Centre for Community Regeneration and Development

Centre for Community Regeneration and Development
(CCREAD-Cameroon) is a youth led development organization established in 2004 and legally registered as a non profit organization in December 2006 with Registration Number: 379/AG/G.42/162/AJPAS under Cameroon Law of 1990 governing non political associations. CCREAD-Cameroon won the 2011-2012 World Bank Development Marketplace Competition on the promotion of good governance, is affiliated to Peace Child International, (UK), MIYC South Korea, an active member of United Network of Young Peacebuilders (Worldwide) and an NGO participant of UN Global Compact.  CCREAD-Cameroon is also in Special Consultative Status with UN-ECOSOC

Vision
CCREAD-Cameroon helps to empower marginalised children, youths, women and indigenous populations merged with environmental sustainability through united youth actions.

Mission
Working in response to adopted community driven strategic plans, CCREAD-Cameroon currently has a mission to enhance the social, economic, cultural and political empowerment of children, youths, women and indigenous groups for poverty alleviation, better community organization, improved governance/human rights and environmental conservation and management.

Objectives
The activities implemented by CCREAD-Cameroon are guided by the following objectives:

1. Increase the application of good goverance, decentralisation, and democratic practices in hard to reach/marginalized regions.
2. Reduce the high incidence of poverty among marginalized women and youths with focus on hard-to-reach forest communities.
3. Increase basic education and health facility access for children, women and youths in poor communities.
4. Foster peacebuilding and conflict resolution initiatives in selected communities.
5. Increase the respect of the rights of children, and women
6. Raise environmental sustainability awareness and promote management actions among youths.

Operational area
South West, North West, West and Eastern Regions of Cameroon as core regions.

Activities undertaken
Leadership and peacebuilding training for women and youths.  Through this activity, Cameroonian youths in Kupe Muanenguba Division through schools and women were drilled on leadership qualities, peacebuilding and conflict prevention/resolution skills mainstreamed with human resources management abilities/decentralisation education.  A total of 4,692 youths and 1,982 women have received training.

Leadership training
Recognizing that corruption remains a key development limiting factor in most sectors in Cameroon, CCREAD-Cameroon has also joined other stakeholders in fighting corruption starting with schools in 2011.  A national baseline study on the challenges of corruption and governance was completed and adopted.
A governance Education Manual was developed and 1,200 copies distributed to major stakeholders and 82 school anti corruption campaigns and advocacy forums were organised.
Schools management Boards were instituted and trained to fight and report corruption in schools in the South West Regions.
Governance training and fight against corruption campaigns were organised through youth actions.
Many inter tribal conflicts result from land problems and the marginalization of particular groups.  CCREAD-Cameroon has been responding to these problems by organizing communities into groups, educating them and assisting them to start group initiatives for poverty alleviation/solving land conflicts.

Training women and indigenous groups on project planning, fundraising and networking
Started in 2011, this project helps women and youths constituted into development common initiative groups on identifying community problems, documentation, elaboration of micro projects, finding and mobilizing resources, creating relevant partnership monitoring and evaluation/reporting of their result to the general public.  CCREAD-Cameroon has organized 12 regional trainings/follow-up workshops reaching 12 groups through 120 group leaders and members in the South West Region of Cameroon

Rise for Nature Programme
This is an integrated environmental sustainability programme which CCREAD-Cameroon launched in 2011 to respond to nature conservation and rural development needs in many hard-to-reach forest communities of Kupe Muanenguba region.  Activities were targeted towards forest and wildlife conservation unsustainable practices campaigns, environmental education through schools, climate change and adaptation education, instituting alternative livelihoods activities with indigenous forest communities and advocacy for the respect of the rights to benefits from natural resources. Through campaigns and field actions, 25 communities have been reached, 27 schools covered and 2 regional advocacy forums held by the end of 2012.

In many parts of Cameroon, women still experience violation of their sexual/reproductive rights, cultural and political rights  and exclusion from cultural inheritances.   By December 2012 CCRead organised 6 regional advocacy and education forums on the rights of women.  30 women leaders were trained on human rights education and counseling and over 2,000 human rights education leaflets were handed to policy and traditional leaders.

Women’ rights activities
CCREAD-Cameroon has continued the donation of hygiene and sanitation materials (toilets, water, waste management materials and facility management).  From 201o-2012, 5 toilets have been constructed for 5 community primary schools, 10 volunteer teachers were sent to teach in schools and 200 water drinking buckets and cups were distributed to school children.

Direct assistance to needy schools in marginalized forest communities
Working to end high mortality rates in rural communities CCREAD has focused on the training of traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in  rural areas with emphases on communities with no health units.  In collaboration with BKFA, CCREAD-Cameroon distributes each month 500 birthing kits to rural women and community centers to help in safe and clean delivery.

Planned projects for the future

• Vocational training for youths and women on ICTs, Tailoring entrepreneurship, and leadership.
• Scaling up of youth leadership and governance training.
• School base peace, human rights, governance and environmental education.
• Start of Rise for Nature Program Phase 3 in 5 communities on environmental sustainability and climate change adaptation.
• Integrated poverty alleviation scheme for women and youths in need.
• Assistance to 10 schools through classroom and toilet constructions.
• Donation of birthing kits to rural women for safe and clean delivery

Team members
Hilary Ewang Ngide – Executive Director MS.c(Development/Environment, PGC(PPME), BS.c(Geo& planning)
Belinda Menyange – Programs Officer BS.c (Sociology/Anthropology)
Etienne Mponne – Projects officer BS.c (Environmental mgt)
Sylvie E. Epolle – Outreach manager LL.B
Cirus Msumbe Epie – Communications officer B.ED, Dip(Communications)
Ntungwe Remitus – Administrator LLB, Dip in PME
Lucy Etuge – Partnerships BA, Community development
Lyn Tim – Outreach Assist. LLB, Dip HRM
Anna Dressler – Coordinator.

