Strategic humanitarian services

STRATEGIC HUMANITARIAN SERVICES (SHUMAS)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
SHUMAS, a Cameroonian Development NGO, after working on its own for sometime, started considering possible networking and collaboration with northern NGOs who shared common objectives and methods of approach to development. Between 1997 and 1999, the General Co-ordinator of SHUMAS, Stephen Ndzerem and the President of Plant a Tree in Africa/Co-ordinator of Future in Our Hands UK, Mike Thomas, were involved in some intensive correspondence.
One of the issues they discussed was how to seek a sustainable solution to the adverse effects of eucalyptus plantations on water sources and farming areas. Women were the principal victims.
Before 2000 more than five co-operatives had been trained and are now fully operational.
Presently there are 14 autonomous co-operatives all of which have again come under the single umbrella called FUTURE IN OUR HANDS WOMEN CREDIT UNION CO-OPERATIVE NET WORK - CAMEROON. Each co-operative has a co-operative store and these are linked to a co-operative shop for the Union which was inaugurated on 1st September 2001, through the efforts of Lizzie Jeans, a volunteer from the UK (came as a volunteer through FIOH UK).

THE SHUMAS HEAD OFFICE AND REHABILITATION CENTRE
In February 2009, SHUMAS started the construction of an inspirational new building that combined facilities for both staff and vocational training for disabled people. The building was completed later that year.

The FIOH co-operatives are quite different from conventional co-operatives. FIOH concentrates on building the capacities of grass roots women through encouraging the spirit of sharing, co-operation and fellowship, rather than on too much external dependency and a quest for individual material gain.

Members are encouraged to save and manage their groups and co-operatives for the benefit of all their members. Members meet regularly and exchange ideas within and between groups and co-operatives in the Network.
Groups and co-operatives are encouraged to develop projects and strategies to help the whole network. Each co-operative has a store and these are linked to a shop. This facilitates buying in bulk and selling at reasonable prices to members and the general community.

The Cameroon has many different ecological regions each with its own climate, crops and resources. The FIOH Network would like to extend to other parts of the country and capitalise on this by exchanging goods and produce from the different regions but is handicapped by not having its own vehicle for transport.
Each group meets weekly to deal with individual savings. Part of the savings go to the co-operative. The amount collected after four weeks is taken to the co-operative meeting and saved under the group name in the co-operative account. These monthly meetings are rotated from one village to another thus enhancing the sharing of ideas and group experiences. There is no particular meeting house for any co-operative. Some groups are separated by more than 7 km, and yet women still walk to meetings every month. The hosting group is responsible for feeding the other group's representatives in attendance.
The main Co-operative Network meetings take place quarterly. Many women have been amazed by the amounts they have been able to save and are very encouraged by this. All the co-operatives have collectively saved more than 5 million francs (£5,000) to date (September 2002) and are investing this in the name of the Co-operative Network and the co-operatives.

Income-generating activities such as dances are organised to provide some small money to manage the affairs of the co-operative.
Primary health care programmes such as sensitisation against HIV/AIDS, hygiene and sanitation have been organised using the book "Where There is No Doctor".
Adult literacy classes have been arranged so that women can, at the very least, count from 1 to 10 and sign their own name. This is to help them check and certify their saved amounts entered into cash books.
Care has been given for the mentally and physically handicapped and their children by providing clothes, feeding and housing.

The Co-operative Shop
All the co-operatives are affiliated to the co-operative shop which was established in September 2001. Each co-operative contributed 300,000 francs (£300) as share capital. All the co-operatives unanimously accepted that a donation of £1000 from the Future in Our Hands Education and Development Fund UK be added to the shares.
The purchase of items is done democratically and rationally. That is to say, the women take stock of existing prices in all the villages and in the country as a whole. They then purchase the various items cheaper for the benefit of all the co-operatives, groups and members.
Loans are accorded to member groups for the purchase of farming inputs. The loan scheme is operated in a very flexible and easygoing manner, This scheme helps many women to pay school fees for their children and to meet family hospital bills. This flexibility has been a resounding success because farming methods and needs vary from one area to another and loans are needed at different times of the year in different areas.
The women have organised many workshops and seminars and invited many 'elite' people and given talks about their work, like the Eucalyptus Replacement programme, afforestation and organic farming. This has given the women more confidence and status in their communities.

Notwithstanding the hard work of the women they have been facing a number of difficulties - long distances separating groups; lack of liquidity to reinforce the saving and loan schemes; distribution of food from farms to the co-operative stores is difficult because of the long distances and difficult topography and poor roads and pathways;lack of labour saving facilities; lack of post harvest facilities. The women are also in need of more training to meet up with their plans of work.
Networking and sharing of experience with women from other countries is impossible because of the lack of communications facilities (fax, email, etc).

Acknowledgement of assistance
The FIOH Co-operative Network is grateful to the following:
- Lizzie Jeans from England
- Katharina Scheba from Austria
- Connor Farrell from Australia
- Severine Henney from Switzerland
- Lise Bentley from England

SHUMAS established a partnership with AidCamps International in 2002 to build a primary school in the remote village of Bangwe in the North West Province towards the end of 2003. Volunteers helped with the financing and finishing of the building, plastering the walls and the fitting of the windows and doors. They also visited several sites of special interest and some of the other SHUMAS projects. Visit the AidCamps web site for details of the project and an account of the volunteer's experiences.