About the Project
The project provided two multifunctional cassava grinding machines and farm tools for the cultivation and processing of cassava.
Location
Mbwogmut Village, Tombel subdivision, Southwest Region of Cameroon
Quick Project Stats
| Funding Date | July – August 2023 |
| Luena Investment | $2,000 |
| CBO Partner | ISUDEV |
| Village | Mbwogmut Village |
| Country | Cameroon |
| # of Children Impacted | 46 |
| Community Contribution | Manual labor and farmland |
Livelihoods, Food Security, and Education Barriers in Mbwogmut Village
Since the beginning of 2022, many of the crisis-affected communities in Southwest Cameroon have witnessed relative calmness. This has encouraged formerly displaced families to return back to their home communities, where they fled from intense gun battles between separatist fighters and the government military forces. Even though they have returned to their home villages, poverty and food insecurity is still a huge challenge for these families. These problems of food insecurity and poverty are worsened by their inabilities to process and preserve food for future consumption and for value addition (for sale) due to the lack of processing equipment. The women, who are charged with feeding the family, are engaged in small scale cassava cultivation. Unfortunately, they cannot produce even with the quantity of food needed for home consumption, let alone what they can sell as surplus, because most of the harvest is lost due to lack of adequate processing and preservation. These women use handmade cassava processing graters, which are not only time consuming but also can injure their fingers. These graters also do not provide quality processed cassava as it is always mixed with unwanted particles. The lack of cassava processing machines is also a huge setback to children’s education as they need to help their mothers in pounding the cassava in the mornings before going to school. This is an activity that takes much of their time and makes them to miss classes or be absent from school.
Cassava Machines and Tools Improve Production and Give Children More Time for Education
The donation from Luena Foundation was used to purchase two modern and multifunctional cassava grinding machines benefitting a total of 35 vulnerable women in Mbwogmut Village, mostly from widow-headed households. The donation was also used to provide cassava farming tools such as hoes and cutlasses to permit the women to grow these crops with ease and in a greater quantity. The project benefited 46 children as it now makes more food available for them and also empowers their mothers to provide other basic needs for them such as educational materials.
This project has been very important to the women and their children, as it has removed the stress of children assisting with cassava preparation before going to school in the mornings.
Meet our Partner Community-Based Organization
Initiatives for Sustainable Development (ISUDEV) is a youth-led development and nonprofit organization, whose mission is to remove all barriers for the alleviation of poverty among disadvantaged children, youths, marginalized women and indigenous populations especially in hard-to-reach communities.