Future in Our Hands Womens Co-operative, Oku

Future In Our Hands Cooperative Oku
FIOH Oku is a women’s farming cooperative made of over 5 Common Initiative Groups (CIGs) representing over five villages in Oku Subdivision.  It was created on the 22nd of September 1999.  It encourages the spirit of hard work, cooperation and togetherness in women.  It is called a women’s cooperative because 95% of members are women.  Her creation was thanks to the interest SHUMAS NGO and Future Our Hands had to empower women and the vulnerable in the Oku community.  It has as motto: educate a man, educate an individual; educate a woman to educate a whole nation.  This is because of the socio-economic importance of a woman in the purely African village community like Oku.  Some of the projects realised by FIOH-Oku:-

• Improving the processing and transformation of corn and cassava through mills and haulers donated by SHUMAS and her partners.
• Offering loans to members at very minimal interest rates through a scheme developed by SHUMAS.
• Through SHUMAS there has been the development of community health infrastructure for the village of Lui.
• Regular production of organic food crops and other natural products for income generation and food security.
• Attending agro-pastoral shows to market their produce.
• Training and practising sustainable and integrated farming and livestock productions methods amongst her members.
• Training and application of agroforestry techniques to her membership.

Oku is located in Bui Division of the North West Region of Cameroon.  It is made up of 36 village communities mostly living along the slopes of the Kilum Mountain.  The people depend mostly on forest resources, subsistence agriculture, cash crop farming, livestock production and local artisan work for their livelihood.  The Kilum Ijim Forest found in the community is a naturally preserved moist montane forest with a surface area of about 20,000 hectares.  It is located in the Mount Oku Ridge in the Bamenda Highlands and forms part of the High Plateaus Agro-ecological Zone of Cameroon.  The geographic location of the area is latitude 6°07’N – 6°17’N and longitude 10°20’E – 10°25’E.  It has very important and threatened Afro-Montane endemic animal and plant species such as Prunus africana amongst others.  It is an internationally important biodiversity hotspot and a critical zone for carbon sequestration within the High Plateaus Agro-ecological Zone.
The Kilum area is one of the highly populated locations in Africa and Cameroon in particular, accommodating 144,800 people occupying about 328 km2 (439.3persons/km2); hence, high pressure on resources is inevitable.  There has been progressive deforestation and degradation mainly due to agricultural expansion, forest fire and overgrazing.  Fuel wood harvesting has also been a major cause of deforestation and forest degradation.  The late 1980s decline in coffee prices triggered many farmers to migrate further up the slopes in search of new land to increase income through alternative crops.

Within two years of its formation the activities of the co-operative had a profound positive impact on the lives of the women:

Former situation

1. We were scattered and never cared to come together because we did farming far away from our homes because of the eucalyptus trees that were planted around our homes by men.
2. We thought that only men had the right to inherit the property of parents.  We never attended seminars and training programmes.
3. We were shy to express ourselves among men and only played the part of listening.
4. Our opportunities for income-generation were very limited.
5. We thought HIV/AIDS was a curse from God and an opportunity for white people to sell us condoms.
6. We thought that bread and cakes production was the duty of men.  We did not know the importance of business – buyam sellam.
7. If a woman was illiterate when she married we thought this was the last chance for her to become literate.
8. Single parents had to resort to work on farms just to feed the family. They had insufficient income for their children’s education.
9. Women believed that only men had the right to determine how many children they should bear.
10. Husbands decided which political party their wives should vote for in Elections.
11.  Only men had the right to erect buildings and got the credit for doing so despite the help of women.
12. Men brought in second wives without the consent of the first wife, claiming it is their right.
13. Women thought only of their own needs and rarely discussed problems together.  We did not engage with women from other villages.
14. Widows used to sleep on bare floors in very smokey houses that constituted a breeding ground for germs and diseases.

Current situation

1. We now farm around our homes and have enough time to come together.  Children now attend school as they do not have to come with us to distant farms.  We have gained experience by coming together e.g. joined savings and credit groups with small interest charged on loans. We now have small businesses that help to solve some of our problems like paying for school fees and drugs.  We are healthy and do not have to rely on our husbands for money.
2. We have attended many seminars organised by SHUMAS and the Diocesan Commission for Justice and Peace, Bishops House, Kumbo, Human Rights agent and the International Federation of Female Lawyers in Cameroon.
3. Now we express ourselves freely because of the lectures from SHUMAS and human rights agent who told us that every person is the same before the law and has the right to express his/her views freely.
4.  We now produce tablet and powder soap and hire a hand cart for transporting items.
5. Through seminars we have learned that HIV/AIDS is real.  We go out to schools and talk on the rural radio about the dangers and the precautioins that must be taken.  There have been significant changes in sexual behaviour as a result.
6. We now have our own small bakery and members can take part in bread making and poff poff production.  We sell what we make and employ male youths to carry to far distant places by motorbike to sell.
7. The eucalyptus replacement project has enabled women to have more time to engage in adult literacy classes.  These include married women who were once illiterate.
8. FIOH Oku has encouraged single parents to join the co-opertive and learn how to engage in income generating activities.  The co-operative has provided them with small loans and they are now able to sell items in the market.  Some have been able to send their children to school and have given testimonies on how their lives have improved.
9. From the lectures and seminars women became more aware that men and women should jointly agree the number of children they should bear.
10. Through the education of the human rights agent and messages from Mike Thomas of the FIOH UK Fund, women now know their rights to vote in their own right.
11. Women now realise that they can take the initiative in putting up a building.  Our women have bought a plot of land and have erected their own meeting hall.
12. Through the co-operative we have taught women the importance of marriage certificates and various types of marriage .  If monogamy is the choice then men have no right to bring in a second wife or mistress.
13. We now have exchange visits with other womens co-operatives in our network.  We exchange ideas and learn from each others experience.
14. Now most women, especially FIOH women, do not now sleep in such houses.  When their husbands die they sit in a special room with friends who comfort them.

