The king comes calling

Expresses thanks for empowerment programs in Cameroon, Africa

By TOM KANE

HONESDALE, PA - Bringing messages of hope and thoughts of gratitude, King Sehm Mbinglo I made his way from Kumbo, Africa to Honesdale, PA.

The unusual visit was a reflection of the humanitarian partnership between the Himalayan Institute and the Nso Kingdom of the Northwest Province of the Republic of Cameroon where Mbinglo serves as king and chief religious advisor. For the last four and a half years, the institute’s efforts have developed several educational, economic and community development projects that are beginning to make a difference in the lives of many Cameroonians, especially young people.

“The Himalayan Institute has helped my people by providing employment opportunities that did not exist before,” Mbinglo said, through his interpreter Chemson Joseph, president of the Himalayan Institute Cameroon. “Youths graduate from school and they have no jobs. This program is providing both training and jobs.”

Mbinglo is visiting the Honesdale area to personally thank the many groups and individuals that contributed goods and financial support to the growing programs. The Honesdale Rotary has been especially active in this effort, in one instance sending a large cargo container filled with various essential supplies from clothing to library books.

Mbinglo mentioned two programs that are training people and offering them employment.

“The Total Health Center has trained people in the uses of homeopathic remedies and they go out into the community selling them,” he said. “They are also being trained to be homeopathic practition-ers. Another program is training people to be jewelry makers. They sell their products in the local community and even some of their jewelry is being sold at the Himalayan Institute in Honesdale.”

Some items are on sale at the Yoga Café on Honesdale’s Main Street and at the gift center at the institute’s Bethany location.

The institute is also building a public library in Kumbo.

Also receiving the king’s praise is a program called energy farming in which a tree, called the pangamia tree, and a shrub, called jatropa, produce a biodiesel fuel that is being used to replace gasoline. The program is an empowerment-based program and not an aid-based program, according to Ishan Tigunait, son of the institute’s spiritual leader, Pandit Tigunait.

“When you just dump aid into a needy African country, it falls apart when you leave,” he said. “But when your emphasis is to empower people, give them an opportunity to develop their potential, you’ve done far more than lighten their poverty for a brief time.

“With time, as the project grows, the youths of my country and of America could exchange their travels and go back to their countries knowing more about both worlds and improving their learning,” he said.

Mbinglo invited Wayne County residents to visit Kumbo and promised to return again.