What YOU should know about Cameroon:
Hello everyone! I am an undergraduate student in the Boston area with a passion for nonprofits and for helping others all around the world. I became involved with CameroonONE after learning about some startling facts that I believe everyone should be made aware of.
DID YOU KNOW?
- According to UNICEF statistics, there are currently 1.3 million orphaned children in Cameroon?
- The Ministry of Social Affairs reports that nearly 350,644 of those childrenare affected by HIV?
Due to illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, millions of Cameroonian children are left parentless and have no credible or efficient foster care system to turn to.
Children who are more fortunate than others are housed in a sponsor home and schooled in self-operated communes or are placed in the care of elderly guardians, who can barely afford to provide these children with their basic needs, let alone the costs of a proper education.
In addition to life-threatening illnesses, many Cameroonian children have been reported to be the victims of human and sex traffic and some the sufferers of organ exploitation. Others still are left to fend for themselves, making it easy for many children to turn to criminal activity in the future.
Here’s what we’re doing about it:
CameroonONE is a non-profit and a registered 501c3 charity organization which is committed to providing education opportunities and safe homes to orphaned children in Cameroon. CameroonONe is currently combatting the “Orphan Crisis” directly through two major projects: the In-Home Sponsorship project and the Bee Farming sustainability project.
The In-Home Sponsorship project:
As mentioned, many Cameroonian children have blood relatives, however, those relatives are incapable of financially supporting another person in their household. In order to confront this crisis, CameroonONE focusses on pairing orphaned children with surviving blood relatives who are willing to be guardians.
Once an orphaned child is placed and living with a family member, CameroonONE provides these relatives with a stipend to cover PTA school fees, medical assistance, school supplies, uniforms, text books, shoes, as well as rice, seeds, and cooking oil.
This stipend requires that the certain requirements for the child are met, such as that the child attends a decent school, and receives healthcare and vaccinations.
The Bee Farming sustainability project:
The Bee Farming project is intended to support the In-Home Sponsorship program through the harvesting and selling of honey and wax. CameroonONE is building a farm that will sustain 800 hives. Due to this project, more students are welcomed in the In-Home Sponsorship program, more local crops are yielded, and jobs are created to aid and improve rural economies in Cameroon.
How YOU can join us!
The donation required to sponsor one student for an entire year is only USD $250. With this amount, sponsored students receive monetary aid for PTA school fees, text books, exercise books, uniforms, writing utensils, and so forth. In addition, all of their health needs are provided for and they will receive identification support in the form of ‘birth acts’ that document their citizenship status. As mentioned, the students’ relative caretakers also receive support in the form of a monetary stipend with this $250 amount and a seasonal care package of seeds for farming, rice, cooking oil, children’s shoes, pencils, soap, etc.
The breakdown of the $250 is roughly:
- $75 of it is for school feels
- $25 for the uniform
- $50 for healthcare (which includes vaccines)
- $50 for living expenses
- $50 other expenses (some examples below)
- $10 shoes
- $10 textbooks/workbooks
It is also important to know that all of us at CameroonONE work virtually, which allows us to directly give over 90% of every dollar towards programming! We appreciate any amount you are able to contribute–every penny counts!
The Impact:
My fellow colleauges and I believe that education is the root of reducing poverty and increasing employment in Cameroon. By providing these orphaned children with a suitable place to live and grow and a quality education, we ensure that these children get out of orphanages and have the resources they need to succeed, leaving a life of poverty and unemployment behind them. Education will give these children the strength, knowledge, and tools to pursue their dreams and to become employed in critical fields such as medicine, public policy, education, etc. CameroonONE believes that by developing the education, foster-care, and healthcare system in Cameroon, it will make a long-lasting impact on the country’s poverty and unemployment levels, allowing Cameroon to become a better contributing member to the global community.
If you are unable to contribute financially, another way to help us at CameroonONE is to spread the word! Check out our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter at @CameroonONE.
For more information, please visit our website at www.camerooone.org. We appreciatate the time you have taken to learn more about our organization!