Rice production and sales
Locally grown and processed rice is the cooperative’s main product. In a year of high demand the women recorded over 50% profit, which let them contribute more to running their homes.
Over 200 women building their families’ future together
The St. Therese Women Empowerment Centre was created in 2002 in the Diocese of Kumbo to empower rural women: married women, widows, single parents and young girls of the Sabongari area.
- registered members
- 200+
- groups: Lihkop, Lihmbaw, Sabongari, Kurt
- 4
- profit on rice sales in a strong year
- 50%+
- women trained in leadership and bookkeeping
- 29
How the cooperative works
The Sisters of St. Therese have a charism for the empowerment of women. The cooperative puts it into practice. Members meet every month. They farm, make beads, sew, save and trade.
Groups run loan and thrift schemes, store foodstuff in the cooperative warehouse and sell when prices are high. The women have proven resilient: they work so that their families have medical care, schooling and a steady household income.
What the women produce
Crop farming
Corn, groundnuts, beans and vegetables. Yields fell during the Anglophone crisis, when farms could not be weeded on time, yet the women still brought in average harvests. Land has been cleared for oil palms since 2020.
Storage and transport
The warehouse funded by Manos Unidas and the pickup donated by MIVA Switzerland mean food reaches the markets of Kumba, Douala and Bafoussam on time and without loss.
What still holds the women back
These are the limits our members name themselves. Each one matches a project a sponsor can fund.
- Hand tools make it hard to farm large areas.
- Little capital to invest in income-generating activities.
- A single pickup for all transport from farms to warehouse and markets.
- The cost of processing cooperative rice rises every day.
Stand with the women and children of Sabongari
Fund a project, sponsor a student, buy what the women make, or simply start a conversation with us.