Stop Malnutrition and Infant Mortality in Cameroon

Introduction

More than 80% of children in rural community are malnourished. Inadequate diet supplement, education and livelihood support options are some of the main challenges in providing balance diet to children. The project will support about 1500 children in Manyu division, Cameroon suffering from malnutrition by training and supporting 500 women on how to ensure nutritive diets for children well-being.

Main objective 
The main objective of this project is to improve on the health of pregnant women and children through diet education and technical supports

Action Narration for the last quarter activities

In the last quarter the specific objective to improve the capacity of women in entrepreneurship. The rational for this specific objective was motivated by the fact that if women can raised enough money to take care of themselves and children during and after pregnancy, it will go a long way to provide a sustainable solution to children malnutrition. This will contribute in solving the problem of infant mortality in project area in particular and in Cameroon in general. In line with this objective, 15 selected women who met the criteria to benefit from the project were we training on the entrepreneurship skills including, the making of detergent and vegetable oil. They trained women also received financial support to start up small businesses in these areas.

Below are some of the key observations and feedback we received from some of the women that benefited from the training and financial support:

• Madame Agbor: "I find this training very important in my life. I now know how I can make vegetable oil and detergent using available raw materials in my community. This will not only help me starting up a small business in the area but this is also very important for my household. Vegetable oil and detergent is what we use daily in our household and this cost a lot of money. While I will be able to start a business, this will also help me cut down cost household expenditure"
• Madame Nchah: "I did not know that it was easy to start my own business with very little money and experience. I always thought that because I did not complete school it will be difficult for me to learn something that I can produce by myself and even start a business in it. I am very excited for receiving this training and financial support from your team. I will be able to teach other too on how to make vegetable oil and detergent. I believe this knowledge will reach even those who were not selected to benefit from the project.   

We believe on little efforts that add meaning to individual lives. In our day to day engagement with the local women through this project, we continue to explore ways that can make this life better. Every single dollar receive from this project is significantly impacting someone life in the field.

Action expectations for the next phase

Upcoming actions in this project seek to promote opportunities that provide sustainable and resilience solution to the malnutrition crisis in Cameroon. We hope to extend our capacity building program to women in the Bonakanda community in Buea that are also facing similar situation in dealing win infant malnutrition. Thus we will continue to train and support beneficiaries on handle entrepreneurship skills that could enhance their livelihood and provide them with a sustainable way of fighting malnutrition.