THE UNTOLD TRUTH

 Did you know that Nigeria hosts over 78,000 refugees from Cameroon, who fled violence and persecution in their country? One of them is Joshua Chiamba, the founder of RUDEC, a nonprofit that empowers rural communities in Cameroon. Joshua is a brave and compassionate leader who has helped thousands of people through his projects. But he had to leave everything behind and start a new life in a strange land. He needs our help to rebuild his life and resume his work. You can make a difference by donating to his fundraiser here and spreading the word about his situation. #SupportJoshua #RUDEC #RefugeesWelcome.

Struggling to surface

Greetings to all readers of our blog!!! I want to apologize on behalf of all our team. This is because we have stayed for a long time without any updates. From our last information to you all we have faced challenges because of the war in our English parts of Cameroon. We could not update you because of the risk of being tracked. 

From 2018 till now that is the end of 2023, it has been a horrible period because of the fighting between the military and the Pro-independent fighters  Each side killing the other without mercy. This caused us to be trapped in the war as each suspects you may be taking sides. You will be at risk. This caused us at RUDEC to reduce our activities and finally, our founder had to kick off a safety mission in June 2023 and finally arrived in Nigeria in July.

We are raising funds to support our founder of is trap at cross roads  at  Support Joshua Escape for is life and safe more people in the future

News about RUDEC Cameroon

Dear Readers,

We wish to apologize on the behalf of the children and staff of RUDEC for not writing any updates for a long time now!!

RUDEC Cameroon has its headquarters in the town of Belo-Cameroon. We work from there through the 3 subdivisions of Boyo division and to other parts of English parts of NorthWest and SouthWest regions of Cameroon. Since 2016, we have had an uprising from the two regions of English Cameroon because of unfair treatment by the government of Cameroon. The people protested and in an attempt by the government military to crush the protest, some people were killed. This continued until 2018 when the local people are otherwise known as the secessionist pick up local arms to protect their people and properties. This has escalated into a gorilla warfare.

We all ran into bushes to hide. The children under RUDEC who lived with their families ran too and some travel out of the region to have a safe place to stay. The good news is that so far we have NOT lost any of our children in this war so far. We did reach out to very few and gave them food but its not easy to reach out to many who are displaced within these two regions. This is because the military does not make a difference between those who had beneficiaries and has to provide them help. Shooting is rampant and many had been killed by stray bullets and target shooting.

During this situation, we were not able to send out messages except by spontaneous messages by phone but often electricity and internet were cut off.

Right now the situation is still ongoing and I wish to ask you all reading to pray for us in this part of Cameroon because we, maybe wipe out from the earth.

New born child of RUDEC

Simple ladies

RUDEC has give birth to a new born baby call ibiimu which means a water well in our dialect. This means that when we are thirsty to drink water and we go to a well we need to put efforts to pull out water. Looking at what we had done in the past was more charity. Now we want to see change comes from within. So our beneficiaries has to take initiatives and change their present situation. http://rudec.org/project/ibiimu-program/

Happy Onam Festival from Kerala-India

 Greetings from the coast of India. 

 We had the Onam festival. Onam is an annual Hindu festival with origins in the state of Kerala in India. It falls in the Malayalam calendar month of Chingam, which in Gregorian calendar overlaps with August–September. The festival commemorates the Mahabali, Vamana (Vishnu avatar), Kashyapa and Parashurama-related mythologies of Hinduism (Wiki) 

This merged us with the people and culture. We ate food on the traditional leafs.

We have had many interesting discussion about our venture profiles. We have define our problems, beneficiary profile, solutions and personal profile .



We also had our two days holidays and would be moving to the next level of the training this week. We shall be learning and doing practical fundraising for our social venture, we will be learning to use media to reach our beneficiaries and how to prepare at each stage.

 

I wish to thank you all for giving me this opportunity. I have got a good learning and now my passion increases every day as i look at my projects and new ideas develop me here to help the marginalized that i am also part of them.

RUDEC Germany Visits RUDEC Cameroon

We are very happy at RUDEC to get a former volunteer and a Board member of RUDEC Germany e.V visiting us in Belo.

                                        Left to Right( Roxane-New arrival, Dominika-Board member, Joshua-                                                   Founder of RUDEC Cameroon.

She came like a mother who know what her children needs are and so brought shoes, some dresses for the children at RUDEC.

Dominika join us in 2015 as an intern on tourism development and within those three months she caught the vision and along with another Intern Mustafa and became fully involved in the development of our international RUDEC Germany vision.

