Name of NGO
Women in Alternative Action- WAA Cameroon
Address (Physical & Postal):
Rue Bananier, Derrière Lycée Biyem Assi
BP 6366 Yaounde, Cameroon
Telephone and Fax numbers:
+237 22 31 82 93/ +237 22 15 93 17, +237 77 48 76 67
E-mail address, and World Wide Web
waacameroon@yahoo.com.
site address (if any):
http://www.womeninalternativeaction.org
Organisation's Head
Mrs Gladys Shang Viban
Administrative Council Chair
Contact person's name and title:
Kwachu Justine Ngum
Executive Director
Who completed this proposal?
Kwachu Justine Ngum
Contact details of two (2) referees:
Reference 1 : LOCAL
Mr Isaac Njifakue
International Media, Conseils & Services (IMCS),
Cabinet de conseils et formations
Tsinga, BP 853, Yaoundé-CAMEROUN.
Tel 00 237 22 21 56 28
et 00 237 22 21 04 43 ;
Cellulaires 00 237 99 91 59 86 et 00 237 77 89 71 13 ; Fax 00
(237) 22 20 52 30 ;
E-mail : imcs@idee-action.org
et isaacnjifakue@Yahoo.fr. Site : www.idee-action.org
Reference 2: EXTERNAL
Lakshmi Sundaram, Executive Director, Girls Not Brides Globa
Partnership for the Prevention of Child Marriage
Email: lakshmin.sundaram@GirlsNotBrides.org
Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage
Unit 25.4 CODA Studios, 189 Munster Road, London SW6 6AW,
UK
T: +44 20 3725 5865 | M: +44 7876 865 140 | Skype: sol-gnb
www.GirlsNotBrides.org | Twitter: @GirlsNotBrides
www.Facebook.com/GirlsNotBrides
ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION
a.
organisation's main goals
Main goal
Contribute to gender justice, peace and sustainable
opportunities for women, youth and the girl child in
Cameroon and the Central Africa sub-region.
Sub Goals:
□
b. Date of creation
Intensify activities that protect Women and girls from
harmful cultural/religious values and practices
□ Enhance the economic, and social empowerment of
the Underprivileged /underserved, women and youth
□ Propose adapted/favourable draft laws/policies
through
Strategic channels
□ Foster pro gender partnerships on national and
international instruments.
□ Gender, Peace and security.
November 5, 2004
c. Geographic coverage
Based in Yaoundé but covers the entire country.
d. Main beneficiaries
Women, young girls: Female domestic workers, Female
political activists/human rights/Defenders, Female sex
workers; Female refugees/Internally displaced/asylum
seekers, Indigenous women/from ethnic groups; Women and
girls in general, Women/girls with disabilities, Women/girls
living with HIV and AIDS, Women/girls survivors of violence.
Organisational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
Strengths
WAA Cameroon’s strength lies in her ability to manage her networks based on long term field
experience and good networking relations with key stakeholders.
WAA Cameroon’s governing structures are well established. A General Assembly of more than 1000
multidisciplinary members, a Board of 09 and a staff made up of multidisciplinary professionals.
Recently upgraded administrative documents of the organization Statutes, Procedural Manual,
Internal rules and regulations, and Staff Handbook, reflect a desire to be outstanding in service
delivery. The organization is well equipped with all office equipment and material resources
necessary for high grade performance. WAA Cameroon has an extensive network of women leaders
in Cameroon, including community women’s groups, legal experts and finance institutions, corporate
advocate groups in Douala, Bafoussam, Garoua, Maroua, Ngoundere, Bertoua, Ebolowa, Buea,
Bamenda and Yaoundé with whom WAA implements major projects. WAA Cameroon has several
long-term projects in rural Cameroon and is familiar with the challenges specific to the rural
Cameroonian context. Undeniably, WAA Cameroon is an organization committed to excellence, with
a clear vision and a passion for delivering outstanding results.
Weakness
WAA Cameroon does not have a stable funding source. This limitation has a consequential effect on
staff remuneration and a more negative impact on staff stability. Most trained staff move onto
greener pastures as we are unable to financially retain them. Also, with this position, we employ less
skilled and experienced staff.
