WOMEN FOR SMALL BUSINESS

SUMMARY: EFA Cameroon through a pilot project “Women for Small Business” (WOSB) is engaged to empower vulnerable women and young girls in a bit to reduce gender inequalities among men and women. The main objective is to assist at least 1000 vulnerable women and girls out of financial dependency through small business schemes in communities of Diamare Division, Far North region of Cameroon. And specifically, to: i- reduce the women and young girls’ dependency vis-a-vis their spouses ; ii- increase beneficiaries’ revenue through income generating activities ;iii- reinforce women rights to lucrative activities of their choices; and iv- stimulate feminine creative potentials in the wealth creation processes.

Activities Realized :Supervision of 05 groups comprising of 10 vulnerable women per group in 05 localities: Efforts for the period were concentrated to work with the women of Palar II, and there has been significant progress. Monthly meetings have evolved to a rotative system to encourage solidarity and the credit is quite innovative and functional.

Human Interest Story:  Women carried out various small-scale businesses, some were seasonal like fruits and vegetable businesses. Mairamou opted to step up her game from mangoes, patched peanuts… sales to fabrics and had this to say: “The loan system has been helpful especially to me because it is with the loan that we work. Personally, I use to do business before but the creation of this group has been a turning point for me. I was able to begin with fabrics, I began with say 04 pieces and now I am able to acquire and sell up to 30 and more pieces per month. Turnover has been awesome: I take care of household and academic needs from my 04 kid with more ease now and most especially medical care for my husband who has been seriously sick for 10 months now. All of these would not be possible without the assistance of EFA Cameroon and her partners – GlobalGiving so I am really grateful and hope more could be done because there are more women who have been inspired by our group and wish to have financial freedom as well.”

Continuity: Given the impact of the pilot phase of the program and the fact that EFA Cameroon is limited financially and would want to do more, we are calling on GlobalGiving to accompany us reach out to more women who have expressed interest and are in situations of vulnerability given that the Far North is still in the recovery and reconstruction stage and that more women need to be financially independent.