• The persistence of yaws (and avoidable through simple hygiene measures), which affects
30% of the population;
• The highest prevalence of infectious and parasitic diseases and diarrhoea; the insignificant
protection against malaria (15% of teenage boys and 20% of teenage girls sleep under
mosquito net);
• The rapid rise in the prevalence rate of HIV-AIDS from 0 to 1.6% in a few years
incriminating unprotected sex with Bantu men and the taboo around sex (of which one cannot
talk about). Furthermore, 69.4% of teenage boys and teenage girls % have never seen a
condom.
• Alcohol and drugs that spread at high speed among youth and adults living on the outskirts
of Bantu villages.
2 In terms of drinking water
The situation is catastrophic:
Only 1% of the population has access to tap water;
38.3% use water from the river;
38.3% use water from the stream (usually unprotected)
21.8% use water from wells
Indigenous people trying to access water from streams or public wells are liable of severe
penalties.
3 In terms of education,
The enrolment rate estimated in 2006, did not exceed 26.8% of young indigenous
interviewed. It is through to the interventions of NGOs with religious affiliations that
education really took off.
The IPND has enrolled in 2004-2005, 1297 indigenous children in the Lékoumou region and
nearly a thousand the following year. It is again through NGOs that the movement was
amplified in the Sangha and Likouala regions.
The causes of poor access to education are:
Lack of schools;
Remoteness of schools often located out of the forest area;
Discrimination by the Bantus and lack of interest from indigenous parents who prefer
keeping their children with them in a hostile environment;
Early marriages;
School fees and education related fees too expensive and out of reach;
Bullying and other acts of discrimination by other Bantu students, teachers and
populations;
The gap between the school rhythm and semi nomadic life of indigenous people
(periods of hunting and harvesting which guide the indigenous life) where multiple
student absences.
In this hostile environment, the school really is struggling to establish itself as an everyday
reality for indigenous children.
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