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Saturday, 12 June 2021

Support to less privileged, IDPs: Wanyuri Foundation’s Dev’t, Training Center To Go Operational June 19

Underprivileged persons living in Yaounde in the Centre region and its environs and those internally displaced, IDPs, by the close to five years armed in the North West and South West regions will soon heave a sigh of relief to their plight and dire living conditions. 
This follows the scheduled launching of Wanyuri Development and Training Center, a branch of Wanyuri Foundation – an international not-for-profit organization with registered offices in Belgium and Cameroon. The development and training centre is expected to go operational 19 June 2021 in Yaoundé. 

As explained by the Founder, Sunjo Relindis Kiven, the foundation is out to continue with the charitable works of her late mother, ‘Mami Caro’, who, before her demise dedicated her life to serving others. 

“The organization is out to empower individuals and communities to help eradicate poverty and hunger by promoting development and job creation,” Sunjo stated, adding, that she is very passionate in the course because she has also known hunger during her childhood days. 

“We have recently launched a call for small businesses in Yaoundé who have suffered losses due to Covid-19 to register for our financial support grant packages,” Sunjo revealed, adding that the offer targets especially widows, orphans, single mothers, IDPs and less privileged persons.

She said the foundation has “an internal databank of registered less privileged persons with their stories which enables them to make budgets available for a specific project by searching through the databank to select beneficiaries before providing support to new people,” Sunjo disclosed while urging all and sundry to stop by at their new office at the Biyam Assi neighbourhood in Yaounde VI subdivision and get themselves registered so as to enable the foundation know their needs and plan how to assist. 

The soon to be established center which is a pilot phase of one of the main objectives of the foundation aims at empowering the less privileged and IDPS in the fields of ICTs, fashion design and sewing, hair dressing, make-up and beauty, capacity building courses, finance and budgeting plus agriculture and poultry. The foundation, she said, offers financial support from its micro-finance project to candidates with promising projects upon completion of the training. 

“Our initial plan was to set this up in Kumbo but due to the unrest and the recent flood of many displaced persons to the capital city Yaoundé, it is but logical for us to move the project to where the beneficiaries are,” Sunjo said, adding, that their hope is to as a civil society play their part in achieving the UN Strategic Development Goals number 16 & 18 (job & wealth creation) in a sustainable way.

The foundation has so far focused on grassroots development projects and played her part in achieving SDG 6 (Clean Water & Sanitation) and SDG 4 (Quality Education) in villages around Cameroon. It plans to scale up to SDG 8 (Good Jobs and Economic Growth) as well as SDG 9 (Innovation and Infrastructure). 

Sunjo said through the new center in Yaounde, the organization will not only provide fish to the less privileged but teach them how to fish through job and wealth creation programmes. She said registration can be done during the official launch June 19 or by booking an appointment via the foundation’s Facebook to visit the office. Created in 2016, the organization has impacted many lives with their numerous projects by promoting education, health and sanitation by providing clean drinking water and now vocational training.

“If you visit our website you will see for yourself what Wanyuri Foundation has been able to achieve; we built water tanks in 5 villages in Kumbo, providing close to 10 000 people access to drinking water. Before the crisis forced us out of Kumbo, we had constructed 5 classrooms and nursery classrooms and toilets in 5 schools, donated quality classrooms furniture including benches, chairs and table, cupboards among many others,” she revealed. 

In the health domain especially with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the foundation has built 10 wash hand stations with disinfectants and sensitization banners placed at strategic junctions in and around Bamenda and Kumbo as well as distributed more than 20,000 free facemask to the needy. 

The foundation embarked on a crisis response project where some 400 IDPs were handed financial support, basic necessities like toiletries, and food bags among others. Sunjo said the foundation equally has a microfinance project, geared at promoting wealth and job creation by providing less privileged persons who have promising business ideas with the funding they need to kick-start their business and re-evaluation services offered to beneficiaries every three months with possibilities of adding in more capital if the businesses are succeeding. 

In order to put smile on the faces of less privilege kids, the foundation distributes Christmas food packages every year to over 500 people. It also offers aid and grant packages in schools in Kumbo who worked tirelessly in sensitizing kids on the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The foundation offers beneficiary membership at FCFA 3500 yearly with a T-shirt and other privileges as well as a support membership at FCFA 10.000 yearly for those that want to be part of the Wanyuri movement and play their part in empowering communities together with Wanyuri.

By Doh Bertrand Nua

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