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Strategic Humanitarian Services

Strategic Humanitarian Services (SHUMAS), a Cameroonian Development NGO, after working on its own for sometime, considered possible networking and collaboration with northern NGOs who shared common objectives and methods of approach to development. Between 1997 and 1999, the General Co-ordinator of SHUMAS, Stephen Ndzerem and the President of Plant a Tree in Africa (PATIA)/Co-ordinator of Future in Our Hands Education and Development Fund UK, Mike Thomas, were involved in some intensive correspondence.
One of the issues they discussed was how to seek a sustainable solution to the adverse effects of eucalyptus plantations on water sources and farming areas. Women were the principal victims.
In 1999 Mike Thomas visited to carry out a site assessment and provided £500 from PATIA (matched by SHUMAS) to establish a nursery for 40,000 tree seedlings (10 species) and fell several thousand eucalyptus.
Because of the encroachment of the trees into existing and potential farming areas, many women have to walk long distances (often 15 miles or more) to find new areas to farm. They will then live in temporary self-made huts for 2 to 4 weeks before returning home with whatever they can carry on their heads.  Many will carry babies or take young children with them.  People in general, usually women and children, have to walk further and further each year to fetch water.  A summary of the project and its outcomes are shown below.
Information gained from the pilot project was used in support of an application to the Big Lottery Fund to fund a large project named the Eucalyptus Replacement Project .
A 10 page brochure summarising the first phase of the project can be seen here:
CAMEROON – EUREP I – BROCHURE
Since then SHUMAS has established partnerships with AidCamps International and Building Schools for Africa both of which have resulted in a comprehensive school building programme involving a partnership between local communities and the schools’ parent teacher associations.
A Buildings Schools for Africa report can be seen here:
BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR AFRICA Newsletter October 2014
SHUMAS is now a well respected organisation in the area and has established many projects, including those summarised below, which have improved the lives of poor people in both urban and rural areas. More details can be seen at the SHUMAS web site:
STRATEGIC HUMANITARIAN SERVICES

SHUMAS integrated organic farming training centre

Another inspirational development has been the establishment of an Organic Farming Training Centre in the NW Region near Kumbo.
Details of the operation of the Centre can be seen in this 34 page report: BIOFARM

Primary health care
A partnership with Spreading Health [Founded by Dr Peter Hearn] is facilitating primary health care training for people in the rural areas.  This has included a scheme to sponsor local village candidates to train for three years at the St Louis Higher Institute of Health & Biomedical Sciences in Bamenda (the capital of NW Cameroon).

Womens co-operative network
During his visit in 1999, SHUMAS gave Mike Thomas an opportunity to present his idea for establishing savings and credit cooperatives to about 300 women.  There were some initial setbacks but before 2000 more than five co-operatives had been trained and became fully operational.
By 2014 sixty two autonomous co-operatives all of which have again come under the single umbrella called Future in Our Hands Womens Credit Union Cooperative- Cameroon.
The FIOH co-operatives are quite different from conventional co-operatives. FIOH concentrates on building the capacities of grass roots women through encouraging the spirit of sharing, co-operation and fellowship, rather than on too much external dependency and a quest for individual material gain.

The SHUMAS head office and rehabilitation centre
In February 2009 SHUMAS started the construction of an inspirational new building that combined facilities for both staff and vocational training for disabled people. The building was completed later that year. The SHUMAS head office combines facilities for administrative staff with those providing vocational training for disabled people. The object is to provide disabled people with the means to become economically self-reliant and the ability to effectively participate in the development of their communities.

The objectives of the Centre are to:

• Train disabled people in self-reliant skills so that they will be able to carry out economic activities which enhance their self-esteem and enable them to be part of the mainstream of development of their communities.
• Train them in basic management and leadership skills.
• Continuously monitor and evaluate graduates for some years to assess their progress.
• Set up a revolving micro-finance scheme to benefit ex-trainees.
• Advocate for the rights of disabled people.

 

 

The Eucalyptus Replacement Project

The project was launched in 2000 and was supported by all sections of the community and government authorities and provided the framework for the introduction of new ideas to the women.
The womens network was to play an important role in the day-to-day management of the project which involved the felling of 1,017,200 eucalyptus and the raising of 2,624,000 mainly indigenous African trees (60 species) carried out in two phases between July 2000 and October 2008.
The projects cleared about 463 ha of eucalyptus trees resulting in the recovery of 105 springs and 140 water taps during the dry season. Over 9,000 women who had previously walked long distances to farm and collect water, were able to farm close to their homes.
Statistics in 6 rural health centres and 1 hospital recorded an average 27% reduction in water born disease during the life of the project. It was estimated that an additional 5,153 children were able to go to school because of the increase in family incomes resulting from the projects.
The local authority and many individual farmers copied the example of the project and hence the figures shown above are an underestimate of the project’s impact.

 

Ebola identification and prevention programme

FIOH Sierra Leone carried out this programme in 2015.  The FIOH Fund contributed £7,138 towards this project located in the Tonkolili, Bombali and Port Loko districts in the north of the country.  Most of the funding came from Bread for the World.

