Real places. Verified numbers.  Children in school.

This is not a projection. This is what three years of work in Southwest Cameroon has produced — documented, audited, and built into communities that are now managing the change themselves.

What We Learned From The Field

Before designing interventions, HSFAN participated in assessments and community engagements to understand the real factors affecting education, health, and protection in vulnerable communities.

01

Southwest & Northwest Regions

WASH Needs Assessment

The WASH needs assessment, designed by a cluster of national and international organizations, evaluated water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in 6 divisions and 31 subdivisions of Cameroon’s South-West RegionHope Spring for All Nations participated, focusing on rural communities in Buea, Tiko, and Muyuka. The survey assessed the state of WASH facilities in schools, hospitals, and communities severely impacted by the Anglophone crisis, which had destroyed many such infrastructures due to widespread burning of institutions.

Conducted over three days (November 20–22, 2024), the assessment examined the functionality and adequacy of WASH systems to meet the needs of affected populations, highlighting gaps and intervention priorities to ensure safe and healthy environments. The survey also identified broader challenges faced by vulnerable populations, including limited access to education and health services, particularly in remote, crisis-affected areas.

02

Southwest Region

Vulnerability Needs Assessment

A structured vulnerability assessment was conducted in September 2024 to map the specific educational gaps across target communities, identifying which children were out of school, why, and what interventions would have the highest return. This evidence base directly shaped HSFAN’s 2025 education strategy.

841 education session participants
Evidence-based planning

03

Fako Division

Education Needs Assessment

A structured education needs assessment engaged 291 learners to map learning environment gaps, teacher capacity constraints, and materials shortfalls across partner communities. This baseline data continues to inform HSFAN’s targeted programming and is shared with donor partners to demonstrate evidence-driven investment decisions.

291 learners assessed

Evidence-based strategy

By the Numbers — 2022 to 2025

people reached in 2025
0
people reached in 2024
0
active projects in 2025
0
projects completed in 2024
0
pupils now served by the GS Great Soppo water stand, Buea
0
student leaders trained across Tombel secondary schools
0
Children supported with school supplies in Nsuke and Mbabe
0
people trained on waterborne disease prevention
0
individuals empowered through skills and livelihood programmes
0
students reached by the Strength in Unity mental health and GBV programme
0
individuals received health screenings
0
individuals tested for typhoid
0
boys participated in the Develop Your Talent holiday empowerment programme
0
women and girls engaged in the International Women's Day community outreach, Bwassa
0
women farmers trained in integrated pest management, Mile 14
0
newly constructed benches delivered to Government School Nsuke
0
IDP girls empowered through targeted vocational training
0

XAF 25,007,500 — independently audited income, 2025
Net surplus: confirmed in audited 2025 financial statements
Auditor: ABA International Consultancy (ABICCY)

All projects organised under four strategic pillars

HSFAN’s interventions are not scattered acts of charity. They are structured, evidenced, and sequenced across four pillars that together build durable resilience in conflict-affected communities.

WASH & Water Access

Education

Protection and Gender

Livelihoods

Pillar 1 · WASH & Water Access

Clean Water is Not a Comfort. It is Survival.

In communities where waterborne disease is endemic and displacement has severed household WASH infrastructure, HSFAN’s water programming addresses the most acute physical need. Between 2024 and 2025, HSFAN moved from awareness and health sensitisation to permanent water infrastructure, a progression that captures how the organisation translates funding into lasting community assets.

01

Southwest Region

Water is Life

HSFAN’s flagship water access project, implemented May through December 2024. The programme combined community water point sensitisation, hygiene promotion, and direct health services,  integrating WASH and health delivery to address waterborne disease at source.

300 waterborne disease prevention

100 diabetes risk screenings

190 blood pressure screenings

590 total WASH beneficiaries

02

GS Great Soppo, Buea

Water Stand Construction — GS Great Soppo (Phase 1)

Construction commenced September 2024 on a permanent water stand at Government School Great Soppo, Group 1. This was a multi-phase infrastructure project, continuing into 2025, designed to give 590 school pupils reliable, safe access to drinking water on campus,  eliminating the need to bring unsafe water from home or go without.

