Help Out, Mission 21, Empower Young Girls Affected By Crisis

 By Kum Seraphine Sangha

Help Out (NGO) in partnership with Mission 21 has offered a free residential training to vulnerable displaced youths in the Agricultural Skill Development Center (ASDC) in Busumbu Limbe.

The graduation ceremony of the beneficiaries took place on August 5 at the centre in Bussumbu, Limbe.

The young graduates, seventeen in number, who were intensively trained for a three months period in snail farming, piggery, mushroom production, rabbits and even the cultivation of different vegetables were challenged to go out there and make a name for themselves through all what they have learnt.

Speaking during the graduation ceremony, the County Coordinator for Mission 21 Cameroon, Mr. Togho Lumumba Mukong said Mission 21 aims at reducing beggars on the streets by empowering them”.

While congratulating and encouraging the graduates to be committed and put all they have learned into practice, Mr. Togho Lumumba also challenged them to put all hands-on deck so that come October 2023, they all must have started something that will make the trainers and sponsors proud.

He told The Advocate that, Mission 21 which is a faith-based NGO in Switzerland, after taking consideration of the crisis rocking the North West and South Regions and is more concerned with the welfare of the girl child.

So, they extended their work to cover people in emergency, reason why they are doing development work and humanitarian action with the church (Presbyterian church) especially, and through local NGOs.“The key action is to bring life in dignity to everybody by giving skills so that people can go on with their lives”, he explained.

He expressed satisfaction with the output of the first set of trainees and confessed that the girls have given him and his team hopes as a pioneer batch, with their outstanding performance.

The County Coordinator also went further to thank the Quarter Head of Quarter 12 for welcoming his team and the young girls affected by the crisis, and for making sure their stay was hitch-free. For his part, the Quarter head called on the young agriculturalists to make good use of this wonderful initiative to impact the society and change their lives positively.

Meanwhile, the South West Director for Mission 21 Mr. Oben Njock revealed this project is one of the many projects sponsored by Mission 21 to empower young Cameroonian girls especially those affected by the crisis rocking the North West and South West Regions of the country.

He hopes with the skills attained; these young farmers will be able to pass it on the next generation.

The graduates though faced with the challenge of owning large expands of lands were encouraged to make good use of the available spaces in their compounds to cultivate vegetables like huckleberry, pumpkin, cucumber, and why not attempt a poultry, snail or rabbit farming.

Helen Wase, one of the happy graduates confessed she never knew anything in respect to agriculture but coming for the training has immensely changed her. She told The Advocate that she is confident of becoming a better person through the training received.

Attestations were presented to the trainees at the end of the ceremony and according to Mrs. Julien Ngum epse Nkemjika who is manager of the centre, skills learnt are never wasted and can take them all over the world. She encouraged the girls to go out and impact the world.