WHY YOU SHOULD DONATE/ SUPPORT LICHA

Life Changing Humanitarian Association (LICHA-CAMEROON) is an apolitical, non-religious, non-government and not-for-profit-making organization which is located at Health Center Junction Mile 4, Nkwen Bamenda, and seeks to bring about sustainable change, hope and development to persons from disadvantaged backgrounds. It was created in September 2014 as a common initiative group with the main objective to Enhance Skills, alleviate poverty and change the lives of the less privileged, the orphans, the physically challenged and the vulnerable persons in poverty stricken communities in Cameroon and beyond, with more focus on children, youths, women and people with special needs by providing them with the access to formal and informal education, alongside other training opportunities that can guarantee a degree of self-sufficiency amongst these vulnerable persons. In October 2018, the organization was upgraded to a full-fledged association by the government of Cameroon with reference N0 56/E.29/1111/Vol.8/ALPAS of 12th October 2018.  The organisation carries out its activities in the following domains: Inclusive Education, Skills acquisitions, Health and Humanitarian outreach/assistance to the needy, counseling services and in other community development ventures.

INCLUSIVE EDUCATION: 

Every year and during summer holidays and at the beginning of the academic year, LICHA organizes seminars on career orientation and counseling in poor communities through churches, Youth/Students socio-cultural groups and over some media organs by galvanizing pupils and students to orientate them on what to study, where to study and how to get there. These sessions are usually accompanied by any available scholarship schemes to the orphans, the less privileged and the physically challenged. Also, as the needs and means arise, we provide didactic materials to such as books, text books and benches in very poor community schools in rural communities in order to facilitate learning. At least 100 pupils and students do benefit from our scholarship schemes every year based on our resources. This does not even meet the dire needs for pupils and students to go to schools, especially with the ongoing armed conflict that has rendered many homeless and internally displaced in cities without adequate means of survival due to limited resources.LICHA therefore, though with the limited resources engages in developing sustainable solutions to these problems. Recently, in some communities within the Bamenda III Municipality of the region where the lone government primary schools have been shut down by separatist fighters, LICHA partnered with the full gospel church and the community to create a community school where some 164 internally displaced children who are orphans, the less privileged and physically challenged from very poor families are currently receiving free education under the scholarship scheme of LICHA. In the near future, we intend to build classrooms and pipe born water to schools for children from poor homes to study in a conducive environment.

SKILLS ACQUISITION PROGRAMS:

During Career Orientation and Counseling sessions, students and youths especially the school dropped out are given the opportunity to either go back to school or choose from the diverse income generating activities where they can acquire skills sponsored by LICHA to help them become self-sufficient. Whatever skills they choose to acquire, LICHA engages as sponsor and at the end of their training, they are established and given start-up capital to help them become self-employed and be able to help other interested persons acquire such skills freely. The results have been so glaring especially during this period of the crisis where LICHA in partnership with the Bamenda III Council trained some 126 widows and young single mothers on Baking and pastries and went further to established them with seed grants. In another attempt, LICHA trained some 50 women who are internally displaced, widows and women with disabilities in table bird rearing. At the end, they were each given 30 table birds and other items as start-up capitals to continue the Business.  They later on sponsored some other less privileged, orphans and physically challenged children with proceeds from their first sales through LICHA. The problems are many, the challenges are many, the passionate for service to humanity is there but we are limited by resources to do better.

 HEALTH CAMPAIGNS AND OUTREACH.

LICHA is also poised to build a healthy society. In this light, LICHA on a trail to schools, churches, public arenas, and to many other agents of socialization carries out frequent health sensitization talks on sexual and reproductive health issues (SRHS), gender based violence(GBV) and other pandemic such as HIV/AIDS, syphilis, Ghonorhea and Corona Virus, Hepatistis ,just to name but a few. Young girls in poor rural communities especially in the western and Northern regions of Cameroon with high rate of illiteracy and prevailing health issues are targeted to help them prevent the spread of sexually transmissible diseases through unhealthy sexual relationships with older men” Sugar Daddies”. These campaigns talks are usually accompanied by the donation of free sanitary pads to young girls with lessons on menstrual cycle and hygiene education. We also provide medical facilities such as drugs, and medical facilities to health Centers and communities’ health care units in poor communities. We provide urgent health care assistance to the less privileged, orphans and the physically challenged that cannot afford. We also support the very old and vulnerable with medical assistance. 

HUMANITARIAN OUTREACH

LICHA is not left out in providing urgent/emergency humanitarian assistance to victims of man-made and natural disasters nationwide especially to poor communities. This was noticeably seen during the weird days of the outbreak of the armed conflict between the separatist fighters and government forces where thousands of families were rendered homeless in the Bamenda city and beyond. LICHA quickly responded with safe spaces to children, young girls and women in partnership with the Bamenda III council and the regional delegation for women empowerment and the family, and the UNPFA project by donating dignity kits to young girls and women for emergency issues. Moreover, the organization since the outbreak of the Anglophone conflict has been donating food items, dresses and other logistics that could ease life to internally displaced persons and the needy in the society. 

Disability Inclusion

Within the context of humanitarian actions and after coming in contact with a majority of persons living with disabilities in the communities of Nkwen, Bamenda, the entire Mezam and beyond, vis-à-vis the repeated but resultant forms of prejudices, marginalization and discrimination practices that they undergo on daily basis, LICHA has arisen to mainstreaming disability into all the facets of the organization. Apart from partnering with the principal Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs) and other service providers of persons with disabilities within the metropolis of Bamenda for the betterment of the socio-economic welfare of these persons with special abilities, by so doing, LICHA–CAMEROON has regularly incorporated persons with disabilities, not leaving out the other persons with special needs like people with albinism, Bororos, etc. into all her outreach teams and staffing lists. Very conspicuous amongst some of the topmost luminaries who are charged with the execution of the day-to-day functions of LICHA are persons with visual impairments. At the meantime, currently sharing an office space with the lead regional association for the blind, the Hope Social Union for the Visually Impaired (HSUVI) Bamenda is an eloquent proof of our inclusive camaraderie. As a matter of fact, practicable inclusion is a reality at LICHA-CAMEROON as we strongly believe in this dictum that “disability is not inability”. 

COUNSELING

Counseling is one of the major starting points of LICHA-Cameroon. We provide psycho-social counseling to the depressed, traumatized and victims of rape. We also provide marital and pre-marital counseling to young people in the community because we observed that the society is full of divorce cases

THE CHALLENGES OF LICHA

The above-mentioned activities are the prevailing problems that LICHA-CAMEROON is committed to solving in poverty-stricken communities in Cameroon and beyond. A team of volunteers is so passionate about their community involvement in providing sustainable solutions to the less privileged, the orphans, the physically challenged, and other vulnerable persons in society. Apart from administrative bottlenecks that we encounter in solving some of these problems, we are limited by resources to freely carry out these activities. We solemnly plead for support from individuals and organizations to partner with us to achieve this vision for an equitable, inclusive and just society for all.