For nearly a decade, the armed conflict in Cameroon\u2019s North-West and South-West (NWSW) regions<\/strong> has torn apart communities, uprooted livelihoods, and crippled the most basic social services. Once-vibrant towns like Kumba, Wum, Santa, and Eyumojock<\/strong> became symbols of humanitarian distress \u2014 where fear, displacement, and deprivation replaced normal life. Continuous insecurity, coupled with the destruction of infrastructure, left millions trapped between violence and poverty, struggling to survive amid neglect and uncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The humanitarian situation grew increasingly dire. The collapse of water and sanitation infrastructure<\/strong> led to alarming outbreaks of preventable diseases such as cholera and typhoid. In villages like Obang and Tingoh<\/strong>, women and children walked miles each day in search of contaminated water sources, exposing themselves to violence and exploitation. Public health facilities were either non-functional or inaccessible due to insecurity, while displaced households lived in overcrowded shelters without toilets or hygiene facilities. For persons with disabilities<\/strong>, these conditions were not just challenging \u2014 they were inhumane, stripping them of dignity and inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Simultaneously, livelihood systems disintegrated<\/strong>. Farming, petty trade, and small businesses \u2014 once the economic backbone of the NWSW \u2014 collapsed under the weight of conflict. Markets were burned or abandoned, farmlands deserted, and entire families left without income. Women, youth, and the elderly became increasingly dependent on sporadic humanitarian aid. The result was a surge in negative coping mechanisms \u2014 child labor, transactional sex, and early marriage \u2014 as families fought to meet daily survival needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This convergence of protection, health, and livelihood crises<\/strong> created a vicious cycle of vulnerability. The absence of clean water and adequate sanitation aggravated disease prevalence; disease further weakened livelihoods; and the lack of income reduced communities\u2019 ability to maintain hygiene or rebuild essential infrastructure. Communities lost both physical assets and the social trust needed to work collectively toward recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was within this context that LUKMEF<\/strong>, with support from the International Rescue Committee (IRC)<\/strong> and SIDA<\/strong>, initiated the Safety, Basic Needs, and Livelihood Protection Project (April 2024 \u2013 February 2025)<\/strong>. The intervention was designed to restore a sense of safety and human dignity by addressing the most urgent humanitarian needs: ensuring access to clean water, sanitation, hygiene education, and livelihood protection in hard-to-reach and crisis-affected areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The project emerged as a lifeline \u2014 not only to deliver immediate relief but also to rebuild community resilience and local capacity for self-reliance. By targeting the most vulnerable \u2014 especially women, youth, and persons with disabilities \u2014 the initiative sought to break the cycle of deprivation and demonstrate that even amid crisis, restoring dignity and hope is possible when justice, compassion, and partnership meet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":1282,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"give_campaign_id":0,"_eb_attr":""},"sector":[],"class_list":["post-1280","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukmef.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukmef.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/project"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukmef.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/project"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukmef.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukmef.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"sector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukmef.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sector?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}