Introducing YEESJA (Youth Empowerment for Economic and Social Justice in Africa - YEESJA)

Youth Empowerment for Economic and Social Justice in Africa (YEESJA) is a pan-African, non – partisan and charitable organization. It is passionate about creating opportunities that help to address (NO POVERTY, ZERO HUNGER, GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING, QUALITY EDUCATION, GENDER EQUALITY, CLEAN WATER, AND SANITATION and PEACE JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTION), improve local African experiences through our PEACE (People, Education, Aid, Communities, Entrepreneurship) Projects.

Founded in 2020 with a registered office in South Africa and operational offices in Cameroon and Nigeria, YEESJA works with and is giving young African people and Communities, the power to change their economic, financial and social wellbeing narratives.

Through our work, we want to embody and create experiences that resonate with the day-to-day aspirations of our local and underprivileged African people and communities.

Our mission and vision are to help develop previously disadvantaged youth into three categories:
• Mental Development - which falls into our skills development section, training, and education.
• Spiritual Development - it is acquired through church services, motivational talks, and seminars;
• Physical Development – our organization teaches youth and women about healthy living and provides them with the necessary help to enable them to put food on their tables. Our organization teaches how to fish and not giving fish to people all the time.

Our organization in 2020 during the outbreak of the covid-19, successfully distributed food palliatives to street kids and poor families in Johannesburg South Africa and face mask with hand sanitizers in Bamenda Cameroon, to assist the community in our own part.

YEESJA interventions:

we the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020, which followed with a long period of lockdown that kept the already poor people go with food. YEESJA provided food palliative to some families in South Africa that really put smiles on their faces.

We also provided facemasks and hand sanitizers in Cameroon and the community received it with great joy.

WHAT PROJECT IS YEESJA CURRENTLY RUNNING.

• Bamenda uplift activities of YEESJA 2021
  YEESJA Uplift is a 12 Months (for IDPs and poor children) and 3 months (for fresh Accounting Graduates) They will be given an intensive Enterprise Development program and Peer to Peer Mentorship Training, designed to harness opportunities and insights that will help inspire 70 poor children, Startups and Existing Businesses in Bamenda Cameroon. They will then be positioned on the growth trajectory.

The Uplift is scheduled to start from January to December 2021. It will be involving 70 participants, 7 Facilitators, and by 7 Moderators, and 14 Mentors. It will run on Tracks such as Vocational training, Self Leadership, Information Technology, Entrepreneurship, Funding, and Financial Management

The world will only be a better place, the moment we genuinely take action towards the social problems affecting our communities. We are today's witnesses to the socio-political crisis that has greatly affected our community, leaving a very negative impact on the lives of our children and our people at large. Uncountable deaths, thousands displaced, educational activities halted, socio-cultural and economic activities collapsing, thereby leading to an increase in crime wave and drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, prostitution and all sorts of juvenile delinquent activities. Life has become unimaginably hard for our community and action needs to be taken to save our children.
The number of poor and internally displaced children who can’t afford conventional education or vocational training is rapidly increasing in our community if urgent action is not taken, we risk creating an illiteracy gap that can further jeopardize the future of our community.
As such We already launched a 1-year program and identified 70 poor and internally displaced children for the year 2021. We have registered them under diverse training of their choices in different workshops around the city of Bamenda. Attached is the list of the children who have been registered by our program indicating the training of their choices.
We look forward to paying for their 01-year training and empowerment, as well as providing them with seed capital and resources to start up their own small businesses by the end of December 2021.

ORIENTATION DAY

YEESJA launched a free vocational training program in January 2021. Through the various media outlets,
This was announced, sensitized, and published on newspapers, Radio programs, Church announcements, Facebook.

