Help a Child

As a non governmental organization, AMEF needs your help and support to achieve its goals and objectives within the following domains

Child Centred education
Fighting gender bias in rural communities, and especially
The rights of the girl child

Challenges faced by AMEF include the following:

School needs of children cannot be met due to abject poverty of parents within the area of operation
Inadequate running cost (meeting the needs of the staff and target population)
Inadequate infrastructure, tools and equipment
'Difficult road and lack of mobility to access certain areas of operation, like Akwaya, South West Region of Cameroon where early/forced marriage of the girl child is prevalent

Our organizing committee staff and affiliates dedicate their time relentlessly to meet up with the goals of AMEF.

However, support funding is desperately needed by AMEF to booster her activities. If you believe in our mission, think, take an action to support AMEF financially and / or materially in her many on-going projects or you can sponsor specific projects.

Money Woman Phenomenon

In the course of carrying out field work among rural women in Akwaya sub division, a very remote and enclaved area in the South West Region of Cameroon in the year 2001, Dr Margaret Niger-Thomas, a social anthropologist and gender specialist came across the 'Money Woman' phenomenon common in the area.

She explains her encounter with two little girls aged 5 and 6 years respectively entrapped in a form of early/forced marriage and completely void of their human rights. " It was about 9.00am in the morning after breakfast, that I came across two little girls loitering around the area where I spent the night in Akwaya. Considering the fact that primary education is free in Cameroon, I expected these two little girls to be in school at that hour of the day. In my usual curiosity as an anthropologist, I tried to find out from them why they were not in school and this was their chorus response in pidgin language, "we be money woman," meaning we are money women. I went further to find out what they meant by "money woman" but they smiled at me, embarrassed at my ignorance and only emphasized still in pidgin language "mama you no know say we be money woman," meaning "mama don't you know that we are money women."

They happily left me with no further explanation. In the course of my activities in Akwaya, I talked to a number of people who tried to explain what "money woman" meant in that community. "Money Woman" is a phenomenon whereby a girl child is married from 0-15 years old to an adult male who could be 30-50 years older. In the case of the two little girls, who called themselves "money woman," they were already married to older me who had adult wives or were living with concubines. At the age of puberty (8-12 years old), the little girl moves to the man's residence or that of his family.

So your support to AMEF is to help young girls in such situations to receive education and not be forced into early unwanted marriages and to help single parents ( most of whom are women who had been denied education due to gender bias) to become self sustaining by learning a trade. Click here to DONATE or use the form below for material donations.

Solidarity Tree

The C and J Mebinaps Solidarity Tree is a program which pairs a child with a sponsor for a minimum of one year following, one of the categories (see below)

If a child is being sponsored the first year, sponsors could renew their funding for subsequent years in order to ensure the good development of the child. The first step is to choose the category of sponsorship A, B or C (see below).

CATEGORY A CFA EURO POUND US DOLLAR

Tuittion	50.000	60.98	53.35	79.70
Food and drinks	27.000	41.97	35.90	53.71
Registration	2000	3.05	2.67	3.99
Administration	4000	6.10	5.33	7.97
School book	15000	22.87	19.95	29.84
Uniform	5000	7.63	6.65	9.95
Occassional wear	7,500	11.45	9.98	14.93
Sport wear	2500	3.82	3.33	4.98
Transportation	30.000	45.75	39.89	59.68
10% bank charges	12.650	19.29	16.82	25.17
Total/year	145.750	222.91	193.87	289.92

Total/month 12.146 18.58 16.15 24.16

CATEGORY B CFA EURO POUND US DOLLAR

Tuition	50.000	60.98	53.35	79.70
Food and drink	27.000	41.97	35.90	53.71
Registration	2000	3.05	2.67	3.99
Administration cost	4000	6.10	5.33	7.97
School books	25000	22.87	19.97	29.84
Uniform	5000	7.63	6.65	9.95
Occasional wear	7,500	11.45	9.98	14.93
Sport wear	2.500	3.82	3.33	4.98

10% bank charges 10.150 15.48 13.50 20.19

Total/year 113.150 173.35 150.68 225.26

Total/month 9.429 14.45 12.56 18.77