590 pupils targeted

Permanent infrastructure

Ongoing into 2025

03

GS Great Soppo, Buea

Water Stand Completion

The water stand construction project reached completion in 2025, delivering a functioning, permanent clean water access point at Government School Great Soppo. For 590 pupils, this means arriving at school able to drink, wash hands, and maintain basic hygiene, a foundation that directly supports attendance, health, and learning outcomes.

Permanent asset delivered

590 pupils with clean water

04

Ebanja Community

World Water Day — Ebanja Community (with CEEAC)

HSFAN led and facilitated World Water Day community activities in partnership with CEEAC, using the occasion to build lasting environmental stewardship behaviour and community-level water governance awareness in a community with historically limited access to reliable water sources.

CEEAC partnership

Community mobilisation

05

Fako Division

Environmental Clean-Up & Hygiene Campaigns

Community members were mobilised for clean-up campaigns and environmental awareness sessions that addressed open waste disposal, ecological degradation, and hygiene culture. These sessions complement HSFAN’s water infrastructure work, clean infrastructure requires clean behaviour to sustain its impact.

23 community members

Hygiene behaviour change

Environmental stewardship

06

Fako Division

WASH Capacity-Building Sessions

HSFAN conducted 5 structured WASH capacity-building sessions across Fako Division in 2024, equipping community members with knowledge on hygiene practice, safe water handling, and sanitation maintenance. The sessions generated the highest participation across all programme departments that year.

Hygiene behaviour change

Environmental stewardship

Community feedback, GS Great Soppo, 2025
Community feedback, GS Great Soppo, 2025
The water stand at Great Soppo means our children no longer arrive at school thirsty or carrying unsafe water from home. It is a simple thing that changes everything about how they learn.

Pillar 2 · Education & School Support

Keeping Children in School When Crisis Pushes Them Out.

The Anglophone crisis has devastated education in Southwest Cameroon, through school closures, infrastructure destruction, teacher displacement, and the economic collapse that forces children into labour instead of classrooms. HSFAN’s education programming addresses these barriers with targeted, school-based interventions that span infrastructure, materials, health, and evidence-gathering to inform future investment.

01

GHS Bokwoango, Buea

Menstrual Hygiene Sensitization

Period poverty and menstrual stigma are among the leading, least-discussed causes of girls dropping out of school in rural Cameroon. HSFAN delivered a structured sensitization programme targeting Forms 2 and 3, the peak puberty transition years, providing education on hygiene practice, menstrual cycle awareness, and stigma dismantling, alongside material distribution.

At GS Great Soppo, a World Menstrual Hygiene Day 2026 outreach reached over 20 girls with sanitary pads and education on menstrual health. The program revealed that many girls still feel ashamed to discuss menstruation, while some boys mocked the topic, highlighting the stigma surrounding periods. The initiative emphasized that menstrual hygiene is not only a health issue but also a matter of dignity, education, gender equality, and human rights, calling for greater awareness and support for girls.

70 girls empowered

Ages 12–18

Sanitary pads distributed

02

Nsuke & Mbabe Communities

Back to School Support — Educational Materials Distribution

At the start of the 2024 school year, HSFAN distributed essential educational materials, books, pens, pencils to pupils in the Nsuke and Mbabe communities. For families displaced by conflict and operating below subsistence, these items remove one of the most direct barriers to a child attending and staying in school.

Books, pens & pencils distributed

1,682 total education beneficiaries

03

Southwest Region

International Day of Education

HSFAN marked the International Day of Education in January 2024 with awareness and celebration activities across target schools, reinforcing the right to education for children whose schooling has been persistently disrupted, and engaging communities as partners in education continuity.

January 2024

Community engagement

04

Southwest Region

International Day of the Girl Child

In October 2024, HSFAN organised activities marking the International Day of the Girl Child, spotlighting the disproportionate educational barriers girls face in conflict-affected communities and connecting this advocacy directly to HSFAN’s ongoing girls’ education and protection programming.