Where does Ebola come from?
The first known incidents of the Ebola virus were in 1976.  There were two simultaneous outbreaks in Nzara in Sudan and Yambuku in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo).  The name of the Ebola river near Yambuku was given to the new epidemic.
Outbreaks have mainly occured in remote villages in Central and West Africa, close to tropical rainforests.
The main outbreaks were in West Africa, mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Ebola is described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “one of the most virulent viral diseases known to humankind.”
There are five distinct species of Ebola and the survival rate ranges from 25 to 90%. There is no licensed vaccine for Ebola although several are currently being tested.

How is the Ebola virus transmitted?

• Ebola is passed to humans through close contact with the blood or bodily fluids of infected animals.  Fruit bats, monkeys and chimpanzees can all carry the virus.
• Ebola then spreads through human-to-human transmission, again from contact with blood or bodily fluids.
• Burial ceremonies where mourners touch the body of the dead person can also spread the disease.
• The incubation period (the time from infection to the onset of symptoms) is between two to 21 days.
• People remain infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus.

What are the symptoms?
Initial symptoms include the sudden onset of a high fever, muscle pain, general weakness, headache and sore throat.
Further symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea, rashes, damage to the kidney and liver function.
In some cases symptoms can include both internal and external bleeding.
There is no known cure or vaccine for ebola.

How can the virus be prevented?

• Routinely cleaning and disinfecting farms to inactivate the virus.
• Animals should be handled with gloves and protective clothing. Meat should be thoroughly cooked before eating.
• If an outbreak is suspected in animals, the premises should be quarantined and infected animals culled.
• Avoiding physical contact with people infected with Ebola and protective clothing must be worn.
• Washing hands after visiting patients in hospital, or after taking care of those infected at home.
• Inform the authorities when a community is affected so containment measures can be taken.
• Ebola victims should be buried quickly and safely, with no direct contact with the corpse.

What is being done to treat it?
Several vaccines are being tested, but none have been approved for clinical use.
Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care.  Patients are frequently dehydrated and require oral rehydration with solutions containing electrolytes or intravenous fluids.

Background to the project and problem analysis
In May 2014 the Mano River Union countries (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea) experienced an outbreak of ebola.  Between May and  October 2014  the disease  left over 4000 people dead in this part of West Africa.  In Sierra Leone the epidemic spread across the length and breadth of the country.
Since the outbreak the Future In Our Hands – Sierra Leone together with Youth with Focus, Kankalay Youth Development, Sorbeh Nyagah Women’s Association and God is God Ministries were part of the national Sensitization Team engaged in Community Education on the Prevention and spread of the Ebola Virus.  Our messages focused on the causes, symptoms, preventive measures and required action in the case of infection.  Although we were fairly satisfied that most communities were fully aware about the outbreak and the infectious nature of the disease, we realised the  need to take the fight to another level as the spread of the disease was not then contained.  We realised that the strategy then adopted was mainly focused on providing supportive treatment for infected patients at specially established treatment centres in Kenema and Kailahun; then scaled up to Freetown.  Initially the follow-up of contacts was difficult due to mistrust and resistance of the local communities; attributing the infection to witchcraft, failing to take sick patients to hospitals and resisting attempts to collect dead bodies by the authorized burial teams for sanitary burials.  These challenges led to a failure to effectively interrupt the chain of infection.  The situation was aggravated by the very weak capacity of local health facilities as they were not able to adequately mount a consistent response due to ill preparedness and loss of staff frightened by the high morbidity among their ranks.  This utter state of paucity weakened the overall health system even further. Communities were not equipped to isolate suspected cases effectively.  This led to an increase in stigma, discrimination and fear. This awareness among FIOH-SL ignited an action to build community capacity to respond to the ebola epidemic by forging stronger partnership and collaboration with state actors and non-state actors.
The death of many health care workers in the country created panic and mistrust in hospitals, with reports that some health care workers were abandoning their posts.  Ebola is almost universally fatal.  Victims were socially stigmatized and isolation represented an offense and family shame.
Some of those affected by the virus were either abandoned or rejected by their families during hospitalization.  In the isolation ward in particular, the most harrowing experience for victims and health workers was the loss of friends and colleagues who died next to them.  The reluctance of hospital personnel to treat them and the abandonment by medical staff including the refusal to admit visitors  was also difficult to bear for most patients.  The grief for family members who did not survive was also very intense.  Some of those who survived either tried to escape from their families or immediate neighbourhoods for fear of stigmatization.  Those who survived, even though completely healthy, were feared by others.  People did not want to come near them or have anything to do with them.  Even their children were told not to touch them and wives were told to go back to their home villages and communities.  The discrimination extended to family members and friends, who were regularly shunned at market places and other public areas.  For the community, the psychological trauma of losing loved ones and witnessing death on a large scale and ebola burial methods were very distressing and traumatic and often caused severe long term mental health consequences for the relatives of the victims.

Prior to the outbreak of the ebola virus in the country, Sierra Leoneans were much concerned about family members’ sicknesses, deaths and other social issues.  In most cases the families even raised funds to bury their dead with the full participation of community members whether the community was heterogeneous or homogeneous.  The community members also provided peer support for those with serious illnesses or for bereaved family members.  But with the collapse of this unique practice due to the ebola virus outbreak in the country, there were very serious family divisions and animosities.  For instance, family members could not touch their loved ones in the event of sickness or death, while members of the community.
The FIOH Sierra Leone forum saw the need to promote peace among families, in the communities and in the nation as a whole. The forum aimed to provide psychosocial support to survivors, family members and volunteers, including social workers and clinicians.  Volunteers, mainly community leaders, social workers and family members, were trained to conduct community sessions/outreach campaigns for the mitigation and reduction of stigma and fear of ebola survivors and their families in the communities.

