SHIPMENT FEEDBACK

Cameroon is ranked just 151 out of 189 on the Human Development Index and struggles with a number of challenges. Across the country there is limited access to healthcare and education facilities, particularly in rural areas. Economic development has been slow, and poor infrastructure prevents many communities from accessing the services that they need. Making the situation more difficult is the increasing tension and violence in Cameroon’s English speaking regions, where escalating conflict has led to the displacement of many thousands of people.

Our NGO partners in Cameroon work tirelessly across a number of fronts to help alleviate the difficulties faced by communities there. They run schooling projects including a computer training centre, support orphanages in the care of children, lead poverty reduction schemes in several areas, and work with women to empower them with the skills they need to find employment. The work that our partners carry out reaches many local communities in Cameroon, and they estimate that the goods they received in this shipment will directly benefit some 10,000 people in the coming years.

“Since we received these items, there has been a different atmosphere in our school. It has led to increased productivity and ensured we were awarded a high score in the First School Living Certificate” – Beneficiary School

(Above) New desks and chairs, donated from Hong Kong, have transformed teaching and learning for rural students.

(Above) Teachers’ offices were equipped with new computers and printers.

 

The goods sent in this shipment have been impactful in many ways, here are just a few key examples:

  • Hospital items were distributed to an undersupplied clinic, saving them around US$12,000
  • Chairs, desks, office supplies and canteen equipment were given to a local primary school, saving them roughly US$30,000 and allowing for the construction of two new classrooms
  • New computers allowed for the expansion of our partners training centre, increasing their intake from 700 to 1500 students

 

The goods that were received in this shipment will continue to have an impact on people’s lives for many years to come, and have proven even more vital in the context of Cameroon’s current tensions. We, our NGO partners, and the beneficiaries are all very grateful for your kind donations and support.


FURTHER PHOTOS OF IMPACT

 

 

 

 

“Over 1,600 pupils have benefited from the books and other school equipment in Yaounde and over 3,000 in the South West Region.”      NGO Director

Reference No. : S3048

Hope after incarceration: Zambia

“I was doing Grade 7 when my father was sentenced to life imprisonment,” recounts Bodiao. “Life came to a standstill as...

read more ...

Liberia: Youth empowerment

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? Liberia as a nation is still suffering deep social and economic wounds from a civil war that ended...

read more ...

Syria: Aid and empowerment for refugees

Shipment Feedback: The conflict in Syria continues to devastate lives and communities, with thousands of people still displaced and living in flimsy...

read more ...

Cameroon: Educating and rebuilding

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? When we first started working with our Cameroonian partners in 2010, they were planning and working on...

read more ...

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING?

The Ukraine is one of Europe’s poorest nations and has particularly struggled in recent years with a recession and conflict. When it comes to funding and upgrading hospitals and schools in Ukraine, the smaller towns and villages are often left behind.

Crossroads has partnered with an organisation in the Ukraine with projects in health, education and care for people with special needs, particularly those in villages that may otherwise miss out on essential services. Our first shipment included goods like computers for health clinics, school furniture for village schools that had not been upgraded in 40 years, and heaters for health centres whose patients had been struggling through extremely cold winters without adequate heating. A second shipment was filled with high quality hospital beds that are now in use in rural areas where beds were previously extremely basic and badly in need of replacement.=

This third shipment is, once again, helping invest in a rural region, with goods to equip health care and education. “This region is very poor, and still needs long-term cooperation in receiving aid for medical institutions, and schools,” they wrote. They asked for goods including electrical appliances and heaters for midwifery centres, computers and flooring for village schools, and health supplies for rural health posts.

Thank you for helping us improve services and care for those in need in Ukraine.


Hospital beds: before and after

Health posts in rural Ukraine are essential to the villages they serve. Without them, residents would need to travel up to 70km to the nearest hospital for treatment. Sadly, though, many of the hardworking health workers in these rural posts battle to do their job using very outdated equipment, and with inadequate supplies. We have been privileged to invest in some of these clinics with high quality donated goods, like the hospital beds pictured below, which have upgraded old, basic beds like the one pictured above. “The goods from the previous shipment were perfect and made a great impact on quality of life and services,” wrote our partners. We are excited to be preparing another shipment that will be another boost to their health and education projects.


