Project Rationale

Women and Children continue to suffer hugely in the Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis which dates back to 2017. The most significant impact of the conflict on women and children is displacement. Women and children make up 60 per cent of the entire Southwest population with many of them separated from family members and living at risk of abuse. Unfortunately, majority of these displaced women and their accompanying children struggle to meet up with their basic needs. Access to healthcare is equally difficult due to their increased inability to afford required services and supplies. To respond to increasing health needs by humanitarian organisations such as Doctors without Borders (DWB), they supported around 30 hospitals and health centres, and ran a 24/7 ambulance service alongside community health workers trained to treat simple cases of common diseases, such as malaria, malnutrition, respiratory tract infection and diarrhoea. Recently, DWB took a difficult decision to suspend their activities in the South West Region of Cameroon on the 29 March 2022 to focus on obtaining the safe release of its colleagues arrested by the Cameroon authority. This led to an indefinite cessation of their activities. This has left significant gaps in medical services in the region. Though other NGOs like Action Against Hunger, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Danish Refugee council (DRC) and others were providing similar services, DWB had specialized in child and maternal care. Displaced women and children continue to suffer the consequences daily because they can’t afford to pay for medical services. Pregnant women now depend on traditional methods of delivery and treatment for their neonate which are detrimental to their health and wellbeing of the new born babies. This has eventually led to an increase in neonatal death and high risk of contracting infections. This programme seeks to improve the health care status of displaced women and children born within the crisis in Kumba, Cameroon through improved access to quality Reproductive and Child HealthCare services.

Project Goal

To improve access to quality healthcare services both at curative and preventive treatment for 1200 internally displaced women and children born within the crisis in Kumba, Cameroon.

Specific goals

• To improve access to health care of internally displaced women and children born within the crisis.
• To improve the status of Ante Natal Check-ups, Post Natal Check-ups and promote institutional deliveries amongst women.
• To promote good health practices and positive health seeking behaviour among mothers and children.
• To establish linkages and network between local stakeholders and private/government health officials to develop referral mechanisms.

Project Objectives

• To provide curative and preventive treatment to diseases affecting women and children (1200 Women between 20-49 years and children between 0-6 years) through improved access to quality reproductive and child health services.
• To provide 200 women access to Ante Natal Check-ups, enable safe deliveries and Post Natal Check-ups.
• To educate 2700 women through health awareness sessions on importance of nutrition, mother & child health (ANC, PNC, promote institutional delivery importance of immunization, hygiene and safe drinking water etc.)
• Network with the private health professionals as well as the government health care institution and other humanitarian organizations (3private hospitals, 2 government hospitals, 5 Humanitarian Organization; 2 INGOs and 3 National NGOs) to develop referral pathways and specialized treatment.

Project Summary

This project aims at providing access to formal education by facilitating the payment of school fees and providing school needs for 500 identified internally displaced children between the ages of 5-17 years whose education have been hampered as a result of the ongoing Anglophone crisis in the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon. It also aims to create learning opportunities for all vulnerable school age children by increasing their school enrolment rate and promoting a high literacy rate. Parents/caregivers of these identified children will be educated on how to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, and report any such cases to Mi Niña’s partnership network. This is a recurrent project and the first phase will be implemented during a period of 12 months. This will build the spirit of community service and good citizenship among future generations as it will make use of partner NGOs, local authorities, operational schools and other facilities to enable this process which will influence decision and policy making by advocating for the rights to education for internally displaced/vulnerable children.

Project Rationale

The unprecedented effects of the on-going crisis plaguing the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon for more than five years now has greatly affected the entire distressed population making them desperately in need of humanitarian assistance for their survival. Hostilities of this crisis has forced majority of the population to be displaced. A majority of the displaced population are women and children amongst whom are unaccompanied and separated children. Thousands of children displaced to the Littoral, West and Centre regions struggle to access schools, due to poverty, social exclusion and financial constraints. As schools gradually return to normal in some areas in the Northwest and the southwest Regions of Cameroon, so many children have been unable to return back to school due to lack of school fees and needs.

Mi Niña has been conducting baseline studies and so far has reached out to over 53 internally displaced out of school children. Mi Niña in collaboration with the principal of Government Bilingual High School (GBHS) Mabanda interviewed 30 students from forms 1 to 3.

Results of Mi Niña’s findings indicate the parents and caretakers of these children struggle to meet their basic needs and enrolling their children in schools is farfetched.  For some who have managed to enrol their children in school, they still find it hard to pay the children’s school fees/provide them with school needs as with the case of GBHS Mabanda.

Each of these children is an individual in his or her own right, with feelings, emotions, talents, aspirations and potential which could contribute to national development. Mi Niña’s interest is to join Government efforts to educate all children and youth for the national prosperous future by focusing to internally displaced and vulnerable children.This project aims to promote the education of 500 internally displaced children through the provision of School fees/needs and fight their civic/education rights.

Project Goal

This project aims at promoting the education of 500 internally displaced children within the ages of 5 to 17 years through payment/provision of school fees and needs in Kumba I, II and III subdivisions.

 Objective

• Identify 500 out of school and enrolled internally displaced children whose education have been hampered due to financial constraints.
• Facilitate the payment of school fees and provide school need for 500 internally displaced children.
• Fight against all forms of inhuman treatment pertaining to the children’s civic rights and rights to education.
• Influence decision and policy making by advocating for the rights to education for internally displaced children with the help of partner NGOs and Local Authorities.

Project Benefits

Beneficiaries

• The project will directly benefit 500 out of school internally displaced children within the Kumba I, II and III subdivisions.
• Over 250 parents/caregivers will be educated how to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse.

Social benefits

• This will ultimately, alongside with other factors such as the availability of appropriate learning materials, will increase the literacy rate of students/pupils who can contribute to socio-economic development of society, while observing Social guidelines and principles.
• The project will help in curving down school drop-outs; reduce street children, child beggars, reducing crimes such as prostitution, child trafficking and robbery, and preparing good future generation.