Objectives
Overall Objective:

• Eradicate Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) from communities by April, 2015
• Increased respect for human right of EVD infected person by April, 2015

Specific Objectives:

1. Increased community awareness to prevent ebola
2. Strengthened community health services able to prevent ebola transmission
3. Increased protection of ebola susceptible person
4. Improved environmental sanitation and personal hygiene
5. Re-integrate affected communities

Coordinate and monitor project implementation.

Project activities

1. Increased community awareness to prevent ebola
2. Volunteers ans staff trained on ebola prevention and contact tracing
3. House-to-house visits carried out to identify sick persons for referral to health facilities.
4. Reports made to district Ebola Operation Center (EOC) of all suspect persons or death and samples collected for ebola test.
5. Flash electronic thermometers distributed.
6. Health workers trained in Universal precaution and use of PPE.
7. Community volunteers trained to work with burial teams.
8. Infected persons transported to holding centers.
9. Relief items including blankets, food, and water distributed to holding centre.
10. Dead bodies collected from communities for sanitary disposal.
11. Family members trained on hand washing and waste disposal methods.
12. Ebola confirmed premises disinfected.
13. 30 hand pump water wells constructed.
14. 30 hand pump water wells rehabilitated.
15. 600 ventilated pit latrines constructed.
16. Agricultural packages (seeds & tools) distributed to 100 farm family heads.

The table below summarises the situation in the three regions in mid 2015:

Protective measures.           Training.                     Safe burials.

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School building and education in Yonibana, Tonkolili District

Background and problem analysis
Before the advent of the 11 years long civil conflict in Sierra Leone, education was regarded as one of the corner stones of socio-economic development of the country.   During this era, the country used to be called the ‘antens of West Africa’ where people along the West African coast came to acquire quality education.
But this situation changed during and after the war when the country experienced massive destruction of the social and educational structures which in turn made its citizens vulnerable and jeopardised the future of children thereby denying their protection right which is education.   This has also been compounded by the outbreak of the Ebola Virus disease which denied effective schooling for children during 2014 and most of 2015.
The Rosari Benthee, Fouthernefor, Mayolah, Mayebo and Magbanapoli communities are found in these remote parts of Kunke chiefdom in the Tonkolili District where children trek over four miles to access educational facilities in chiefdom headquarter town (Masingbe) and the neighbouring chiefdoms.
During the rains children reached the schools with their uniform and books soaked and most times returned home without learning.
In addition, most children had to go across streams from their different villages and during the peak of the rainy seasons most streams became over-flooded stopping the children from reaching the school.
Through community initiative and support, in 2008 a three classroom building was constructed with mud and roofed with thatch but leaked profusely during heavy rains. This coupled with poor sanitary conditions (no water well and toilets facilities) made these children prone to health hazards.
This school, with a population of 110 pupils, was supported by community voluntary teachers with limited sitting accommodation, teaching and learning materials hence making learning difficult for these children in classes 1, 2 & 3.
However, this classroom building could not accommodate the increased population of children.   With the growth of the school to classes 4,5 & 6, there was a need to provide basic educational facilities for these disadvantaged children as the facilities used were not educationally productive.
It is against this backdrop the Rosarr Primary Education project was designed to provide a conducive learning environment for 200 children drawn from five village communities in the Kunike Chiefdom in the Tonkolili District.

Objectives

• To construct a 3-classroom building with a staff room and store
• To construct a hand pump water well in the school compound
• To construct a 4-apartment VIP toilet
• To furnish building with desks, benches, chairs, chalk, exercise books, pens, pencils and rulers.

This project is one of several school building projects partly funded by the FIOH Fund.  During 2014/15 the FIOH Fund provided grants of £5,040 for a school building programme in the district with the generous support of Georg Hansen from Norway.

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Future in Our Hands Sierra Leone

Future in Our Hands Sierra Leone
Background
An FIOH group was established by Olatunde Johnson in Freetown in the 1980s and registered as a national non-government organisation by Edward Kargbo in 1995.  The first interest in FIOH arose from an article in the New Internationalist and the second from a seminar at Port Loko when Mike Thomas paid a second visit to the country in 1993.  Edward, who attended the seminar, formed an association of 13 farmers groups which was then named the FIOH Farmers Union. The name was later changed to FIOH Sierra Leone.
Edward Kargbo testimony: EDWARD TESTIMONY

Mission Statement
The Mission of FIOH Sierra Leone is to co-ordinate and facilitate the efforts of village development groups by enabling them to access farming inputs, modern farming techniques, education and skills poverty alleviation programmes, sanitation and credit facilities for self-sustainability and self reliance.
Programme interventions – capacity building, food security, women and youth empowerment, environment, health and sanitation, advocacy.

Brief History Of The Organisation:
The Future In Our Hands Sierra Leone (FIOH-SL) is an indigenous non-governmental organization with a Head Office in Makeni (Bombali district) and sub-offices in Kabala town (Koinadugu District) and Mile 91 (Tonkolili District).  It was established in 1993 as an offshoot of what was formally the Yoni Farmers’ Union.  In 1994, as the situation in Sierra Leone deteriorated, the membership decided that FIOH had a vital role to play in providing assistance to those affected by the escalating conflict.  The main focus of the organization during the rebel war was to complement the emergency and relief work of the Government of Sierra Leone, as well as that of international and national NGOs. 

During and immediately after the war, FIOH worked in collaboration with CARE International, Department for International Development (DFID) UK, Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) UK and the World Food Programme (WFP) UN, distributing food and other relief items to internally displaced persons in their operational areas.  Further activities included providing psychosocial support to affected communities and raising awareness on human rights, HIV and AIDS prevention and control.

