Change a Girl's Life Through Microentrepreneurship

DISCLAIMER: This story contains sexual violence.

The beneficiary depicted in this story is NOT in the pictures. The pictures show 100 women who were trained and supported at the same time than her. Like her, some of them might have gone through such episodes, but not all.

Beatrice is an IDP from Konye, one of the areas most hard-hit by the conflict in Meme Division, South West Region of Cameroon. She is a mother of seven who lost her house and husband to the cold hands of the crisis.

Prior to the Anglophone crisis, Beatrice and her husband together with their children survived on subsistence farming. Though life was not really easy, insecurity was never one of their problems. When the Anglophone crisis started in 2016, with the frequent confrontation between the Military and armed groups, Konye became too insecure for people.

Every few days, everybody in the village is running to seek refuge in the bush and forest while the shooting and raids go on. Many villagers have built shelters in the bush. On a fateful day, the village was informed of the military coming. “My husband took the children and I. He kept us in our bush house and went back to town. After four days I heard nothing from my husband. I had heard some men and boys were shot in a house while hiding from the military. Little did I know that my husband was amongst those killed. For more than 5 days, nobody told me about my husband’s death though the villagers kept discussing in their dialect which I could not understand. One day a lady came to my hut and was mourning and tried to console me for the loss. I was shocked and confused because I could not remember losing any person. Immediately she said so the other women called her and told her in Oroko dialect that she should not have done so. That I have not been told because I have a four months old baby and they don’t think that I will be able to handle my reactions. That was when I realized there was something fishy about their behavior and I insisted they tell me what was wrong. The news of my husband’s death stroked my heart like a blade. I looked at my children and the little baby I had at hand. The women kept consoling me and try to give me hope.” Beatrice stayed in the bush for 2 months and took ill. Her friends in the bush carried her with her children to a roadside where she was carried to the hospital in Kumba and was admitted at the general hospital for four days. With nobody to cater for her in the hospital and her children, Beatrice called one of her friends who was in Konye and informed her of her decision to move Ekona to a relative of hers.

There in Ekona, life was not easy as the military kept on storming the area and they had to seek refuge in the bush. “Though there was food for us to eat, water was a problem and the distance we cover to hide from the military was really long coupled with the hills we climbed. Sometimes they come at night and we have to leave the house and go to the bush. “While people are running, I run with my 6 children, I have seen the two sides of life” said Beatrice (This is an idiom that means “I have suffered too much”).

While in Ekona, she decided to go back to Konye in March 2019 and pick up the few of her belongings from the bush house and to know where her husband was buried. On her way to the farmhouse, she was taken by some unidentified men in a camp and she stayed there for over 4 days together with other women. She struggled and explained herself to one of the men who then helped her to escape from the camp. Upon her arrival, she did not tell anybody what happened because she was ashamed and heartbroken. She was also pregnant.

"An aunt of mine called me to come to Tole and stay with her and in March 2019 she went to Tole. While in Tole though life was not too difficult, we still had to run from the house and stayed in the bush for over a month.” Beatrice started harvesting Tea from the Tole tea estate to make a living. She did other menial jobs as well. As time went on, Beatrice realized she was pregnant and was really traumatized.

in July 2019, Reach Out NGO partnering with Care International identified Beatrice as a pregnant woman (3-4months) while implementing a project to support survivors of Gender-Based Violence in Fako Division, South West Region. She opened up to us and attended her first antenatal visit in July 2019.

In November 2019, she was incorporated into the Keep a Girl Alive Program for Economic Empowerment. She was trained and given a business capital of 30,000CFA francs which she used to expand her popcorn business. Having worked with her for 11 months, Beatrice today owns a small provision store in Tole Camp. The business has been a great source of livelihood for her and her 7 children the last child is 4 months old). From the business, she was able to continue with her antenatal and prepare herself for delivery. The first child who is 21 years old lives with a friend of hers in Buea and attends University. Beatrice is able to pay for her child’s school fees and meet up with other basic needs.

The graph below shows her capital and profit for the past 10months of her under the watchful eyes of Reach Out. Although profits are not consistently growing because she works in a very difficult context, she has been able to build a solid foundation with more and more capital, and she generates enough to live.

Thanks so much for your donations. This is how far you go to put smiles on women’s faces around the world especially Cameroon’s North and South West Regions which have been bedeviled by the Anglophone crisis since 2016 and women are feeling the greatest effects (especially economic) of the crisis.

Today, and for four more days, any donation between 10 and 50$ will be matched by GlobalGiving by 50%. Take this opportunity to help us find the next Beatrice.

