The Jumbam Family Foundation (JFF) has provided 17 widows with 5.5 million FCFA to help them rebuild and take care of their families in northwest and southwest Cameroon.
After offering them trauma-healing counseling and small business orientation, the money was distributed to the women to enable them begin to fend for themselves and their children.
The occasion also saw the launch of JFF, which seeks to cater for women who have lost their husbands in the war in Cameroon’s mainly English-speaking northwest and southwest regions
Since 2017, the regions have been rocked by violence after separatists declared the independence of Ambazonia.
The crisis in the regions started when lawyers and teachers took to the streets of Buea and Bamenda to protest the domination of French in Anglophone courts and schools.
Clashes between the country’s military and separatist fighters have led to more than 3,000 deaths and many displaced persons.
In its humanitarian response in 2020, JFF said it provided monetary assistance to 18 widows in the regions to start small businesses and engage in livestock farming.
The support was offered by Jumbam Rebecca Seh, who lost her husband, Ngek Constantine Jumbam, in the crisis.
‘At least 70 percent of the widows we supported last year have succeeded in their little businesses and livestock farming activities’, the foundation’s founder said.
‘Each of them received assistance, ranging from 200,000 FCFA to 400,000 FCFA. Our appeal is for people to partner with us to assist more widow victims of the war.
‘I believe that if you put a smile on someone’s face, you also will smile because smile is contagious’.
She also said, ‘After last year’s assistance programme, many widows have been calling to also seek support, while donations have come from well-wishers within Cameroon and abroad.
‘My family also raised some money, which has enabled us to set up and launch the Jumbam Family Foundation’.
She said that the foundation, in the future, plans to assist war widows to take care of the schooling and health of their orphans.
Source: Cameroon Tribune
Photo source: Cameroon Tribune