October 2024

Girls' rights advocacy

05

GS Nsuke, Tombel

School Bench Donation

Children studying on broken or absent furniture cannot concentrate, cannot write properly, and cannot learn effectively. HSFAN donated a cohort of school benches to Government School Nsuke, directly improving the physical learning environment for 122 pupils and teachers, as acknowledged explicitly by the community’s Quarter Head.

122 pupils & teachers

06

Partner Schools

International Day of Education Celebrations

HSFAN marked the 2025 International Day of Education with 78 students across partner schools, reinforcing education as a right, not a privilege, and building community solidarity around keeping children in school despite the persistent pressures of conflict and displacement.

Quarter Head, Nsuke Community, 2025
Quarter Head, Nsuke Community, 2025
The benches and sensitisation improved learning and child safety across our school. We had never seen an organisation work this thoroughly in our community before.

03

680 Student Leaders Trained — Tombel Secondary Schools

Before HSFAN launched the Strength in Unity programme in Tombel, we went in and listened first.
A needs assessment across 250 students in four secondary schools revealed significant levels of bullying, anxiety, depression, teenage pregnancy, sexual harassment, and substance use. These were not abstract social problem, they were the daily reality of adolescents trying to stay in school through an ongoing crisis that had disrupted everything around them.
HSFAN trained 680 student leaders across these schools in peer support, mental health awareness, GBV prevention, and child protection. The training gave students the knowledge and language to support each other, challenge harmful norms, and transform their school environments from the inside. A school where students look out for each other is a school where more children stay.

Pillar 3 · Child Protection & Gender Equality

Safety, Dignity, and the Right to Live Without Fear.

Armed conflict destroys protection architecture. Reporting pathways disappear. Community norms around violence go unchallenged. Children grow up without adults who know how to keep them safe. HSFAN builds protection culture from within communities, through sustained awareness, direct child engagement, and advocacy campaigns that shift behaviour at population level.

01

Southwest Region

International Women's Day

HSFAN organised International Women’s Day programming in March 2024, combining awareness activities, women’s rights advocacy, and community celebration, building visible solidarity with women in target communities and elevating gender equality as a community priority rather than an external imposition.

2024

02

Southwest Region

Empower Her During Holidays — Weekend with Girls

A targeted July 2024 programme designed specifically for girls during school holidays, a period of heightened vulnerability when girls face increased risk of early marriage, GBV, and economic exploitation. The programme combined safety awareness, self-confidence building, and girls’ rights education.

03

Southwest Region

Women's Skill Development Programme

Launched September 2024 and continuing into 2025, this programme trained women in income-generating skills while embedding gender rights awareness, recognising that economic independence is one of the most powerful protections against gender-based violence and exploitation.

04

Fako & Kupe-Muanenguba

International Women's Day & Gender Assessments

HSFAN organised International Women’s Day events and structured gender assessments in2026, reaching 1,150 community members with programming that combined celebration, rights awareness, and baseline data collection on gender dynamics and GBV prevalence in target communities.

05

Ngusi Village & Tombel

Soccer for Change — Child Protection Through Sport

Soccer for Change uses football as a trusted entry point to deliver structured child protection and life-skills programming. Boys learn to identify unsafe situations, understand consent, trust trusted adults, and access support, all through the language of sport. Piloted in Ngusi and expanding to Tombel, it is one of the most cited programmes in community feedback.

06

Southwest Region

World AIDS Day — HIV Prevention with DAREM

In partnership with DAREM, HSFAN delivered World AIDS Day sensitisation sessions on HIV prevention, transmission, stigma reduction, and sexual health, addressing a critical health and protection gap in communities where healthcare infrastructure is severely limited.

07

Fako & Kupe-Muanenguba

16 Days of Activism Against GBV

HSFAN led the 16 Days of Activism against GBV campaign, the most sustained GBV awareness initiative of the year, reaching 1,150 community members with structured messaging that directly challenged the social norms sustaining violence against women and girls in conflict-affected communities.

 
Chief of Ngusi Village, 2025
Chief of Ngusi Village, 2025
This is the first organisation to carry out child protection activities in our village. Our children now know their rights and are not afraid to speak about what happens to them.