Roxane has just arrive from Germany and will be working with us for 3 months on waste management for Belo municipality as we struggles to meet our moto-"Services for a healthy environment and people" Read our project at  https://www.betterplace.org/…/49647-unterstutzt-den-kampf-g…

We are a happy to receive our volunteer and  board member who has come just at a time to settle the new comer-Roxane to have more confidence in all she does.

I wish to take this time to thank for our volunteers who are working hard to refer new comers and support creation of at external branches like RUDEC Germany e.v... Be part of this strong movement of RUDEC!!!!!

         Happy new year 2017 to you all who are readers of our blog!!!!

Joshua's community needs your hand

I was born in Belo, a small community in Northwest Cameroon, in 1975.

At the age of six, on the death of my father, I was sent to live with my aunt who took care of six children in her house. She has a humble background selling baby dresses and supported me throughout my school days. Upon leaving school, my aunt could no longer afford to support me. Although I passed my A-Levels to enter university in the hope of studying agriculture, I did not have the opportunity.

Therefore, I had to come up with an alternative profession where I could still have an impact on the region and which I could afford. I dreamt of something where I could use my hands and something that would make an independent source of income. Not least, I have always enjoyed the taste of our neighbour’s sweet honey, so I decided to become a beekeeper, I researched what was required and joined several associations to enable me to attain my full potential.

I received the certificate of the British Beekeepers Association (BBK) and developed a strong interest in training other people. Progress was slow so some friends (with complementary skills) and I formed our own organization. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful with our funding application and had to shut down the operation. I still had the thought in my head to come back to my childhood community. I knew the people, culture, traditions and environment that are unique to Belo; hence it made perfect sense for me to base my work here. As a result, I founded Rural Development Centre (RUDEC) along with some supporters in 2006; we had to surmount many obstacles to get the project off the ground.

RUDEC was formed with the mission to serve the neediest members of the rural communities of Cameroon's Boyo Division by creating educational, social and economic empowerment projects.

The project I am proudest of is the "Orphan and Destitute Children Project" which aims to cover the educational, health and basic needs of 57 orphans. They stay with families of our community that take care of them while RUDEC is highly dependent on donors to provide for the children's school fees, materials, uniforms, medical bills, and training programs thus offering them a brighter future. We strive to give them a good start in life. Especially at the end of summer RUDEC often struggles to support the families, financially, because of hefty back-to-school-costs. Consequently, we constantly reach out to develop opportunities for funding.

On a long-term basis, I dream that girls would no longer have to sell their bodies just to be able to buy books. I dream education will result in a deeper understanding and awareness of poor hygiene, HIV and tuberculosis, as in many cases this is what lead to the death of their parents. I also dream of reaching even more children in rural areas and providing for their education.

If RUDEC had the means I would like to install a permanent office with permanent staff that I can connect with, rely on and where both sides have the opportunity to grow. A community centre that would become a social hub thus enabling empowerment of those most vulnerable in our community.

This scholarship that I have been selected for will help me to acquire a vast range of skills that I will be able to use to achieve the realization of these projects. 

Donate at https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/joshua-s-community-needs-you/x/2265174

Moreover, I would love RUDEC to become self-sustainable. Currently, we are constantly seeking financial support to enable us to fund our Orphan’s education and care.

Our current projects comprise of selling honey from our hives, pig rearing with a view to selling the animals and a women’s micro-finance project that though generating small returns is vital for the self sufficiency of these women.

Kanthari International Institute (India) educates people who are solution-driven without considering where participants come from, what social background they have or if they are physically impaired. Nor does it limit the participant’s approach to social change. This way of thinking is in line with the envisioned community centre of RUDEC, where everybody is welcomed and we make every effort to involve the whole community.

This program opens up the great opportunity of meeting, exchanging and networking  with people from all over the world that have different perspectives and approaches in terms of ethical social change in their communities.

I would welcome this chance to learn from them. In order to build a reliable funding for the orphan project I need further skills in business development planning, proposal and report writing. To reach out to donors and promote our work and volunteering with RUDEC I need to strengthen my knowledge in marketing, use of social media and public speaking.

I experienced what it is like to be partly an orphan; I faced difficulties of going to school, could not afford to graduate. Nonetheless, I am grateful I had support and directions throughout my childhood. This is why the Orphan and Destitute Children Project is the heart of our work at RUDEC.

Your support will enable me to obtain a proper education and the required skills to enable me to make my dreams for Belo, RUDEC and my community become reality.

ESTIMATED COST OF WHOLE TRIP

Flight: 800,000 XAF

Student Visa: 160,000 XAF

Student 1 year insurance: 90,000 XAF

Health check report: 60,000 XAF

Caution: 150,000 XAF

Expenses: 300,000 XAF

Transport: 55,000 XAF

Approximate Total 1,600,000CFA (2,500 €)