By Teghen Bih | project leader
Solange is a 26 years old Internally Displaced person from Wum in the North West Region of Cameroon. Solange is the second child in a family of 5and a single mother of 2 children.
“Ever since the crisis started in 2018, my family has constantly been on the move (Mother, siblings and her own children) just like every other family in Wum. We run into the bushes to seek for refuge when there is serious shooting between the NSAG and the Military. We had become used to this trend, but in February 2020 I lost one of my brothers in a gun battle. This depressed my mother. All of us became traumatized and we decided leave the village for Buea” Solange.
In Buea, they lived with a family member in a 1 room wood house. Being the eldest girl in the house, she followed people to their farms to do odd jobs to cater for the family and help her cousin who struggles to pay the rents. she Was referred to Reach Out by the parish priest of Immaculate conception Parish street 2 whom she confided in.
She was qualified to enter the program and received training and a business grant of 30,000 frs in August 2020 which she used to start up business (she sells boiled peanuts in the street). In addition to the grant her cousin added 15,000frs which enabled her to buy a bag of ground nut worth 45,000frs (10 buckets of ground nuts). It somehow became a family business as her sibling joint her to also go around and sell. In a week they finished the bag of ground nut with an income of 65,000 frs to 70,000frs making an average gain of 20,000frs. Her two siblings worked with her for August, September, and October. In November she travelled to Bafia in Muyuka sub division to cater for her brother who had an accident. This caused her to stay out of business in the month of November but had to return to Buea and send one of her siblings there to continue taking care of their bother.
From the business, her two siblings resumed school at the end of October 2020. She too was able to send her first child (7 years old) to a Government school. In December Solange was the only one in the business. This caused the capital used by the business to reduce to 22,000frs because the workforce had reduced. She is the one catering for their needs in school from the business but they still helped her during weekends. This has enabled them assist their cousin especially in feeding in the house. Her mother returned back to the village with the idea to be assisting them by sending farm products. Solange plans on cooking and selling meat to attach to her snacks when she receives her second grant.
Thank you so much for the unending support. Together we can make women and girls reach their full potentials and reduce poverty in the society. Without you, this would not have been possible.
By Sandrine Teghen | Project Coordinator
By Marc Serna and Sylvie Ebitoh | Reach Out
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