Edward Kargbo and his family surviving in the bush
Youth group in Freetown
Displaced people queuing for food at Mile 91
FIOH vocational training centre at Mile 91

Following the end of the conflict in 2002, FIOH shifted its focus from emergency relief to development which involved building the capacity of communities for self reliance.  It has continued to build partnerships and linkages with a variety of local and international organizations and has implemented two projects (Conservation Agriculture Project (CAP) and Villages Savings and Loans (VS&L) project with CARE-SL in Koinadugu District whilst the Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) has provided the human resource support.  In addition, the FIOH Fund-UK and UN/WFP supported Life Skills Trainings and Community Asset Creation for marginalized youths and communities.
FIOH-SL also enjoys strong links with community based organisations (CBOs) at grassroots level aimed at building their capacities to better serve their communities.

Food for work
During 2003 FIOH Sierra Leone was able to increase its operational area to include 3 chiefdoms (Kissy Tongi, Njaluahun and Dea) in the Kailahun District and two chiefdoms (Kalansogoia and Sambaia Benduga) in the Tonkolili District.

In  August 2012, FIOH Norway member, Nini Haeggernes, visited Sierra Leone and was made aware of the work of Edward Kargbo by Mike Thomas.  Subsequent to her visit she wrote an article which appeared in the FIOH Norway magazine, Folkevette: FOLKEVETT-FIOH SIERRA LEONE

Norwegian, Georg Hansen, read this article and decided to visit the country and see the the work of FIOH Sierra Leone. He has raised a considerable sum of money to support a school building programme and has contributed funds to address the ebola crisis in 2015.

Future in Our Hands Sierra Leone
37 Lunsar Road
Makeni City
Northern Region
Sierra Leone

 

 

 

Community tree planting nursery in Oku – FIOH Co-operative

Nursery Development for Environmental Education and Forest Regeneration in Oku
In 2014 the FIOH Fund provided grants of £500 each for community tree planting to two non-government organisations with offices based in Oku on the edge of Kilum Ijim natural forest, in the NW Region of Cameroon:

1. Cameroon Gender and Environment Watch (CAMGEW)  and
2. Future in Our Hands Womens Co-operative, Oku

This report was prepared by the FIOH Oku co-operative leader, Gangli Mary Nkeng.

1. Presentation of  FIOH-Oku and the current project
Future In Our Hands Cooperative is a women’s farming cooperative made up of over 5 Common Initiative Groups (CIGs) representing over five villages in Oku Subdivision.  It was created on the 22nd of September 1999.  It encourages the spirit of hard work, cooperation and togetherness in women.  It is called a women’s cooperative because 95% of members are women.  Her creation was thanks to the interest SHUMAS NGO and Future Our Hands–Oku had to empower women and the vulnerable in the Oku community.  It has as its motto: educate a man, educate an individual; educate a woman to educate a whole nation.  This is because of the socio-economic importance of a woman in the purely African village community like Oku.  Since its creation FIOH-Oku has realised the following projects (just summaries):

• Improving the processing and transformation of corn and cassava through mills and haulers donated by SHUMAS and her partners.
• Offering loans to members at very minimal interest rates through a scheme developed by SHUMAS.
• Through SHUMAS there has been the development of community health infrastructure for the village of Lui.
• Regular production of organic food crops and other natural products for income generation and food security.
• Attending agro-pastoral shows to market their produce.
• Training and practising sustainable and integrated farming and livestock productions methods amongst her members.
• Training and application of agroforestry techniques to her membership.

In 2014, FIOH-Oku received a grant of £500 pounds from Michael Thomas of FIOH Fund-UK to develop a nursery of indigenous trees. We developed two nurseries with the funds, one of 3,000 indigenous trees in 2014 and another of 3,500 indigenous trees in 2015.

2. Presentation of the project area
Oku is located in Bui Division of the North West Region of Cameroon.  It is made up of 36 village communities mostly living along the slopes of the Kilum Mountain.  The people depend mostly on forest resources, subsistence agriculture, cash crop farming, livestock production and local artisan work for their livelihood.  The Kilum Ijim Forest found in the community is a naturally preserved moist montane forest with a surface area of about 20,000 hectares.  It is located in the Mount Oku Ridge in the Bamenda Highlands and forms part of the High Plateaus Agro-ecological Zone of Cameroon. The geographic location of the area is latitude 6°07’N – 6°17’N and longitude 10°20’E – 10°25’E.  It has very important and threatened Afro-Montane endemic animal and plant species such as Prunus africana amongst others.  It is an internationally important biodiversity hotspot and a critical zone for carbon sequestration within the High Plateaus Agro-ecological Zone.
The Kilum area is one of the most highly populated locations in Africa and Cameroon in particular, accommodating 144,800 people occupying about 328 km2 (439.3persons/km2); hence, high pressure on resources is inevitable.  There has been progressive deforestation and degradation mainly due to agricultural expansion, forest fire and overgrazing.  Fuel wood harvesting has also been a major cause of deforestation and forest degradation.  The late 1980s decline in coffee prices triggered many farmers to migrate further up the slopes in search of new land to increase income through alternative crops.

3. Project goal and activities
The project goal was to train community members on agroforestry techniques which are soil conserving, fight poverty and hunger and to establish a nursery of indigenous trees for planting in farms and the community forests.
The objective was to offer practical agroforestry skills to at least 50 persons including men, women and children and to enable the participants to set up a nursery composed of indigenous trees for out planting within the community.

4. Project activities

Planning meeting:
After the FIOH Cameroon Network seminar and workshop held on May, 10th 2014 at SHUMAS Head Office Bamenda, FIOH-Oku had a planning meeting on May, 16th whose objective was:

1. To report on the conduct of the seminar
2. Present to FIOH members the cash gift given by Mike Thomas from FIOH-UK to enable members to nurse and plant indigenous trees
3. Plan on when to start work on the project.

