planet of the rural dream).”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

His aim is to develop internationally the village of Fetba, putting emphasis on:

• Education and training

• Health

• Agriculture and livestock

• Administration

• Local economic revitalization of the circuit

• Management and use of resources and energies

• Water supply, renewable energy, sanitation to list a few.

The village of Fetba appears to be the NGO’s pilot project for experimentation, observation and incubation of similar projects with the aim to expand in the whole African sub-Saharan area.
Thus, the NGO, with the support of the Cameroonian government, Clermont-Ferrand Council and the Association of Visa Cooperation, has achieved the following:…

• The acquisition of an industrial corn mill processer to improve the daily life of villagers in Fetba.

• A modern clinic

Villagers in need of primary clinical care, such as pregnant women who are due to give birth, will no longer have to walk seven-kilometres to their nearest doctor in Bazou or be forced to hitchhike on a motorbike or truck after waiting hours by the roadside for a lift.

The NGO has also introduced the following:

• Organized training sessions in health care and basics hygiene and childcare.

• The construction of a school library, with some 10,000 books, on a variety of topics related to education, training, hygiene, and other subjects.

• bus services to ensure the villagers can travel with ease from Fetba to neighbouring localities.

Follow the links below to read more:

1) Economy and Investment Global News That Never Fades: The Bridge Magazine Book – From Britain’s News to World Exclusives

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/rachel-tcheungna/economy-and-investment-global-news-that-never-fades-the-bridge-magazine-book-from-britains-news-to-world-exclusives/paperback/product-4evpye.html?page=1&pageSize=4

2) Global News That Never Fades: From Britain’s News to World Exclusives.

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/rachel-tcheungna/global-news-that-never-fades-from-britains-news-to-world-exclusives/paperback/product-ennmdm.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Rachel Tcheungna, 

Author, Writer of The Bridge Books and 

The Bridge Magazine Editor.