Who I am
My name is Nahvoma Miranda. I live in Canada but I come from the English speaking region of Cameroon which is now conflict-stricken. I am a Humanitarian Ambassador for SGI Foundation, a humanitarian grass-root organisation aimed at responding to the plight of the needy and alleviating poverty.
I remember as a kid when this white lady from the US visited our home in Bamenda. As my Dad presented his “kids” to her, she kept counting. She could not help but exclaimed when she counted the 10th kid, “how do you manage to have all these children”? We all laughed but my Dad's response is what stayed with me, “here (Africa) your children are not just your biological kids. We are one big family”. Honestly, my Dad only had 2 biological kids amongst the 10. Myself and my kid brother.
Those words became my inspiration for Charity but they seem to have engraved a love for humanity in my kid brother T J Lebga, Founder of SGI Foundation, and today I am living that dream through SGI Foundation as a goodwill Ambassador.
Through SGIF, I have been able to be part of formidable humanitarian projects like feeding and caring for the needy.
With the advent of the Anglophone crisis today, SGIF seeks to take on a far bigger and more challenging project and we are can be part of it.
Humanitarian Crisis
The wake of 2017 saw the Anglophone minority population, clamouring for change due to an acclaimed systematic marginalisation being met with brute and lethal military force. This led to some civilians picking up arms in a claim to defend themselves.
With more than 100 villages and 70+ schools burnt down or vandalized and over 3,000 civilians killed according to Human Rights Watch, the Anglophone region is seeing extreme mass rural exodus.
By December 2019, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported over 50,000 displace people as Refugees in Nigeria and 679,000 Internally Displaced Persons (60,000+ in Douala alone), of which 53% were women and 46% children.
The most appalling fact is the extent to which the crisis has been neglected as it recently topped the Norwegian Refugee Council list of World Most Neglected Crisis. As both actors intensify the conflict, the innocent grass-root men suffer most thus pushing up the number of IDPs.
The recent COVID 19 pandemic hasn’t spared these IDPs as it virtually cripples economies. With workers laid off, companies winding up and little or no substantial support from the government, public spending has been greatly reduced. To this, petty trades owed by some of these IDPs have been ruined and gathering resources to ensure the financial, emotional, physical, and social security of these people is harder. As a result, most of them have plunged into more deplorable conditions and basic protective COVID 19 gears like hand sanitizers and nose masks seem to be the least of their worries.
The Goal
SGIF has supported IDP women and children with food, basic supply and health assistance. SGIF has talked to many IDPs in a bid to give them a voice and from their stories, you can feel pain and trauma, stemming from; frustration, hunger, homelessness, poverty, sickness and worst of all; exploitation, rape and bereavement.
To respond to these problems, SGIF has designed a project termed SGIF 4 IDPs which targets Internally Displaced women, children (of all ages), and men.
Phase 1 targets their urgent need while phase 2 focuses on creating lasting solutions to their need.
Objectives;
1. Feed and provide basic needs including COVID 19 protective gear for 100 IDPs.
This is to respond to the immediate need. This helps SGIF build bonds and understand the IDPs. That made it possible for them to design the skill acquisition program.
2. Sponsor 35 children between 4-18yrs in primary, secondary, and university levels.
With many kids rather hawking the streets than being in classrooms because of lack of funds, the illiteracy level keeps increasing.
3. Train 100 IDPs in profitable skills and petty trading.
SGIF acknowledge that focusing solely on relief reach outs breeds a perpetual state of dependency, reasons why this skill acquisition program was designed. Its aim is eventual independence.
Sponsor a Trainee After professional calculations, the full cost stands at XAF5,400,000 ($9,000, £8,000, €7,200).
NB: You can access the full document on our website at www.spiritgymfoundation.org
Why crowdfund
The very success of past projects can be accorded to donors and well-wishers. There are many out there, ready to help the vulnerable in society, but they don’t know how to.
SGI Foundation has since midway of the Anglophone crisis build an umbrella under which many humanitarians can come under for a Transparent and Accountable collective response.
As a team, SGIF wants to do more. SGIF cannot do it alone and for the first time, they are calling on a worldwide range of well-wishers to join them in giving hope to the hopeless and restore broken dreams to these vulnerable people especially the women and children.
SGIF believes and values the power of unity in a crowd as thus respects every single person within its community.
Surplus Cash
The SGIF 4 IDP program is designed in a scalable fashion. That is, in the case of surplus cash, the number of participants can simply be increased to cover a broader scale.
Let us rally and support this great initiative to fight hunger, illiteracy, child hawking, prostitution, and poverty by Donating effortlessly in our numbers and also sharing this campaign 1-on-1 with friends, colleagues, nieghbours, and family.
Together with SGIF, we can give these women and children a chance to fight COVID 19 on level terms.
Please care to join SGIF Facebook Group https://web.facebook.com/groups/sgifoundation/ for live updates on the project as you Donate and feel that energy that comes with giving.