Collections of seeds and seedlings:
On the 29th of May we met to plan on how to get sticks of the nursery fence. It was agreed that each member was to provide five sticks and men in addition will help make the fence.  We equally planned on the collection of seeds and young seedlings for the nursery.  We agreed to collect from the forest and from our farms.  We equally decided to involve school children.  The president was assigned to contact the head teacher of the school which she did.

Clearing, tilling and fencing of the nursery site:
The men did the clearing while the women did the tilling.  This activity took place in the month of July, 2014.

Formation of nursery beds and nursing of seeds and seedlings:
Formation of beds and planting proper took place in July. Before nursing and planting the school children were taught by their teachers on the spot about the importance of trees to man and nature.  The names of the trees in the Oku language were also made known to them.  The planting was done with the children and their teacher.  They were given some money for food and transport.

Weeding and monitoring of nursery:
Since the cooperative is made up of CIGs, the work was divided into groups and each group had a given task for weeding and monitoring.  We jointly sold the young trees to CAMGEW for the sum of 178,000 CFA.

5. Detailed methodology and activities used during the project
We had a planning meeting with our members.  Participants were trained by-doing in the field (a small demonstration plot we had at Manchok-Oku) on agroforestry nursery development using many locally sustainable approaches easily understood by the community.  They were also trained on the importance of organic manure (compost) and how to produce organic pesticides.  Lessons were given on the importance of trees in their farms, the advantages of enclosing their animals (goats, sheep, cows, fowls, pigs etc) to get animal dung to use in their farms for soil fertility improvement and increase food production.  Through on-the-spot field work they were able to identify the dangers of Eucalyptus planting and why the trees should be cut down and replaced by agroforestry species and indigenous trees.  The training was offered in the local languages (Oku) and in Pidgin English.
The principles of agroforestry were taught in the first part of the field learning.  These included lessons on sustainable land management, trees and global climate change, agroforestry technologies (windbreaks, living fences, alley cropping terraces and contour plantings, firebreaks, forest gardening, and integrated production systems) and agroforestry for livestock management, conservation techniques, integrated pest management, composting, perceived needs of the community, income-generating activities, major agroforestry species (Leuceana, Calliandra, Acacia, Tephrosia), seed collection, storage, and pre-treatment, bare root nurseries and bare stem seedlings.  Practical work was done on the second part of the training.  Participants had to do practical nursery development activities.  They tilled the soil; they planted some seeds while getting information on how to plant them.  Prunus africana and other indigenous trees were nursed from where the seedlings will be planted into farms and other areas in the community.

6. Participants at the demonstration plot in Manchok, Oku
May – July 2014: 4 men, 36 women and 35 children
June – July 2015: 5 men, 35 women and 45 children

7. Challenges
From the beginning of the project, many of our plants did not germinate or they died after germination, but our team and the participants did not give up.  We benefitted from the technical support of the chief of post of forestry just of recent.  He is very much willing to work with us.  He told us the first error was because we collected the seedlings poorly and the roots got infected or dried up.  We were able to nurse over 7,000 trees and 3,000 survived.  Some of the trees were out planted during the CAMGEW tree planting exercise in the community forest.

8. Conclusion
Currently we have developed another nursery of 3,500 trees consisting of Prunus africana, Schefllera species and other locally known species.  The trainings went on smoothly with the participants learning during the practical steps.  We saw that participants were participatory in the activities.  Old mothers and fathers who do not know how to speak English raised their hands and asked questions or shared their knowledge on agroforestry techniques using the local language.  We learned a lot in the process from indigenous knowledge on agroforestry techniques from participants.  There was an integration of the traditional methods of farming and agroforestry techniques by the participants.

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Environment and Rural Development Foundation

Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF) is a Cameroonian non-profit organization founded in 1999.  It is the only indigenous non-profit organization working on research and conservation of great apes in Cameroon.

 

Background
The Lebialem Highlands (LH) have a history of poaching and unsustainable agricultural practices over the last several decades.  These Highlands are situated in the South West Province, Cameroon.  This project seeks to introduce a community-led micro-credit initiative through the creation of an environmental protection fund which will serve both as a revolving fund and provide start-up grants to the most impoverished farming groups that continue to farm and construct on marginal and fragile lands.  This is a project of the Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF), which was initiated in 2001 to protect and conserve the montane and lowland rainforest ecosystems in and around LH and improve on the quality of living of the local inhabitants. 

The Highlands cover an area of 1,323 sq km comprising forest lands, sub-montane, montane and grassland habitats.  The Highlands lodge many species of endangered plants and animals including elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, drills, crocodiles, tortoise and red list data plants.  It is one of the only three mountain regions in Cameroon still having a continual graduation from 180m to 2510m above sea level.

The LH area is one of the poorest areas in Cameroon.  Very low levels of income (usually less than $ 0.5 a day), limited land management skills, lack of credit facilities, lack of market access and lack of medical care, characterize all the communities in the region especially those bordering the forest areas and those completely lacking access routes.  Their economy is essentially that of hunting, gathering and fishing.  Their agricultural potentials are low especially as they continue to farm on marginal lands prone to landslides every year and their economic options are low due to lack of market access.  However, the vast non-timber forest products present one of the opportunities for exploration to raise the incomes of the rural people.

The majority of the peasants have no access to credit facilities. The Cameroon Credit Union League (CAMCCUL), the main micro-finance institution in the country field, has offices located very far away from most of these communities and can only serve a very tiny proportion of the over 30,000 indigenous people living here.

Most people here rely on an informal network of money lenders who often charge very high interest rates (> 50%) and will seize poor farmer’s properties if interest payments or debts are not repaid.
In this context many farmers and young people have no choice but to encroach into the neighbouring protected areas and the marginal lands in search of farm land at little or no cost.  Struggling with debts, these local farmers, who for the most part have no access routes, have no choice but to resort to heavy poaching, poisoning of rivers for fishing, illegal logging and land encroachment.  This is causing the unsustainable exploitation of the wildlife resources, especially the endangered fauna.

