Change a Girl's Life Through Microentrepreneurship

Quinter is a single mother of three children who lives in Muyuka. Before the onset of the crises, she lived in Lebialem Division with her children, where her family primary source of livelihood was subsistence farming. She cultivated crops such as maize, egusi and cocoyam. Through this, she was able to feed her family and make a monthly income of 30,000FCFA ($50.79). As the crises escalated, accompanied with the loss of many lives. They had to move to Muyuka, there in muyuka formation was later send across to them that Muyaka was more secured than Lebialem. When she arrived Muyuka, she had no place to stay with her three children. She was fortunate to find an “abandoned” poultry house in which she moved in with her children. While in Muyuka, she was doing menial jobs in order to provide for her children. With this, she was unable to save up for the future and could barely feed her family nor sponsor her children through school.

When she was identified by Reach Out Cameroon social worker, through a door to door identification where 300 vulnerable Internally displaced women, single mothers, women living with disabilities, school dropout and widows who lost their sources of livelihood as a result of the ongoing crisis. She was being identified alongside 107 beneficiaries selected to be empowered in a keep a girl Alive program. Her capacity was built on entrepreneurship, booking Keeping, savings, sexual reproductive health right for three days. After this capacity building sessions, she was supported with a business startup capital of 57,200FCFA ($96.84) for the first level grant in which she went into buying and selling of unripe bananas from farmer and preserves it to get ripe and resell in the Muyuka Market.

To add , after 6 months of continues onsite business coaching by Reach Out social worker she was seen to be consistence and progressing in business as her capital increased to 100,000frs ($170.53) and a profit of 45,000frs ($76.76) was made monthly. She was given 114,000FCFA ($193.69) as her second grant , this money was given to her after a two days refresher training alongside the 107 beneficiaries who attended . it was all about experience sharing and best business practices among the beneficiaries. She used the money to expand her fruit business; in which she buys unripe bananas from local farmers, preserves it to get ripe and resell it in the Muyuka market and also within the community she sells ‘’accra banana’’. Her three children are also involved in this business as they accompany her in selling. With skills gained during the entrepreneurship training offered by Reach Out, she has been making use of these entrepreneurship skills such as customer service, choosing a strategic location for her business, which has stood out in her business growth. Through the bank account that was created for her after the training, she has been able to save up to 300,000FCFA ($507.92). Her business capital to 200, 000F ($260.73). She can comfortably provide for her family and sponsor them through school this academic year. She has also been able to rent a space for herself and children to live in.

MEET Pauline an IDP from Muyuka who lives in Buea. Before the onset of the crises 2016, Pauline was into the fashion business. She bought used dresses from Douala, commonly called “bay” and sold them in the Muyuka, Ekona and Muea markets. Due to limited capital, she usually buys just a bay of dresses, which cost between 50,000frs to 60,000Frs CFA ($100-110). From this, she makes a profit of 29,383frs-35,259frs ($50-$60) over a period of 3 weeks. When the crises intensified, her business started crumbling and she could barely realize profit from her usual activities. Pauline lived with her husband in Muyuka. Her family’s primary source of income is farming. Since her husband could barely go to the farm due to the level of insecurity as a result of the protracted crises, her family started suffering starvation due to lack of food.

   With the implementation of the livelihood project by Reach Out Cameroon, she was identified through a door to door identification, trained on business, entrepreneurship, sexual reproductive health and right and psychosocial support for three days. After which she was supported with a first level start-up capital of 57,000 CFA ($97), She used this money to add up her capital and continued the fashion business. This still did not turn out positive for her. When the insecurity became unbearable for her, she then moved from Muyuka to Buea where she rented a small space and started a restaurant business while living with her junior sister. She sells cooked food such as plantain and ndole, fufu corn and vegetable, and rice and stew. She sells four times a week, making a weekly profit of 15,000 FRS CFA ($25). After receiving the second level of the business cash grant worth 114,400FRS ($195), she used it to increase her business capital. While making use of some entrepreneurial skills gained from Reach Out Cameroon such as good customer service, bookkeeping and saving, Pauline has been able to grow her business and now runs her business with a capital of 242,000frs CFA ( $410). ‘’Thanks to the account created for me at the micro finance in Muyuka I have been able to save some money which I interns to start purchasing my food items for the restaurant in bulk I wish to thank Reach Out Team for their regular business coaching it gave me more push and hope that people still care and love me. God bless your team to keep helping most of us who have been affected by this crisis’’ said Pauline