Though she comes from the French-speaking majority population of Cameroon, she was married to an Anglophone and as such moved to Bamenda in the Northwest.
As the heat of the conflict intensified, her husband was killed one of those days he was out in search of their daily bread.
His corpse told the ordeal of his death. He had been tortured to a horrifying death. Laurette, left with no other choice but to runway for her life especially as she was a Francophone, sold all the little belongs she could and left for Douala with her 2 kids and an unborn child.
9 months pregnant at the time of our meeting, she had not had any hospital visit. She could barely feed her 2 kids and herself. She was given a small karabot (plank) house by an old friend in a swampy area.
Heavily due Lorette (Her over swollen legs made moving around difficult for her)
Though the conditions were deplorable especially for a pregnant woman, the was little we could do because the essential needs alone were really costly. Her nightmare was the safety of her unborn baby which hunted her from her last pregnancy which ended up as a stillbirth.
First visit to Lorette at her residence in Bonaberi
SGIF on follow up with her case later learned of the passing away of her baby at birth. Devastated as she was, the accumulated bills piled before her especially as she had to be operated upon.
For a lady whose kids hand not seen a classroom for 2 years due to lack of finance, covering the bill was never going to be possible.
SGIF offered her the moral and financial help we could. Giving her the financial assistance we could at the time.
Follow up on Lorette.
There are many of these cases documented by SGIF with a goal to bring their plight to the mass. Some are more heartbreaking than these ones but we can't tell them because we couldn't tell the story without some of the terrible things we heard.
Our goal is not to tell the evil being perpetrated in these regions as a result of this conflict but to tell the hardship it has brought to many especially women and children.
As we create awareness, many more people are joining in to make a difference for these people.
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