NATIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE CARE AND SUPPORT TO ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN

Amidst other high profile personalities in and out of  Cameroon, Mr. Elvis Wepngong, Chief Executive Director led OGCEYOD Cameroon’s participation at the National Forum on Children’s Vulnerability and social protection in Cameroon which  took place on September 20^th -22^nd, 2011 Yaoundé conference Centre. During the forum, participants deliberated on the impacts of world crises on children and women. Together they tried to adopt suitable methods through which issues plaguing children such as child labor, exploitation and abandonment and trafficking could be stopped. It was expected that the seminar would attract and rally regional, national and international donors to make sustainable contributions in the provision of welfare to children, women and other vulnerable groups.

This seminar was very important because it came at a time when the organization was working on a project for orphans and vulnerable children. This project falls under the ‘National Program for Care and Support to Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Cameroon’ and it is funded by the Cameroon’s Ministry of Social Affairs/ UNICEF.

 The first phase of the project took place immediately after a seminar which was set at the Holiday Inn Resort, Limbe in July 2010 to educate stake holders on the objectives of the project. OGCEYOD Cameroon was one of the organizations selected as facilitators of the project. The whole idea was to assist orphans and vulnerable children. The first step of the project is an identification process for which the staff goes from door to door. Facilitators and social workers move into various communities in the Limbe municipality to identify vulnurable children. Each child’s case is filed and taken back into the office. With the gathered information the children are classified into different categories of aid. They get educational, nutritional, psychosocial and medical assistance. Same as in 2010, the children are handed out their supplements in the last stage of the project after school fees and vocational training fees have been covered.

This year which marks the second phase of the project, children who needed vocational training in fields such as tailoring, hairdressing and motor mechanics, weldering and others benefitted and the project scope was expanded from Limbe –Mutengene. Disbursement for educational assistance for this year just took place on Saturday, 15^th October 2011. Due to the problems that were faced last year, there were some beneficiary’s who complaint of not having got the information of the disbursement venue. It was decided this year, that disbursement will be done from door to door to all beneficiaries of educational assistance. The implementation went well and beneficiaries appreciated the efforts of all those involved in bringing some level of sunshine and laughter into their lives.