Pillar 4 · Livelihoods & Economic Empowerment

From Surviving Displacement to Building a Future.

Displacement does not just take homes, it takes livelihoods, skills networks, markets, and economic identity. HSFAN’s livelihoods programming responds not with dependency but with agency: skills, tools, capital inputs, and the sustained follow-through that transforms a training session into a functioning livelihood. This pillar tracks HSFAN’s longest-running programmes, from the founding 2022 IDP agriculture project to the 2024–2025 youth and women empowerment series.

01

Mamfe Central, Manyu Division

Integrated Commercial Food Crop Farming — 30 IDP Women

HSFAN’s founding livelihoods flagship: a one-day training programme (initiated January, implemented March 2022) equipping 30 displaced women with commercial food crop farming skills, bookkeeping, and personal financial evaluation. SOWEDA provided seeds; HSFAN provided cassava stems, corn seedlings, training, and XAF 874,500 in total investment. 80% of participants rated the programme “satisfied” or “very satisfied.” This project became the model for all subsequent livelihoods work.

02

Mamfe Central, Manyu Division

Emergency Relief Support — 10 IDP Families

HSFAN’s first humanitarian project: delivering emergency food and household supplies to 10 internally displaced families in Mamfe Central, at the height of the Anglophone crisis. With a budget of XAF 634,500, the project provided rice, flour, cooking oil, soap, and basic foodstuffs, addressing the immediate survival gap while building HSFAN’s trust in the conflict-affected community.

03

Buduma, Buea

Christmas Giveaway — Elderly IDP Women

Targeting the most overlooked demographic in humanitarian response, women aged 50 and above who survived displacement with no formal support network. HSFAN delivered food and hygiene kits to 50 elderly IDP women in the Buduma community of Buea. 85% of the target population was reached. All participants expressed heartfelt gratitude; many reported that this was the first formal support they had received since displacement.

04

Southwest Region

Develop Your Talent — Weekend with Boys

A structured August 2024 holiday programme for boys “Develop Your Talent, Embrace Your Uniqueness” designed to reach young men during the period of highest vulnerability to recruitment into armed groups. The programme combined vocational awareness, financial literacy, and personal development programming, building the foundation for economic agency.

05

Southwest Region

Integrated Pest Management — Agriculture Programme

Targeting the most overlooked demographic in humanitarian response, women aged 50 and above who survived displacement with no formal support network. HSFAN delivered food and hygiene kits to 50 elderly IDP women in the Buduma community of Buea. 85% of the target population was reached. All participants expressed heartfelt gratitude; many reported that this was the first formal support they had received since displacement.

06

Southwest Region

Economic Security — 282 Beneficiaries Supported

HSFAN’s Economic Security Department reached 282 vulnerable persons in 2024 through skill development programmes, capacity-building workshops, and entrepreneurial training sessions, equipping women and youth with practical income-generating knowledge and the confidence to pursue financial independence.

07

Fako Division

Weekend Empowerment Sessions — 100 Boys

Continuing and scaling the 2024 Weekend with Boys programme, HSFAN delivered structured empowerment sessions to 100 boys from conflict-affected households in 2025, combining vocational awareness, self-development, and economic agency education at scale.

08

Southwest Region

Women's Income-Generating Skills Training (with GYSCA)

HSFAN trained four women in income-generating activities through a structured partnership with GYSCA, with a dedicated skills development event on 14 May 2025. This targeted intervention is designed to be tracked for long-term income impact and is a deliberate prototype for replication at scale with increased donor funding.

Participant, Integrated Farming Programme, Mamfe Central 2022
Participant, Integrated Farming Programme, Mamfe Central 2022
Before the training, we had nothing after being forced to leave our homes. Now I grow, sell, and plan for my family. The fear is gone. This programme gave us back our future.

Partner With Us

Join the next chapter of HSFAN's story.

With a 15% budget increase projected for 2026, HSFAN is seeking long-term funding partners to scale WASH, education, protection, and livelihoods across Meme and Manyu Divisions.

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