Donated computers from a previous Crossroads shipment to these partners helped this Ukranian hospital digitise their patient records.

Now they’re able to better serve their community of 25 villages. This next shipment will include furniture, office equipment and more goods that help staff battling to serve their clients with inadequate resources.


Winters can be bitterly cold in the Ukraine, making it especially difficult to operate healthcare services without proper heating and equipment.

School furniture from Crossroads’ last shipment to the Ukraine equipped this small village school. Our partners wrote that most equipment in schools in this region is more than 40 years old, and badly in need of replacement. Our upcoming shipment will include more goods for village schools.


Reference No : S4642C

Ukraine snapshot

Capital: Kiev
Population: 42.3 million

Major languages: Ukrainian (official), Russian

Ukraine has been in a near-permanent state of transition since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The western part of the country seeks closer ties with Europe while the east prefers to retain its ties to Russia. The result is constant upheaval resulting in economic turmoil and occasional unrest.

Unemployment is on the rise and the dependence on the global steel market for exports makes for an uncertain future.  Life is a struggle for many, especially those in rural areas.

SOURCE: BBC-Country profile/WB

 

Hope after incarceration: Zambia

“I was doing Grade 7 when my father was sentenced to life imprisonment,” recounts Bodiao. “Life came to a standstill as...

read more ...

Liberia: Youth empowerment

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? Liberia as a nation is still suffering deep social and economic wounds from a civil war that ended...

read more ...

Syria: Aid and empowerment for refugees

Shipment Feedback: The conflict in Syria continues to devastate lives and communities, with thousands of people still displaced and living in flimsy...

read more ...

Cameroon: Educating and rebuilding

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? When we first started working with our Cameroonian partners in 2010, they were planning and working on...

read more ...

SHIPMENT FEEDBACK

Poverty in Uganda is a widespread issue, with almost 40% of the population living on less than US$1.25 per day. Even those in permanent employment are not exempt from the difficulties of poverty as over 50% of workers are regarded as ‘working poor’, earning less than US$3.10 per day. Perpetuating this issue of poverty is a lack of opportunity for young people to develop skills, which makes finding a job a difficult task and contributes to Uganda’s low ranking of 162 out of 189 on the Human Development Index. Compounding these problems further, Uganda is still battling the HIV/Aids epidemic, which presents numerous challenges for often underequipped health centres.

Our NGO partners in the region run a variety of programmes that seek to tackle Uganda’s problems head on. In order to do this, they operate in three main fields: health care, home care and skills training. Since 2006 they have been working to improve health education and awareness in communities, they have been caring for abandoned children and providing shelter to the homeless, and they have been partnering with schools to improve education and empower people with the skills to start their own businesses. In all of these efforts, this shipment has been of invaluable assistance.

“After receiving the shipment many of our challenges were reduced. We were overwhelmed with the items given to us and they have saved us a lot of expenses” NGO Director

(Above 1st) Gym equipment, which has allowed a new business to flourish in the community, is unloaded upon arrival with our partners. (Above 2nd) Children in our partners’ care receive new toys and games, some of which have been used to improve their daycare facilities.

The goods sent in this shipment have had an amazing impact on the lives of many beneficiaries, improving health, education and providing basic comforts to those who needed them most. Here are just a few examples:

  • Shoes, clothes and bedding have been donated to the homeless and abandoned children in our partners’ care.
  • Neck holders, surgical blades and medical supplies have been provided to a key local health centre.
  • Reading books, stationery and school materials have improved the quality of local classrooms.
  • Gym equipment and food processing equipment have allowed previous unemployed youths to found their own businesses, giving them the ability to provide for their families.

These are just a few examples of the lasting impact that this shipment has had. We, our partners, and the beneficiaries of these goods are sincerely grateful for your support – without it, projects such as this would not be possible.


PHOTOS OF THE GOODS IN USE

We really appreciate the donations because the shipment has seriously changed the lives and behaviours of many people in our local communities. Literacy levels have increased, health has shown a remarkable improvement, and many children who were not going to school can now go comfortably. Thank you– NGO Director

Reference No. S4145

Hope after incarceration: Zambia

“I was doing Grade 7 when my father was sentenced to life imprisonment,” recounts Bodiao. “Life came to a standstill as...

read more ...

