Our Programmes

The world is currently going through an unprecedented environmental crisis whose consequences can be seen across the globe. Among the causes of this crisis is abusive deforestation. Indeed, every year in the world, between 13 million and 15 million hectares of forests disappear, this surface is equivalent to the size of a country like Belgium. The East region is one of the particularly hit by this phenomenon in Cameroon. Border with the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo and Gabon, this part of the territory completes the constitution of the Congo Basin, the second largest lungs of the world only after the Amazon. This region is also home to the Bantu populations and the pygmy as well precisely the Baka pygmies. The Eastern region suffers the loss of thousands of hectares of virgin forest every year. The main causes of this excessive deforestation are logging and agriculture, in all its forms, promoted by foreign corporations and entertained by local authorities and community leaders.

Deforestation in the East region, in addition to its harmful effects on the environment (such as the disruption of the seasons, the disappearance of animal and plant species), directly affects the Baka pygmies whose survival depends entirely on the forest, this being their natural habitat. The Baka pygmies commune in the forest, heal themselves in the forest thanks to the medicinal plants found in it, they worship in the forest, and thrive in the forest. Leaving this environment, they find themselves without landmarks, forced to settle in an environment of which they total tripped of knowledge, culture and belonging.

In this region covered mainly by the Congo Basin, pygmies represent more than 40% of the indigenous population. Excessive deforestation which, moreover, is not accompanied by reforestation, could create a real humanitarian crisis between now and 2030 (A year supposed to mark the attainment of the SDGs), characterized by a very large number of displaced pygmies and a high mortality rate among the latter.

As an organization that places climate action and the right of minorities as one of its major priorities, DERI through the initiative “Don’t touch my home, don’t harm my habitat” aimed at assisting and halting this painful transition inflicted on the Baka people and also advocating against climate challenges. It was very clearly a question of restoring their dignity, by providing them with moral support and by arming them with the skills (scientific and technical knowledge on tree planting, language learning, training of farmers, hygienic practices, seedling etc) necessary for survival in their new living environment while stopping the destruction of the former. But above all, it will be a question of rebuilding their natural habitat with them and teaching them how to monitor and maintain it so that they can one day return to their land.

Nevertheless, for them to one day return, we have to uplift our campaign strategies against major actors such as rubber producing company Sudcam to improve its social obligations (such as; reforesting, payment of indemnities etc) . Of the over 75000 hectares of land destroyed so far according to Green Peace Africa from this part of the nation, the number faces high chances of increasing as illegal lumbering has become monnaie courante and also due to the flock of immigrants and rising economic challenges. We have set ourselves the objective to develop an app which will permit civil society leaders to directly report to us acts of illegal lumbering (for example videos of transportation of non-marked/numbered wood from the region), but also partner with other organizations (through fund raising and project implementation) who intent to promote reforestation.

The Development and Relief Initiative uses scientific and technical knowledge in meeting specific objectives of the communities it operates in by transforming economically and socially towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly society. Through its innovative creation of the World Business Congress on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), member companies from all across Africa in particular and the world at large shall continue from within-in, in the rapid campaign on enhancing sustainable development through their daily company activities in their communities of operation. At such, our target is not only to lobby towards fixing other’s problems, but rather putting in place systems and methods which wouldn’t cause these problems, through dialogue, technology and innovation.

The question of climate change is of no news to every human on earth. Of those who believed and those who didn’t the current rise in temperatures from India to Paris passing through Niger serves as the proof that our world is depreciating. Since 2013, sub-Sahara African countries especially Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and Kenya have faced the worst droughts of their history. 2021 wasn’t any way different. These countries aside from droughts were plagued by locust swamps which accelerated the issue of famine as large production farms were attacked. Since 2016, Ethiopia alone potentially housed six million persons believed to be at risk of starvation and without access to clean water. The situation did not get any better in 2021 which was as well plagued by the covid-19 pandemic.

Moving further, the scenario has shifted south ward as more countries like Cameroon are beginning to face the hard hit impacts of climate change and the spread of the desert. Adamawa a semi-arid-region faces especially in its rural settings poor nutritional and health habits. Mothers are particularly concerned as the impact of poor diet practice are felt by their children between age 0-36 months. Some of the challenges of healthy eating are; high availability of low-cost foods and beverages that are also high in calories, fat, salt and sugar. Nutritional information that is difficult to understand and apply, but also the over repeating of meals said “traditional” such as “fufu” or “pap”. Their over rich nature in carbohydrate are not sufficient to sustain a child in equilibrium. The results are scary; low IQ levels, retarded growth and malnutrition just to name a few. The “Living healthy¨ application of the DERI which we have set ourselves the ambition to create shall be made available on the apple and android app-stores free of charge in order to give constant updates to all its subscribers on the information and prevention procedures to be implemented in preventing and treating epidemics across Adamawa and Africa at large.

For this year, we took a holistic approach in providing better feeding habits to pregnant women and their children in the villages of Bounou and Borongo to prevent acute malnutrition and promote better feeding practices. We were able to educate over 25 pregnant women and young mothers on feeding best practices. Our goal is to reach all fifty four departments of the nation come 2030.

Africa is plagued by a good number of challenges, from women empowerment to education and Youth unemployment. The continent produces a minimum of over 3.2 million university graduates per year. Cameroon alone accounts for about 180.000 high school graduates every year. Over 65% of that number ends up graduating from either a two or three year university diploma/degree. In summary not a minimum of a 100.000 leave universities year in, year out. Of this all, the government can only employ 7%, of which it is the most envied employer by a majority the youth population. The remaining 93% need to struggle over the limited and competitive jobs found in the private sector or set themselves up for the entrepreneurial world. Many at times, the majority who don’t make it into the public sector loose hope. This makes them more vulnerable and susceptible of either indulging into social media scams or joining jihadist groups in perpetrating violence and terror. Youth unemployment is one of the major challenges governments must take into consideration as they constitute a serious impediment to peace and security.

As an organization that has the SDGs as guide, we passionately believe that to attain SDG 16, we must resolve the major problem which could lead to this failure; youth unemployment. The coming into play of boko haram since 2014 in the North and Far North regions of Cameroon, coupled with the growing economic difficulties, accounted greatly for the rise in the youth population involved in jihadist movements. Our intervention in kousseri targeted the youth of the logone and chari departments through webinars and workshops on the possible dangers of falling prey for such institutions of terror but most importantly, provide them with possible outlets such as entrepreneurship. We want to pledge our support through your donations to fund 10 youth entrepreneur in the region making progressions in promoting community development and regional expansion.