By Moma Sandrine
On Thursday April 18th, some 50 displaced persons in Bamenda benefited from relief materials handed to them by COMINSUD, (Community Initiative for Sustainable Development), a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) with headquarters in Bamenda.
The relief materials comprised kits for adolescents, pregnant women and nursing mothers, food stuff and startup capital for those shortlisted to start up a business. According to the coordinator of COMINSUD, Fon Nsoh, this is not the first time displaced persons are benefiting from the organization’s support “Through the UNFPA, we’ve had over 1500 dignity kits distributed to adolescent girls and women and 1500 mamma kits to nursing mothers and pregnant women. We have reached out to over 5000 persons with psychological first aid including counseling and comfort to persons in distress”.
Identifying displaced persons is considered one of the major challenges some organizations who aim to extend helping hands face. However, COMINSUD seems to have a well carved out structure that attempts to combat this challenge, as the coordinator furthered: “Sensitization and identification of displaced persons is done with the help of community volunteers. COMINSUD has over 50 volunteers working under the organization”, Fon Nsoh explained.
Aside reaching out to displaced persons in Bamenda, COMINSUD has been carrying out some humanitarian activities through its volunteers in other parts of the NWR including Mbengwi, Batibo, Widikum, and Bui.
However, it is not all that rosy with the volunteers working in these crisis-hit areas. One of the them, Kenneth a volunteer with Belo council talks of the challenges that comes with volunteering in that community “The job as a volunteer is very challenging especially with the socio-political state of Belo, the risk is so high. Working with COMINSUD in Belo has not been all that easy. We had about 400 kits to distribute but I succeeded in distributing only 200, while the rest are still in stock because of the insecurity. We face harassment from armed civilian groups especially when they see you with something that looks strange. When they see us with the kits that are written there United Nations, they will always say that we are working for the state meanwhile they fail to understand that you are serving an organization that is out to help humanity”, Kenneth narrated.
After receiving the aids, the displaced persons expressed their appreciation to the donor organization: “We are very thankful for this wonderful donation. Today, I have received napkins, innerwear, towel, bathing soap and other baby things. I think it will help me reduce the cost of having this baby”, Juliette, a pregnant woman told The Sun.
Being pregnant and displaced at the same time is quite challenging as Juliette goes further to say “Sometimes, I find it very difficult even preparing food in the house because of finance. Sometimes I am unable to go to the hospital for anti-natal care”.
Though these persons received the gifts with much happiness, their dying desire still remains for peace to return so that they can regain their lives since they cannot continue to live their lives relying only on goodwill donations.
COMINSUD is an organization committed to stimulating changes within communities that leads to improvement of quality life for all.