Help Sussan get back her children

Thanks to your support Susan’s nightmare is over. In December 2015 she received an initial grant that radically changed her situation, we have been following her steps and on Monday 18^th of April she received a second one. There will still be a last one in 4 months.

The reason to space them is that we follow the evolution of the recipient; she is receiving more money as her situation improves and her horizons broaden with more possibilities. It’s also a security measure. Economic shocks such as the one that put her in this dramatic situation threaten the communities we work with, some of them as unfair as simply not having access to affordable and effective healthcare and losing all your money in the process of trying to treat yourself or your children, some of them, as family pressure to contribute to social events or risk of thefts, are avoidable. So splitting our grants we make sure that if the worse comes, she still has another grant coming as safety net. But Susan’s evolution is very promising and she is within reach of achieving leaving this life of constant threat forever.

The first grant was an immense relief that allowed her to move from an emergency business (producing “Chin Chin” pastries and selling them around) to a way more profitable venture, buying fish, smoking it and selling it dry, a common ingredient of many Cameroonian meals.

We were amazed at her discipline, it would have been understandable if she would have used some of the money for immediate household expenditures, but she did not. She sacrificed and she knew what was coming. Her first month of the dry fish business made her a monthly profit that more than doubled the initial investment; it was this profit that she used to take better care of herself and her daughter. She continued thriving and working, shifting from dry fish to palm oil and pepper, with a brief stop to work in her family farm. She is right now having a humble table shop market in front of her house, where she sells mainly palm oil and hot pepper. She is also selling in local markets 4 times a week.

Susan has a feeling for business, the way she argues her shifts to selling one or another product reveal a profound understanding of her markets and of the opportunities around her( where can she buy cheap what is expensive in Tole) that is why she quickly shifts from one business to another. Coaching on business management is an important part of our interventions, but when you visit Susan you often leave with the feeling you were the one coached. In fact, I’ve used her as an example in business workshops with other girls and during her last disbursement we asked her to take time to give  advice to another girl (Prisca) who was just starting in the dried fish business, "First, when you are smoking the fish don't leave the fire for one minute, it can burn and spoil quickly.... Dried fish needs more capital to be really profitable, but once you manage to add some money you will see very good results" . With her, you just get the feeling that born under different circumstances she would have thrived, with your help maybe she can still do.

What are her goals? She has been following the provision stores around her neighborhood and knows they offer a poor service and are often absent, she knows she could start one herself and quickly progress, offering a reliable constant service, and continue making nice profit from the different opportunities she identifies in nearby markets. Take a close look at her table shop (picture down), in 3 months we will take another picture and post it in our general project report (https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/make-an-impact-girls-education-cameroon/ You can subscribe to it to continue receiving our reports and know about more girls like Susan if you go to the subscribe feature right down) and facebook account (www.facebook.com/reachoutcameroon) , I guarantee you will be impressed at her change.

You must be wondering by now what about the children. Sarantia and Philip are still living with other families of the community and seeing her mother regularly, the family will re-unite by the end of the school year, this June. By that time she will be financially safe enough to make sure they are never forced again to leave her.

Also, she found love! Somebody from the community took an interest in her and they have started dating. She is moving on from the person that abandoned her and found a stable calm man.

We hope you are happy with the project you invested in, and we thank you a million times for changing her and her children’s life forever.