Silver Lining Farms

In a developing country where everyone blindly craves to be employed by the government, entrepreneurship shines a light on the less privileged. The ongoing crisis in the North West and South West Regions has so far displaced about a million people (https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/cameroon) and many find themselves in urban areas. We designed a project to train and support 1000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), due to the crisis, in the domain of farming between 2021 and 2030. This is an initiative to promote peace and prosperity by creating resilient IDP communities in new settlements. The project tilted towards the cultivation of vegetables and fruits, and other food crops such as corn, cocoyam, cassava, and so on.

All in all, beneficiaries, including women, youths, and persons living with disabilities, are being identified in the towns and peripheries of the North West, South West, Centre, and Littoral regions of the country. These are people willing to fully engage in farm entrepreneurship while they are away from home. They are first of all trained in the given skills and then paired up with already-established farmers to gain experience and develop their business plans for the funding and implementation phases. During the midway implementation of their farm start-up projects, they are trained in peacebuilding, leadership, and financial management. The entire placement, funding, and implementation phases take nine months.

Overall, we work through this continuing project to empower IDPs with skills that put food on their tables while building peace by sharpening their skills in entrepreneurship, leadership, and teambuilding and engaging them in profitable activities.