Enhancing Community peacebuilding through Trauma Healing, and Economic Empowerment, and prevention of Gender-based violence

Funded by the Federal Foreign Office Through the German Embassy in Yaounde.

This project is building on our past initiatives, building sustainable solutions to real/everyday problems in communities that hinder the realization of the purpose of the Women Peace and Security Agenda by making gains on the lessons learnt and outcomes realized. This will involve:

• Building the income generating skills and increasing self-reliance of IDPs/teenage mothers, promoting business idea development, providing basic in-kind start-up resources and training needed to support them run their business and put the skills gained to practice. This will also support them to self-reliant. This will be contributing to address GBV, a structural inequality that hinders the implementation of UNSCR1325.
• Improving community engagement to put an end to all forms of GBV through our radio drama series. The community radio program will allow for a platform for information sharing, reporting of cases of GBV and raising community awareness on often overlooked aspects of GBV. It will also serve as a platform of data collection to inform good practice in putting an end to GBV in communities. 
• Promoting often overlooked mental health and trauma healing services in a timely and cost-effective manner by training psychosocial counselors who will heal themselves from existing trauma caused by the ongoing violent conflict, The psychosocial counsellors will be equipped with knowledge and skills to enable them lead trauma healing and mental wellbeing sessions with IDPs and survivors of abuse/GBV in conflict-affected or IDP communities. 

This project had:

• Developed a trauma healing and psychosocial support training manual/comic booklet for community leaders, Trained 100 Psychosocial Counselors (PC) selected from the conflict-affected North West and southwest regions who are now members of HOFNA’s already established Gender Violence Survivors Support Networks. The PCs trained currently work with HOFNA to run psychosocial and trauma healing sessions for other selected community leaders, IDPs, and victims of abuse and GBV in the conflict-affected regions. 
• Implemented an economic empowerment program through a vocational skill building scheme for 100 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). They have trained on production of products often consumed by the local community and easily marketable such as the production of Soap/omo (for laundry and washing), production of vaseline/body lotion.  The products are both for their use and for business purposes. They have also gain business skills and benefited from on field supervision to ensure skills gained are put into practice both for income generation and sustainable livelihoods. They have been provided with in materials to enable them put skills gained into practice to sustainably take them out of poverty, dependence and gender-based violence. The project has enabled 100 vulnerable women and teenage mothers establish businesses of their own.
• Developed new episodes of a radio drama series and reinforced the broadcasting of the already initiated Community radio program – Engage - to raise awareness on child trafficking, child, early/forced marriages and engage communities in reporting and preventing cases of GBV. The interactive radio program allows for reactions and concerns from communities on existing forms of GBV to be responded to and provide for a platform for data collection on GBV that inform good practice to end GBV in the heart of a violent conflict. 

The long term goal is to establish a community centre that serves as a one stop shop from where young people will gain skills on starting and running their own businesses, sharing experiences of GBV and supporting each other and gaining expert support through psychosocial counselling.