WOMEN COOPERATIVES

Cameroon Support Organization is heavily invested in helping women cooperatives.  Women cooperatives’ mission are to organize and empower the women of Cameroon to take charge of their future. These independent grassroots groups meet to share ideas on ways to better their lives and the lives of their families.

Adult Literacy

Cameroon is a poor country with limited resources available for the rural poor.  Women make up 55 percent of the total population of Cameroon and of this percentage, most live in the rural areas. Rural women are marginalized in many ways. While boys often attend school, young girls are strongly discouraged from obtaining an education.  Because most of the rural women farmers are illiterate, they cannot rise to leadership roles, which are needed to form more effective cooperatives that have a voice in their communities.  CAMSO endeavors to help fund pro-literacy classes for rural women. They are taught reading, writing, and rudimentary bookkeeping, thereby enabling the women to actively participate in the record keeping and bookkeeping in their various cooperative societies. The ability to read will give women the confidence and encouragement to take charge of their lives and have a voice in their futures. (See Tuition)

Farming

The women in Cameroon, in addition to all the household chores, must carry out all the family farm activities.  This includes clearing and tilling the fields, weeding, harvesting and transporting the crops back to the village and then processing them.  Farming work is done with few farming tools.  The transportation of crops is done by head load.  If they are also carrying an infant on their backs, this often endangers the baby.  This method of crop transportation in many cases causes health concerns for the women themselves.  CAMSO has recently received a small grant to buy several handcarts so that women can more efficiently bring their produce to market. 

Cooperative groups encourages these poor rural women to learn better farming methods in order to increase their crop yields. (See Farming Concerns) The money gained from the sales helps them buy simple farming equipment (hoes, shovels, and hand carts) thus helping their farming efforts to be more successful. The women cultivate food crops to feed their family.  Any excess is sold in the market to provide the money for clothing, schooling for the children, and medical care. For many families, these basic necessities are not met because of the difficulty in raising enough crops on their farms.

Health

The HIV/AIDS pandemic remains a public health challenge ravaging the general population. The highest levels of infection are found among the women. Ignorance and socio-cultural practices allow this tragedy to continue.  CAMSO is helping to raise awareness of the causes and prevention through health classes taught through women cooperatives. Classes are given to the orphans left by the death of mothers and to caregivers of orphans.  Surprising as it is, many caregivers don’t understand the necessity of proper care and protection for orphans.  It is important that these orphans are taught the basics of reading, writing, and a skill to help support themselves. So often these poor orphans are treated as outcasts and have to resort to begging to survive.

Prenatal care is another health issue affecting the rural women of Cameroon.  There are few rural health facilities. The women receive little health care and often have their babies delivered by inexperienced friends or neighbors. This often results in harm to the mother and the baby.  We hope to provide classes to one or two members of each cooperative group, so they will be trained as birthing attendants to help the mothers who can not afford to go to a medical clinic. (See Health Care) 

Micro-Credit Plan

Because women are marginalized in their society, it is almost impossible for them to obtain credit to improve their financial plight.  It is imperative that a system be put in place so that through cooperatives, women will have the ability to borrow money.  This credit will allow the women to purchase farming equipment, take classes and generally improve their life skills.  Once they become more productive in their farming endeavors, they will repay their loans, freeing up the money for other women.