A gifted educator: why busy Beatrice likes running the AIDS seminar

In February 2004 Beatrice Gangouap became Cameroon’s National Coordinator for the UBS Where Is the Good Samaritan Today? outreach package She has run the training seminar for the package numerous times. She is shown in the Bible Society of Cameroon’s warehouse with stocks of the booklet Where Is The Good Samaritan Today? Photo: Norwegian BS/Dag Smemo (CAM05DJ-26.JPG)

CAMEROON — Beatrice Gangouap is a highly educated woman who wants to serve her people and her church with the abilities God has given her. Since February 2004 she has been the Bible Society of Cameroon’s national co-ordinator for the Where Is the Good Samaritan Today? outreach package. Last year in Cameroon she arranged and ran the course no fewer than 16 times.

Born into a Christian family in northern Cameroon, she belongs to the Evangelical Lutheran Church. She originally came south to complete her three Master’s degrees at Yaoundé Catholic University. Now aged 37, she is married with a daughter of two and was due to have a little boy at the end of July.

Rural women

Her experience qualifies her well for the job. In the past she has taught women at Bible school and at an agricultural school and has taught rural women about family planning, AIDS and other health matters.

She likes her Bible Society work, she says, because it draws on all her education. “I feel good being able to do something useful for the Bible Society and the churches,” she adds. “I feel strongly about being able to make a difference for the churches on this difficult subject.”

The Good Samaritan course, she explains, can be given at three different levels: for church leaders at a national level, at a regional level and for individual churches. The reactions to it have been very positive. The participants are “thrilled and want to use it where they come from,” which is exactly the reaction the Bible Society of Cameroon was hoping for.

So now, instead of seeking partners for the work, the Bible Society is being asked to put on the course for more and more groups.

“Normally it is impossible to see results from projects until two or three years have passed, but our seminars and workshops are giving results already,” she says.

This is in spite of the fact that the Bible Society of Cameroon decided it was going to treat participants differently from how they might expect.

In Africa people expect to get paid when they participate in a course, but with this one they even have to cover their own expenses. All they get is one set of the resource materials to take home; when they hold the course in their church or local community they can order more copies from the Bible Society. The resistance this aroused initially has vanished and the course is popular wherever it is held.

200 showed up!

When planning to hold it at the University of Douala in conjunction with the Cameroon Students’ Bible Fellowship, Beatrice was hoping for a class of 40 – but more than 200 showed up!

“We had neither food nor material enough for them all,” says Beatrice, “but the course was great! Next month we will be giving courses at two other universities.”

She also tells the story of one course where she hired a photographer to take some pictures.

“He was barely interested and told us beforehand that he was planning to take his pictures and move on to another job. But before long he was so caught up that he ended up staying for all three days of the course!”

600 schools

The word about it is going around the schools, too. The education department of one of the regions wanted the Bible Society of Cameroon to hold the course at all their 600 schools. This was beyond the Society’s immediate resources, however, so the region now intends to appoint someone who can be trained to give the courses in the schools.

Lack of Scriptural knowledge doesn’t seem to dampen people’s enthusiasm to undertake the course either; some don’t know the story of the Good Samaritan, but Beatrice and her colleagues are happy to provide some Bible study afterwards.

But when, as is mostly the case, the participants are Christians, towards the end of the three days the course challenges them all to see themselves as Good Samaritans and to arrange the course in their own community. And most do.

Another story she likes to tell is of how one night, at a market in Yaoundé, they gave a public showing of the film which is part of the outreach package Who Is Responsible? The Story of Suzanne.

Taxi driver

“Lots of people turned up. The next day I was going to the airport and when I got into the taxi the driver recognised me and asked, ‘Who’s responsible?’ He had seen the movie the previous night and was very enthusiastic about it! We enjoyed a long conversation about the different issues they focus on in the movie. This is just one example of how the material touches something, not only in the target group, but within most people.” (WR 395/12 - 08.05) [3 photos]

Cameroon stories and photos gathered by Dag Smemo (Norwegian Bible Societies). Registered users of the UBS Intranet can view all the photos gathered by Mr Smemo on his trip in the Image Gallery section.