Berine and Bokwe Foundation (BEBOF) is a duly registered Non-profit women-led association. BEBOF aims to reach out, support and empower abandoned widows, orphans, internally displaced persons (IDPs) and underprivileged persons Founded in May 2017. Our mission is to bring hope, but smile, and empower them spiritually, economically, socially and financially. We support widows, orphans and internally displaced persons.
Specifically, BEBOF seeks to identify and bring together abandoned widows and create community groups of abandoned widows. We support them through self-help groups that offer them a loan to start up their businesses
Got some time? We’re open to volunteers eager to be part of our team.
Got some time? We’re open to volunteers eager to be part of our team.
Got some time? We’re open to volunteers eager to be part of our team.
For over five years, our unwavering commitment has been directed towards combatting the deeply rooted issues of women’s disinheritance in Cameroon. Through extensive efforts, we have embarked on a comprehensive mission that involves engaging with various villages and communities. Our purpose is to forge meaningful dialogues with local chiefs and community leaders, fostering discussions aimed at devising strategies to establish dedicated community groups.
These are ill practices that are being practised in Cameroon that we need to fight against. Women are suffering in communities in Cameroon, women are discriminated against, and Women are being maltreated, Women are being denied inheritance right after their husband’s death, Women are restricted from participating in public service, Women are victims of circumstances (forceful genital mutilation is still going on in some communities). These activities fall into several key categories
Strengthening communities through active participation & advocacy.
Building & sustaining strong community groups through collaboration & support.
We promote social growth by fostering inclusivity, equity, and active community participation.
Fostering personal growth through education, skill development, and empowerment.
We travel from one community to another; We have created more than 40 community groups of widows in Cameroon. Whenever we go to any community, we meet various chiefs and the community heads and discuss with him, we explain reasons why these community groups of widows need to be created, after convincing chiefs on the necessity of protecting widows right and empowering them, we always plead on community heads to bring together all the women and widows in that community who are vulnerable and have been abandoned. When these women come together, we always organise an election to elect the coordinator and the executive of the community. These coordinators help to reports abuses on women to our head office in Buea South West region o Cameroon. In the picture below, we have one of the coordinators of the Limbe Community in the Fako division of the southwest region of Cameroon.
In June 2020, during the peak period of Covid 19, we provided foodstuffs to widows in the North West and southwest region of Cameroon. The president and the Team of the Foundation decided to select some community groups from among the community groups we have created since 2017 to assist them with foodstuffs like rice, beans, potatoes, oil, and more. Providing foodstuffs to abandoned widows during the Covid 19 pandemic in a community in the Buea Municipality
Our core value is the advocacy for women’s rights—especially the right to inherit—and the elimination of practices that undermine their dignity. To this end, we are dedicated to empowering widows by equipping them with practical skills that foster self-reliance, such as soap production.
In the Ndongo community, we established a small factory and trained widows to build sustainable livelihoods, though limited material and financial resources have constrained our ability to expand this initiative to other widow communities we have formed.