Threats
Fears of political instability consequential to the Boko Haram Terrorist group, fierce competition from
financially viable organizations, a working environment that is not accommodative and receptive of
innovations and target beneficiaries
Opportunities
A mobilized Civil Society network of actors, an ongoing decentralization process that will be used to
foster our goals and objectives, mobilised traditional institutions ready to transform harmful;
cultures and to empower women.
Project summary
WAA Cameroon wants to offer trainers training support on livelihood development in mushroom and
dry fruits, to 150 indigent Mbororo women facing integration difficulties due to their poverty and
nomadic lifestyles. This will take place in three regions of Northern Cameroon considered the
poorest. WAA will equip trainers with start off material and equipment while supporting their young
children to attend free informal literacy classes to enhance their access to education.
Main Problem
Mbororos are among the poorest, low income and low literate ethnic people of Cameroon. They feel
rejected and live nomadic and recluse lives. They are vulnerable as a result, are frequently attacked
and looted by armed groups. Their concerns are for economic and social stability and to ensure their
children’s education as other ethnic communities do.
There are more than 20000 Mbororo women spread across the 3 northern regions of Cameroon who
have deep integration difficulties, lack support services to make their lives better and who due to the
nomadic pastoralist culture of their husbands, live recluse and very unstable lifestyles. Due to lack of
dialogue with the other community members and the authorities, Mbororos in general and the
women in particular, are impeded from enjoying their full civic and socio-economic and political
rights, and have little or no access to economic services. Their concerns are for safety and security
as they live in almost quasi insecurity and fear of the unknown attackers and looters of their
property. This prevents them from realizing their constitutional rights. They have little or no access to
justice; inadequate opportunities towards socio political and economic services open to the
dominant ethnic groups, and are marginalized and discriminated against officially and by these
dominant groups in the country.
Solution
This project targets to benefit 150 of the 20000 Mbororo women spread across the national territory
of Cameroon. WAA Cameroon wants to support these women with vocational training in livelihood
opportunities as this is necessary for them to take total control of their destiny and use it to influence
household development and community perception. The project will also provide opportunity for
Mbororo children to attend informal literacy classes.
The 150 women are trained as peer trainers in practical skills related to mushroom production, fruit
drying as well as marketing and support towards accessing suitable markets for their products.
Each peer trainer will organize further training sessions in their various communities for 75
community members to replicate learning and expand the number of beneficiaries of the project.
This will prepare them to create community thrift and loan cooperatives which will gather their
products and negotiate market prices for them.
Project Objectives
Global Objective
Vulnerable ethnic Mbororo women are able to reassert their lives and contribute to household and
community development prospects.
Specific Objectives
o
Mbororo Women and their families living in marginalized recluse lifestyles are able to access
appropriate livelihood and vocational trainings necessary to generate income and improve
their living conditions.
o
Marginalised Mbororo children are able to access informal literacy education facilities that
enable them to fully integrate their communities.
Expected Results:
o
o
o
Peer trainers take greater action to ensure the multiplier effects of the project.
There is improved knowledge and greater community interaction among Mbororo children
and children of other ethnic groups.
An agenda for the creation of thrifts and savings schemes initiated
Impact
The project will train 150 Mbororo women in livelihood support programmes and enable them to rise
out of poverty, provide for their families’ health and well-being and contribute to educating their
children in formal education facilities.
Planned Activities
o
o
o
o
Train 150 peer trainers in 3 training sites on fruit drying and Mushroom production.
Provide Sub grants to support the training work of 150 peer trainers in their communities
Provide education facilities to 200 Mbororo Children
Monitor and mentor the creation of 03 Thrift and Savings Cooperatives in 03 project sites
Relevance of the action
The action will facilitate direct networking among Mbororo women and also spread learning through
the entire Mbororo ethnic group, which includes recruiting another 11250 Mbororo women in the
different communities.
The action adopts an approach where Mbororos themselves maintain ownership of their own
development process, with WAA Cameroon playing a mentorship role. This recognizes that Mbororos
themselves are the key change agents, playing strategic roles to foster the objectives of the project.
Finally, we recognize that to realise more resilient Mbororo communities will require that the
activities are designed to facilitate dialogue and develop trust between Mbororo ethnic group and
other ethnic groups in those areas to facilitate Mbororo women and children integration. .