In the Highlands area the continual cropping of marginal lands leads to several landslides each year which have, in the recent past, led to hundreds of deaths and destruction of houses, productive forests and arable land.  Research conducted between 1999 and 2002 has shown that game harvesting is twice the sustainable off-take.  This research has also shown that one of the legally protected species, the leopard, in the neighbouring wildlife sanctuary, has become extinct. There are fears that another protected species, the giant pangolin, may also have become extinct.  This situation can only be reversed through the improvement of the socio-economic environment of the adjacent local communities.  The conservation objectives of the area will be compromised if nothing is done.

Within this context, ERuDeF realized that the problem of debt and poverty had to be dealt with if livelihoods and the endangered biodiversity of the region are to be fully protected.  It is within this framework that ERuDeF is seeking to establish an innovative community-based led micro-credit system that will be opened to all the local communities and even those having no collateral as required by many micro-finance institutions.  ERuDeF is helping to organize the communities across the region into constituted community-based institutions that will facilitate the process of all the local people having access to this credit facility.

This credit system, called the Lebialem Highlands Environmental Protection Fund (LHEPF), will be run by a democratically elected committee that will be composed of at least 50% women.  The women are the most affected in terms of poverty and more than 55% of the women are found below the poverty line.
The main objective of the LHEPF is to promote sustainable income generating activities and reduce illegal harvesting of wildlife resources and cropping of marginal lands. This credit system is part of a wider programme of micro-enterprise support, capacity building and sustainability being led by ERuDeF.  ERuDeF is seeking financial support to help implement these activities.

ERuDeF’s sustainable development programme activities are meant to improve livelihood sustainability and increase the local community members’ capacities to repay loans, remain solvent and expand on their existing micro-enterprises.  This project will provide both start-up grants to cooperating farmers and youths and credit facilities to enable them to expand on their micro-enterprises.

The micro-credit system operates on the following principles: local people get loans for ecologically beneficial and income generating micro projects provided they do not poach or crop on marginal lands and or log illegally.  Very low interest rates of less than 5% will be charged generally.  Impoverished farming groups with no collateral will be given start-up grants.  Criteria for selecting loan and start-up grants recipients will include the viability of the proposed activity, repayment capacity and market demand.  The LHEPF will also establish what actions will be taken if members fail to pay back loans or meet environmental criteria.

ERuDeF will ensure that beneficiaries will focus on mixed cropping and on cultivating products with high market value but with low environmental impact.  Such systems involve community forestry, agroforestry and consist of planting a combination of fast & slow growing tree species on marginal lands.  This will permit them to get an average minimum income from fast growing species while the high value but slow growing hardwood species will mature with time. This approach will also allow the land to restore itself.  The micro-credit initiative will also support a system of local enterprises which yield high-return products with low impact on the fragile highlands environments.  ERuDeF will promote such enterprises as beekeeping, mushroom cultivation, livestock, tree nurseries, snail rearing, eco-tourism, non-timber forest products processing etc.
This is an innovative mechanism through which micro-credit initiatives will be interwoven with wider efforts to improve the incomes of lower and most affected impoverished groups and jobless rural youths. Sustainability will be ensured by aligning ecologically sound micro-enterprises with the actual demands of the market and biodiversity management.

This is a three-year pilot initiative which will serve over 30,000 farm families.  After this start-up phase, the revolving fund system will become sustainable as money given out during the first year will be repaid in the second year – and the cycle will continue.  The main micro-enterprises will include cultivation of cola nuts, tree nurseries and reforestation, beekeeping, NTFP processing and marketing, mushroom farming, snail rearing, wildlife domestication, livestock, agro-forestry and community forestry development and exploitation.

The Environment and Rural Development Foundation (ERuDeF) is a Cameroonian non profit organisation formed in 1999 as a membership organisation.  Its mission is to conserve wildlife and protect fragile environments and to improve upon the wellbeing of indigenous peoples in particular and the quality of human life on earth in the regions where it operates.  Its focal programmes include biodiversity conservation, forest landscape restoration, sustainable development, women and gender and education and training. ERuDeF staff, members, its associates and partners have over a decade of experience in the implementation and management of conservation and rural development projects in Cameroon.  Its expertise expands to include but not limited to finance, project development, sustainable development, conservation, gender and education.

FIOH Fund Newsletter – Summer 2015

NEWSLETTER – ISSUE 1 – SUMMER 2015:

FIOH FUND NEWSLETTER – SUMMER 2015

 

 

 

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Cyclone relief in Andhra Pradesh, Nov 2013

HEARTS cyclone relief programme
The FIOH Fund supported a relief programme that was established by HEARTS in November 2013 to help victims of severe cyclones affecting Andhra Pradesh.  A major camp was conducted on 22 nd November which benefited 165 children and 74 women in the tribal colonies of Krupa Nagar and Venkata Reddy Nagar.
The beneficiaries received food supplies – rice, Dal, wheat, oil, sugar and kerosene for cooking.
All children received note books and stationary.  All the children and adults were examined by a doctor for various illnesses and given medicines.  The main problems were fever, cold, cough, body pains, skin allergy and leanness.

There were three cyclones in this month namely Phi-leen, Helen and Lehar.   Hundreds of families were evacuated and a large number of cattle and poultry were killed.  All schools and offices were closed for two days.  HEARTS supported the most needy and neglected people in Bapatla tribal colonies.  The people here are absolutely poor and don’t even come to town for work.  Blankets, childrens clothing and a temporary roof for the school was also provided.

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