• Bamenda uplift activities of YEESJA
  -Identified 70 children from different cities, villages and offered them home-based rehabilitation,
  -identified vocational training interest of each child and signed a one year contract with trainers
  -Signed engagement forms with a parent or guardian of each child when possible.
  -Organized meetings with parents/guardians and trainers of children
  -Carried out monthly visits to the training centers, Every first Friday of the month, the control team visit the various workshops to observe the activities of the trainer and the trainee.
  -Carried out home visits. As a result of this ongoing sociopolitical crisis in the two English-speaking regions of the country, 75% of the children we have at the center don't live with their biological parents. That is why we decided to include a "follow up of trainees at home" surprise home visit. This is to ensure that the children are well taken care of at their various homes and to observe how some of them relate with their guardians.
  -Organized intermittent individual counseling for the children. YEESJA runs a counseling department whereby children are being counseled when need be and to also encourage them on their activities .e.g. some of the children are counseled on Domestic trauma, social life, and self-discipline, personal hygiene, and sanitation, Peace talks.
  -Children are being trained every Saturday on income-generating activities such as teaching them to fry pinot, donuts, chips, how to make the local soup, pineapple juice, carrots juice, and local rubbing oil, which will go a long way to help the children generate their own small income to take care of themself.
  -Assisted in the development of a business plan for each trainee.

Apart from the vocational training program, YEESJA also runs an educational session at the center, every Wednesday the children come to the center from 8 am to 12 pm for an educational session, Exercise books, school bags, pens were given to them at the start of the educational session. The record of their evaluations is being kept.YEESJA Calendar for education session from 02/02/2021 to29/7/2021(first session)
February 2021
-Letters of the alphabet/Hygiene and sanitation
-Reading and writing skills
-Dangers of drugs/Evaluations of previous lessons
March 2021
-Coping with displacement
-Conflict resolution
-Rights and duties of a child/evaluation
April 2021
-Politeness
-Organs of the human body
-Computer lessons
-Evaluations of previous lessons
May 2021
-Democracy
-Time management
-Morals and respect
-First-aid measures to burns, fractures, and accident
June 2021
-Peacebuilding
-Common diseases and prevention
-Familiarizing with market terms
July 2021
-Socio-economic activities in the region
-The family/evaluation of previous lessons
-Reproductive health.

YEESJA Calendar for education session from 4/8/2021 to 1/2022.(second session)
August 2021
-Cholera
-Digestive system
-Budgeting
-Evaluation of previous lessons
September 2021
-Civic rights and duties of citizens
-Writing skills
-The family 1
-Evaluation
October 2021
-Developing a business plan
-HIV/STDs
-The family 2
-Organs of the human body
November 2021
-Decoration

• preparing project for insertion group 1
  -Preparing project for insertion group 2
  -Preparing project for insertion group 3
  -Preparing project for insertion group 4
  December 2021
  -Presentation of project group 1
  -Presentation of project group 2
  -Presentation of project group 3
  -Presentation of project group 4
  -Evaluation of project (all groups)
  January 2022
  -Creation of YEESJA network of trainees
  -Importance of collaboration
  -Preparing activities towards graduation ceremony
  -How to sustain a network.
  Out of the 70 children identified, 24 of them are under the accommodation of YEESJA, they did not have any relatives in Bamenda town. That justified the reason why YEESJA is providing accommodation and feeding for them.
  Last phase of the program
  -Purchase tools for each beneficiary to start their own business.
  -Organized re-insertion programs with a graduation ceremony
  -Established a network of trainees
  Program Objectives
  -To sensitize the public on the ills of the sociopolitical crisis in the region
  -To implement programs that support small business initiatives, including vocational education and training.

BELOW ARE SOME OF THE PICTURES OF OUR CHILDREN ALREADY LEARNING THEIR TRADE.

YEESJA organized clean-up campaigns every once in a while as a way for these youths to give back to the community as a show of appreciation for the help YEESJA offers them through community support.

YEESJA staffs and children out for clean-up, at the waterside at SONAC street (Vatican Breach) Bamenda

After the cleanup campaign, we shared a meal with the children

we are YEESJA thank everyone that shall take time to read and know more about us.