Methodology
Technical Training
Technical expertise in livelihood development and follow-up mentoring support provided are key in
our professional livelihood development programme.
These trainings will focus on skills, knowledge and experiences that relate to income generation and
specifically on fruits drying and mushroom cultivation and production.
During the trainings 30 participants will be identified as peer educators in each of the three regions
concerned to conduct training and expand the beneficiaries of the project.
Sub-grants
Training and sharing opportunities alone may not secure the kinds of changes that Mbororos
require. Sub grants to enable them experiment their learning and expand the scope of beneficiaries
is necessary. Also, multiplying learning to others may be a way of raising the level of visibility of the
project and attract more funding for Mbororo livelihood development.
Partnership development
Partnerships are key to Mbororo integration. Living recluse live styles does not help them and their
children. The project pays a lot of emphasis on developing partnerships between Mbororo ethnic
groups and other ethnic groups in the regions, both for the sake of marketing their products and for
the education of the children.
Project sustainability plan
The project addresses the issue of skill building for economic purposes. Capacity building for
livelihood among Mbororo women is essential in providing financial and material sustainability.
While the project will focus on livelihood development for long term plans, it will also initiate a
meaningful dialogue between other ethnic groups and the Mbororo women in terms of their children
education. Education especially of their girl children is very rare among the Mbororos while early
marriage is more common: most of Mbororos’ women are illiterate and highly dependent on their
husbands for basic needs and do not have the possibility to express themselves and to interact
socially because of the strict adherence to their religion and the severe respect of the traditional
belief that women’s place is at home.
In conformity with the government’s effort to support Mbororos through the Ministries of Social
Affairs and Women’s Empowerment and the Family, We will work to promote education for Mbororo
girls and to increase their participation in the family unit and in community decision-making. In order
to achieve this goal, the action will include free books donations, seminars and workshops addressed
to Mbororos people about the importance of enrolling girls in school. Scolarisation of Mbororo girls
is sustainable means of attaining our long term plans and attaining the SDGs. As the Secretary
General Koffi Anan said, when you teach one woman you succeed to teach a whole community.
EXPERIENCE OF SIMILAR ACTIONS
WAA Cameroon as an organisation committed to achieving a society in which no woman or girl has
to live in fear of violence, has proactively designed and carried out programmes and activities
intended to raising awareness and eliminating small arms and light weapons related violence against
women. Over the past five years, WAA has delivered projects focused on training, and empowering
women and youth to take up leadership in the economic and democratic process in Cameroon. The
Youth Alternative Programme (2008) and the Queens for Peace International project (since 2009)
utilizing youths and wives of traditional authorities respectively to engage and participate in
democratic governance processes in Cameroon. These efforts have demonstrated that engaging
youths and women advocates have directly supported and promoted women and youth participation
in democracy and governance in Cameroon. WAA has also piloted a project with Mbororo women.
WAA is a member of Girls Not Brides: Global Partnership to End Child Marriage, Women
Peacemakers Program, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), Global Partnership
for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), the Central African Action Network on Small Arms and
Light Weapons.
WAA has Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
and contributes to the ECOSOC functional commission for women’s work by reporting on the
implementation of SDGs and CEDAW.
Budget
ACTIVITY
Training of 150 participants in one of 3
training sessions.
Production of demonstration equipment
for fruit drying in each of the 03 trainings
sites.
Support the production of
demonstration material (seeds, saw dust,
crushed corn cobs...) for the production
of Mushroom in each of the 03 trainings
sites.
Transport, lodge and feed 150
participants to the peer trainers training
in the 03 training sites.
Transport support to each of the four
workshop facilities in the 03 training
sites.
Stipend to 21 volunteers each month to
teach 200 Mbororo children in the three
project sites.
Buying of basic school needs (uniforms,
pens, pencils, rulers and exercise books
and reading material ...) for each of the
200 children.
Provide 05 seating infrastructures to
each of the three sites of the project.
Administration
Total
Unit
QTY
Amount in
USDs
UP
3
50
60
9000
3
2
75
450
3
2
80
480
3
50
85
12750
3
4
100
1200
21
12
50
12600
1
200
40
8000
3
1
20
12
90
10
5400
120
50000