CAMAAY (Cameroon Association of Active Youths) is a non-profit community-led organisation, registered since 2005, and based in Western Cameroon in Bamenda. Their mission is to build resilient and sustainable communities in areas affected by conflict and displacement. They have been facilitating successful projects focused on food security, climate resilience, health promotion and economic development to counteract the loss of livelihoods and effects of displacement suffered by individuals and communities, and improve their quality of life.
Cameroon has been witnessing recent crises in which thousands of civilians have been internally displaced amid violence in the context of the Boko Haram insurgency in the country’s far North and separatist related violence in the North-West and South-West regions. As a result, the local communities and internal displaced persons (IDPs) in Cameroon need humanitarian assistance and protection. Their deteriorating living conditions – including inability for children to attend schools, difficulties to access food, water, health and other basic needs and services – coupled with reports of gender-based violence faced by women IDPs, and other abuses and human rights violations require robust action to address their situation.
Two thousand six hundred twenty three orphans applied for help at our new school. Here Dr. Tom Evans was going through some of the applications from the orphaned children to our school. Some orphans are homeless, others spend more than 5 days in a month without food and of course they are out of school. They all need to be empowered with education. maNGOma can be of great help in this and we will be grateful for the fundraising. Thank you for the help.
Current CAMAAY projects
A virtual clinic to improve access to health services for people in remote villages
Located in CAMAAY’s home city of Bamenda, a virtual clinic is planned to enable residents of the remote villages of Bamendakwe, Mankon, and Nkwen to consult with the clinic staff virtually on tablets or in-person. This will be a pilot project; after evaluation CAMAAY hope to extend the service to other areas of Cameroon.
The project will promote the use of digital tools to improve health care services, improve the access to health care for residents of remote villages. Based upon gathered data from CAMAAY’s field office in Bamenda, and depending on the number of tablets donated, it is expected for each village to be provided with 5 tablets per school or community centre. Each centre will designate a person responsible for the tablets.
On each tablet, three e-modules will be available in the form of PDFs and accessible to all residents and practitioners. These modules will serve as educational material regarding potential diseases or health concerns, as well as their causes, symptoms, and treatments.
These modules will also enable patients to inform themselves about their given diagnosis, as well as keeping them inform on how to maintain adequate personal care and hygiene. The clinic will be equipped to treat general conditions specific to the local context, including infectious diseases, communicable and non-communicable diseases, sexual and reproductive health issues, ophthalmological issues, immunization upkeep, and nutritional complications.
Learning materials for schools and students in our crisis area
This project aims to procure essential educational supplies to internally displaced children and to those children who were victims of the conflict in the region of Oku, (an Anglophone rural region in the North West of Cameroon) in order to guarantee that they have the essentials to return to school once classes resume. We will also provide schools with basic learning and teaching materials: blackboards, packets of pens and pencils, just to name a few. With these, the delivery of instruction will be easier and more effective, in order to increase student achievement and learning.
The expected project outcome will be that girls and boys affected by emergencies have access to educational resources and are able to learn in safe and protective learning spaces. We will be contributing to ensuring uninterrupted access to critical and quality learning that includes life skills in protective spaces for children and young people affected by the different conflicts in Cameroon.
Sustainable and replicable small-scale chicken production enterprises
This project will help to build livelihoods for young people and supply essential food protein through setting up a sustainable and replicable small-scale chicken production enterprise in Bamenda, North-West Region, Cameroon. CAMAAY plan to provide residential training in poultry farming to 20 disadvantaged young Cameroonians each year, establish 2 training chicken farms and sell chickens per year to the local community.
As a result, disadvantaged Cameroonian youth will have long-term and sustainable income generation opportunities, nutrition in the local community will improve through increased protein supply, local food security will be enhanced, and young people and their families will experience improved living standards.
