The sisters of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus have a charism, of the empowerment of women. In line with the charism and the need to put it into practice, the St. Therese Women Empowerment Center Sabongari, Diocese of Kumbo, was created in 2002 to empower rural women.
With over 200 members in four groups who are involved in farming, beads making, tailoring, savings and business. Our activities are focused on empowering women and the girl child. This has been beneficial to married women, widows, single parents, and young girls in the Sabongari area.
As one of our major achievements which has brought a turning point to the life of the St Therese Empowerment Center is the donation of a New Toyota Hilux from Miva Switzerland.
This New Hilux has greatly facilitated the transportation of goods from the farms to the markets with no casualty encountered.
Outreach activities, community sensitizations, meetings, counseling, and home visits have been greatly enhanced.
Training in the sewing department became more effective since the year, 2019. The employment of the Center’s best Trainees, Hyacinth and Mirabel upon graduation, and the donation of prices, sewing machines, encouraged the trainees to be more serious.
As a new innovation, the young trainees were introduced to poultry farming this year. (Thanks to Educate Me Cameroon) The first sets of chickens were taken to the markets without any casualties received, while some other chickens also sold in the poultry. Thanks to the good means of transport
The women of Sabongari, through the cooperative, were trained on how to procure local soap which is used for daily use. This will help them reduce their expenses on detergents for laundry and other use of soap.
The Center recorded an increase in sales as products were delivered on time. This time around, supplies for Kumba, Douala, and Bafoussam were successfully supplied in time as opposed to 2017, when public transportation was used to dispatch products, thus greatly limiting our profits, as goods weren’t supplied in time. Supplies included School uniforms, sports attire, pullovers, foodstuff (Corn, Rice, Beans, Vegetable, and Garri)
With the current Socio-Political crises in Cameroon, there was need to increase public awareness on the empowerment of the woman and girl child, on the avoidance of all forms of unhealthy practices, and forms of violence against the woman. This was done through weekly home visits, village meetings, and sensitization in different villages and workshops with young girls. Thank God the presence of the high clearance car, facilitated movements in the various villages.
Workshop Topics
– SAINT THERESE WOMEN MULTIPURPOSE COOPERATIVE –
Cooperative membership has grown greatly to over 200 registered women. Monthly meetings continued. We registered over 4 functioning cooperative groups in Lihkop, Lihmbaw, Sabongari and Kurt
The women of the Saint Therese Women Multipurpose Cooperative group, have proven over the years to be reselent in their work.
They put in a lot of effort when it come to learing and make sure that the businesses work out well and the results are realized. This is such that their families can have good medical care, education and a sustainable stream of in come for the house hold thereby increasing and improving standards of living.
Activities of the groups continued at loan and drift business, storage of foodstuff in the cooperative warehouse, and goods sold when prices are high. The coming of the car made transportation of cooperative goods to the markets and from the farms very successful
The women recorded over 50% profit in the sales of rice this year as there was a high demand in rice. This has greatly helped them to be able to participate more in the running of their homes.
The Cooperative executives found it easier to visit other cooperative groups to evaluate their activities and also for the purpose of carrying out sensitization.
Since the year 2019, we have had a decrease in farm yields because of the Anglophone crises tensions, which mounted within the weeding periods, in the month of April, peak period of the farming season. We did not record great yields in groundnuts and corn as we had envisaged because farms were not weeded in time. Despite this challenge, we were still able to record average yields.
The lands have now been cleared making way for the planting of palms, since May 2020.