Liberia: Youth empowerment

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? Liberia as a nation is still suffering deep social and economic wounds from a civil war that ended...

read more ...

Syria: Aid and empowerment for refugees

Shipment Feedback: The conflict in Syria continues to devastate lives and communities, with thousands of people still displaced and living in flimsy...

read more ...

Cameroon: Educating and rebuilding

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? When we first started working with our Cameroonian partners in 2010, they were planning and working on...

read more ...

Education, training and health

“Education is a major problem here, since most of the children do not go to school,” wrote our partners in Uganda when requesting a shipment. “There are very few schools in the area and those which are there are in a worrying state. Many young girls end up being forced into marriage at an early age because they are not going to school.” They asked Crossroads to help them with supplies and equipment that would help not just young school students, but young adults who need job training, and also community health centres that are seriously under-resourced.

DSC_0257

“The donation of hospital beds has led to improved health at our institute and also within the community at large.”

 

The goods in this shipment, which included furniture, hospital beds, medical goods and school equipment, were an injection of hope into this community, where our partners are battling against poverty with few resources themselves. They told us of thousands of dollars saved by schools and health clinics, who now don’t need to purchase or upgrade equipment. “This donation saved us around US$10,285,” they said, of the medical supplies and hospital beds.

Most of the goods from the shipment simply can’t be purchased in this part of Uganda, making them all the more valuable to our partners’ work. The toys and educational aids, which are already enriching the lives of local children, will also be used to set up a child training centre where the NGO will loan out the equipment to families that can’t afford them. A vocational centre received beds, bedding and kitchenware which will allow them to support young people who stay in the residential centre while studying.

Thank you for your part in transforming the lives of so many in rural Uganda through this shipment!

Give now!

Donate to a shipment like this one.

DONATE MONEY

Donate Goods!

Want to donate goods for a shipment like this one?

DONATE GOODS

Uganda Snapshot

Population: 37.58 million
Capital: Kampala

Uganda is a fertile, land-locked country in East Africa, in the Africa Great Lakes region, with a tropical climate.

Great progress has been made in fighting HIV in Uganda, but 1.5 million people still live with the disease, and there are 1 million children orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

39% of girls are married by the age of 18. 37.7% of people in Uganda live below the international poverty line of US$1.25/day.

A6

Hope after incarceration: Zambia

“I was doing Grade 7 when my father was sentenced to life imprisonment,” recounts Bodiao. “Life came to a standstill as...

read more ...

Liberia: Youth empowerment

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? Liberia as a nation is still suffering deep social and economic wounds from a civil war that ended...

read more ...

Syria: Aid and empowerment for refugees

Shipment Feedback: The conflict in Syria continues to devastate lives and communities, with thousands of people still displaced and living in flimsy...

read more ...

Cameroon: Educating and rebuilding

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? When we first started working with our Cameroonian partners in 2010, they were planning and working on...

read more ...

It kills more than 1 million people each year. It claims the life of one in every twenty African children under 5. It’s a public health problem for 40% of the world’s population. This is malaria, the life-threatening yet preventable disease that can eat up more than ¼ of a poor family’s income when one member is affected. The tragedy is that, while malaria is reasonably straightforward to prevent and treat, those most at risk have little access to mosquito nets, medication and health care. Recently, a UK manufacturer offered 2,000 nets, on our Global Hand ‘matching’ website, and, in just 6 minutes, they were snapped up by two non-profit organisations: one in Cameroon and one in Nigeria. Both work with communities for whom mosquito nets will be a lifesaving tool. That is the kind of match Global Hand loves to make.

Hope after incarceration: Zambia

“I was doing Grade 7 when my father was sentenced to life imprisonment,” recounts Bodiao. “Life came to a standstill as...

read more ...

Liberia: Youth empowerment

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? Liberia as a nation is still suffering deep social and economic wounds from a civil war that ended...

read more ...

Syria: Aid and empowerment for refugees

Shipment Feedback: The conflict in Syria continues to devastate lives and communities, with thousands of people still displaced and living in flimsy...

read more ...

Cameroon: Educating and rebuilding

WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING? When we first started working with our Cameroonian partners in 2010, they were planning and working on...

read more ...