By Inna Lazareva
YAOUNDE, July 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The chic evening clutch-bags, dainty sandals and leather smartphone accessories on display in a showroom in an upscale district of Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, would not look out of place at the smartest dinner parties.
But their creators come from an entirely different world – forced from their homes to escape suicide bombings, theft and killings by Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
Their craft work is supported by a new social enterprise – IDP Goods – set up by a group of young Cameroonians to help internally displaced people (IDPs) from the country’s most remote and populous but least developed region, the Far North.
The aim is to enable them to start their own businesses, create employment opportunities – and ultimately, to defeat radicalisation.
Since Boko Haram’s first attacks in Cameroon in March 2014, more than 1,500 people have been killed, prompting almost a quarter of a million to flee their homes.
Just last week, two suicide bombers killed at least 12 people and wounded over 40 others in a small town in northern Cameroon near the Nigerian border.
The country has also taken in more than 360,000 refugees from Nigeria and Central African Republic who are receiving essential aid from international agencies, despite a shortage of funding.
Balkisou Buba, a co-founder of IDP Goods, said displaced Cameroonians, on the other hand, are “completely forgotten” by humanitarian agencies. “We wanted to do something for them,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The group, all alumni of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders run by the U.S. State Department, began looking for sustainable, longer-term solutions in a region where some three-quarters of the population live below the poverty line, and more than half of children do not attend school.
“We wanted to capitalise on the existing skills people had,” said the group’s CEO, Charlie Wandji, at its small office adjacent to the showroom.
‘CALL TO UNITE’
Since last October, the group has established two co-operatives for IDPs – one in Maroua, the capital of the Far North region, and one in Zamai camp for the displaced.
Initial finance, which runs until October, was provided by the U.S. State Department.
The idea is to train IDPs to produce quality goods to sell in the country’s commercial centres of Yaoundé, Douala and Garoua, among others. Half the profits are channelled back into running the enterprise, while the other half go directly to the workers, said Wandji.
Each item bears the distinctive “IDP Goods” logo, a patented trademark Wandji and his team hope to make into a symbol of businesses led by Cameroon’s displaced.
“You don’t have to work in our co-operative and stay on our sites in order to use our trademark,” explained Wandji.
Once IDPs have received training, they can set up their own businesses and sell their goods using the trademark to gain more exposure, he said.
Even when people return home, they can continue using the label. “The only condition is that the company employs at least five IDPs,” said Wandji.
Oumarou Souley, secretary to the Zamai district chief who donated a plot of land to build a workshop in the camp, said the label “is a call for everyone to unite”.
“It could have been any one of us in the same situation,” he said in a phone interview. By buying the products, consumers can help IDPs get back on their feet and “feel that they’re not forgotten”, he added.
