Hope and Smiles for abandoned widows and orphans
KNOW ABOUT US
Berine and Bokwe Foundation (BEBOF) is a duly registered Non-profit women-led association. BEBOF aims to reach out, support and empower abandoned widows, orphans, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and underprivileged persons Founded in May 2017. Our mission is to bring hope, but smile, and empower them spiritually, economically, socially and financially. We support widows, orphans and internally displaced persons.
Specifically, BEBOF seeks to identify and bring together abandoned widows and create community groups of abandoned widows. We support them through self-help groups that offer them a loan to start up their businesses
-To build the capacity of the above target population.
-To sensitize and provide psycho-social, emotional, physical, educational and mental support.
-To build capacity economically and financially.
What we do
For over five years, our unwavering commitment has been directed towards combatting the deeply rooted issues of women’s disinheritance in Cameroon. Through extensive efforts, we have embarked on a comprehensive mission that involves engaging with various villages and communities. Our purpose is to forge meaningful dialogues with local chiefs and community leaders, fostering discussions aimed at devising strategies to establish dedicated community groups.
These are ill practices that are being practised in Cameroon that we need to fight against. Women are suffering in communities in Cameroon, women are discriminated against, and Women are being maltreated, Women are being denied inheritance right after their husband’s death, Women are restricted from participating in public service, Women are victims of circumstances (forceful genital mutilation is still going on in some communities). These activities fall into several key categories
Community Engagement and Advocacy
Capacity Building and Training
Education and Awareness Campaigns
Community Group Formation and Support
How we create community Groups
We travel from one community to another; We have created more than 40 community groups of widows in Cameroon. Whenever we go to any community, we meet various chiefs and the community heads and discuss with him, we explain reasons why these community groups of widows need to be created, after convincing chiefs on the necessity of protecting widows right and empowering them, we always plead on community heads to bring together all the women and widows in that community who are vulnerable and have been abandoned. When these women come together, we always organise an election to elect the coordinator and the executive of the community. These coordinators help to reports abuses on women to our head office in Buea South West region o Cameroon. In the picture below, we have one of the coordinators of the Limbe Community in the Fako division of the southwest region of Cameroon.
Providing foodstuffs to Underprivileged widows and women during the peak period of Covid 19
In June 2020, during the peak period of Covid 19, we provided foodstuffs to widows in the North West and southwest region of Cameroon. The president and the Team of the Foundation decided to select some community groups from among the community groups we have created since 2017 to assist them with foodstuffs like rice, beans, potatoes, oil, etc
Providing foodstuffs to abandoned widows during the Covid 19 pandemic in a community in the Buea Municipality
Training widows on the production of Soap (Savon)
One of our core values is advocating for women’s rights, most especially women’s rights to inherit and we advocate stopping all the repugnant practices against women. We empower these widows economically; this is done to help them acquire skills that will make them industrious. We trained women in the production of soap. It is our greatest wish to expand
this training on soap protection to other communities of widows that we have created; we lack enough material and financial resources to take this project to other communities Below are some pictures of the soap production Training carried out in the Ndongo community in a small factory that we created for the Ndongo community.
Our Funding Partners
