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Enhancing horticulture skills for the Fako inhabitants via community demonstration farms: a THOF led initiative to empower communities through gardening production
Enhancing horticulture skills for the Fako inhabitants via community demonstration farms: a THOF led initiative to empower communities through gardening production Since its creation, THOF has been very conspicuous and instrumental in running developmental activities to improve communities via her demonstration farm project. Located in the Fako Division precisely in Buea and Tiko, THOF has been providing hands-on capacity building to women and youths on managing and running a successful vegetable garden for home nutrition and even commerce. For closed to four years the organisation has been able to train more than 50 plus farmers and is mentoring others through her outreach initiative. Participants that have been on the programmes have gained valuable gardening skills such as identifying and managing quality seed, preparing a great nursery for a successful farming season and managing farm using cost-effective technique for quality and high earn output.
Alternative pathways for youngsters in colleges during a challenging time in Cameroon: an initiative with the Borstal Institute Buea
Alternative pathways for youngsters in colleges during a challenging time in Cameroon: an initiative with the Borstal Institute Buea Much talk on our educational curricular and the relevance to the modern youths considered to be the future of our nature has provoked thoughts in government and partners. This is the premise of a six weeks hands-on practical initiative to train youngsters in secondary school. These kids have been out of school due to the crisis in the English speaking region of Cameroon were recruited for the skill development training. Some younths were selected by the social affairs delegation institute for rehabilitation and moral uprightness – the Borstal institute Buea to help organise their thoughts towards an entrepreneurial future. Four main categories of enterprises were selected to drill trainees including gardening, poultry, painting and fashion designing. THOF was very instrumental in assisting the institution in the gardening domain. The initiative was jointly sponsored by the Duke of Edinburgh award and the Cameroon government as “an alternative pathway to life challenges”. Throughout this period, the youngsters had fun working in the garden from planning, seed selection, nursery preparation and field transplant to harvesting of vegetables.
Towards a green campus – Engaging colleges in Tiko municipality, Fako division, SWR Cameroon
Towards a green campus – Engaging colleges in Tiko municipality, Fako division, SWR Cameroon One of THOF objectives is to establish a sustainable landscape where humans will be able to live alongside natural/recreational space. Creating greenspace within our campuses will only go a long way to improve students’ health and relieve them from excessive brain activities. Trees and biodiversity are essential components of human wellbeing. This is the basis for the campus tree campaign by the Tiko Municipalities in which THOF actively anticipated. Using THOF expertise through the input from one of their members, with extensive knowledge in trees and greenspace on Campus. Some environmentally conscious school children encourage this event by joining their voices to grace the week-long activities in Tiko subdivision. The campuses including the district health centers were enriched with fruit and ornamental trees. The benefit of this was to improve health for school children, mitigate climate change by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and providing space for other species such as birds and other lifeforms of importance to the environment.
Training local farmer on low cost greenhouse production in Buea, Pan-African Institute for Development – collaboration to test quality seeds from Enza Zaden Netherlands –
Training local farmer on low cost greenhouse production in Buea, Pan-African Institute for Development – collaboration to test quality seeds from Enza Zaden Netherlands – This project was to test seed varieties from Enza Zaden; thereby showcase their potential and to train at least five young Cameroonians on greenhouse farming. In the approach we utilized the greenhouse of Pan-African Institute for Development West Africa (PAID-WA) and assigned volunteers, Agriculture technicians and some other interested youths to manage and follow up the project. Two indeterminate varieties of tomato and three bell/sweet pepper varieties were planted in four and one column respectively. At the end of the production season, 32 baskets of approximately 16 kg of tomato fruits and 2 baskets of approximately 16 kg of bell pepper fruits were harvested, some shared and some sold. An open-door day event to showcase the potential of Enza Zaden seed varieties, the potential of greenhouse farming and to bring to knowledge the services and opportunities of PAID-WA to the public was successfully organized on the Campus of PAID-WA. The project establishes and emphasizes that relationships of this kind should be encouraged in future as it exposes both institutions to public understanding that is the activities of NGOs and creates opportunities for the students and people to explore.