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Winifred is a mother of 6 who was forcefully displaced from Banakuma in Wum Sub-Division of the North West Region to Buea (more than 500 KM away). Before the crisis, Winifred and her children depended on Agricultural produce for survival. Though life was tough, they had always managed to provide for themselves. In the wake of the crisis, Wum became a battleground for the Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs) and the state Military. The frequent confrontation between the two groups exposed the local population of Banakuma village to casualties. Houses were burnt, people killed, and the environment was constantly tense.

When asked of the whereabouts of her husband, she replied: “He left me years ago for another woman.” So Winifred is a single mother of 6.

As the intensity of the war increased, Winifred decided to flee the village with her children. "I could bear living in the bush with my children, but looking at rate at which young boys were picking up arms I feared my son, who was forced to drop out of school, could also join his peers”. Though it was not an easy decision to make, circumstances forced Winifred to heed to her friend’s call to come and live with her in Buea.

When she arrived Buea in 2018, she lived in Tole with a friend of hers. There, Winifred engaged fully into tea harvesting together with her sons and daughters. More than half of the population in Tole depends on tea harvesting. Though the pay is very little and the job is intense, most of the inhabitants especially displaced persons like Winifred embraced it wholeheartedly. "I stayed in a camp house with my 6 children in a thatched room. Comfort was not a priority for me. I left the village with a mattress and some few belongings.”

Winifred bought a basic tea harvesting machine for 6000 francs ($12). 1 kg of harvested tea will earn the laborer 30 francs. With the machine, she and her children could harvest between 45kg to 50kg of tea a day. Winifred could make 7500 CFA ($15) a week which enabled her to cater to her 6 children. The machine was fast but had its disadvantages. It was heavy and required a lot of energy for it to work. Because of this, she took ill with chest pains, cough, and catarrh. At times she would vomit blood. The money she made from the harvest was instead used for medication. She stopped the work and moved to Small Soppo in February 2019, there, she rented a room for 4000 francs a month ($8). Any time it rained, Winifred and her children could hardly sleep because the house had too many holes on the roof.

While in Small Soppo, she engaged in tomato business. She will go to a farmer, buy a basket of fresh tomatoes which cost about 4000-5000 CFA ($8-$10) go to the market and sell it. Every day she would make a profit of 1500 francs ($3). Depending on the turnover and the season, she could make 3000 francs ($6) a day. Some months after, she moved to another house where she paid the same rents.

One of her neighbour's friends came from Douala looking for a child to live with. The neighbour took the friend to Winifred’s place and her 12 years old daughter accepted to go with the woman. The woman assured her not to worry that she will send her daughter to school in Douala. But time has passed, and the situation of her child is not clear. “I am so worried about my child. It’s been over a year now since that lady took my child I don't even know where she lives in Douala. Each time I till the lady I want to come to see my child, she will tell me that they are coming to Buea. My child does not go to school. But I speak with her on phone, and she assures me that all is well. But I am still worried about her. I am so worried because I am not educated and won’t want my daughter to end up like me. It disturbs me because I want her to go to school and not to end up like me”.

One day, the landlord asked her to leave because she was not paying her rents on time. She was given three days to pack out of the house. She had no money to go to rent another room. While in the market, she heard a lady talked of Reach Out and how it has helped her stand firm in the business, she traced the whereabouts of the organization and came to the office. She explained her story, and a staff was sent to the compound where she lives to verify the authenticity of her story and make more inquiries, she qualified for the program and had immediate needs. The organization paid her rents for 2 months including Electricity bill from an emergency fund, and she was given a business grant of 30,000 francs ($60) and introduced into the Keep a Girl Alive project (this project).

In May 2020, she was given her second level business grant of 50,000 francs ($100) which she has used to expand her business with other provisions like rice, soap, beans, groundnuts, Maggi, and salt. "Thanks to REO I can afford for my rents without stress, my children have their three square meals a day, I made my savings of 50,000 ($185) in a Market Njangi and I can say I am debt free, though my last child frequently gets sick, I can afford her drugs and other health bills”.

Thanks so much for your generosity. This is how far your donations go to change women's stories in the world and make them believe in themselves again. As at May 2020, Winifred had a working capital of 70,000 ($120). Reach Out is following the case of her daughter in Douala and we hope to give you good news in the next report.

BONUS DAY:

Today, starting right now, and any donation above 100$ will be increased by GlobalGiving. If you give 100$-500$, they add an extra 15%, 500 to 749 will be 30%, and if you give 750 to 1,000, your donation will be matched by 50%.

Also if you sign up today for a monthly donation the first donation is doubled.

Consider supporting our work so we can continue helping fighters like Winifred.

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